First Aid Kit – Wolf

I can see why it’s a live favourite.

Tim: The newest single off their album, The Lion’s Roar, likely chosen because people are appreciating it on their tour and it’s the best-selling song off the album on iTunes.

Tom: Which is interesting, given it wasn’t even on the original printing of the album. Not that such things count for much nowadays.

Tim: Isn’t that lovely? I can see why it’s a live favourite – the enthusiastic instrumentation, the excited pre-chorus and then the hey, hey chorus that the entire crowd can sing along with. The vocals are like those in the last single of theirs we reviewed, Emmylou (although we’ve since missed a couple out), and are just as lovely and soulful as they were back then.

Tom: The singer’s really rather good at the “cry break”: that vocal trick where, in songs about longing or sorrow, the note seems to crack, only to switch to a different note instead. It’s not heard much outside country and western – which this almost sounds like – but it fits very well.

Tim: I’m not really sure what the lyrics are all about, but whatever they are I’m sure everything matches together well enough.

Tom: I was about to call you out on not doing the research, but then I looked up the lyrics and realised I couldn’t work them out either.

Tim: The voices and the instruments certainly work well together, and so I’m happy with this. So happy with it that I decided to get the album, and was delighted to find out it’s only a fiver. Lovely.