The Cardigans : Releases >>
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Best Of >>
Gran Turismo >>
Oh my, they hated "Lovefool" so much. As they'd started out as Scandinavian miserablists, the hugeness of the fluffy "Lovefool" merely served to remind The Cardigans of what they really loved; and so Gran Turismo is a triumphal home-coming to the Void. Still, Gran Turismo just can't help being an incredibly classy pop treat. Dear God, they know what to do with a chorus. Take "Erase And Rewind": played on an acoustic guitar it would sound pleasant, certainly, but not the kind of song that has you jamming your head in the speakers and yelping. But with a grossly distorted bass here; a processed vocal there; a judicious pause just before the chorus comes in--oh hot mamma! Play your pop manna to me! That key-shift in "Hanging Around"--it's cleverer than Heinz Wolff using Big Blue to prop open a door! And let's not forget how Iggy Pop would kill a car with his teeth for "My Favourite Game". --Caitlin Moran
Life >>
Statistics are a baffling thing. They tell us that Sweden enjoys Europe's highest standard of living and its highest suicide rate. Statistics also tell us that The Cardigans are the country's most successful musical export since Abba. This actually makes perfect sense, for the quintet's music is an uncannily accurate microcosm of the country that spawned it--deliciously breezy pop melodies lent just enough bite by Nina Persson's fatalistic vocals. It's a recipe they perfected with unnerving confidence on Life, which exhibits an instinctive familiarity with the pantheon of timeless pop. Burt Bacharach's shadow looms unmistakably over the pensive autumnal strains of "Celia Inside" and "Tomorrow", whilst fragrant indie-pop nuggets such as "Rise And Shine" and "Gordon's Gardenparty" suggest that guitarist/songwriter Peter Svensson spent more than the occasional evening learning his craft from old Smiths records. It is, of course, impossible to discuss intuitive 90s female-fronted pop acts without mentioning Saint Etienne. The appreciation, in this case, is mutual; so impressed were the Etienne with the airy pristine sound of Life, that they were inspired to record 1997's Good Humor in the same Malmo studios. --Peter Paphides
First Band On The Moon >>
Best Of (+ Bonus Disc) >>
Long Gone Before Daylight >>
Long Gone Before Daylight marks a shift in theme for the Cardigans. Their last album, 1998's Gran Turismo, was a masterpiece. With Peter Svensson's quirky, driving, ultra-modern pop backing Nina Persson's icy dissections of doomed relationships, it was a Love Album informed more by Bret Easton Ellis than any high romance. So catchy, so cool and so incredibly bleak--exceptional, intelligent pop in the tradition of Soft Cell and ABC. Long Gone Before Daylight, then, comes as something of a shock when the opening "Communication" and "You're the Storm"--both lush and beautiful pop--find Persson struggling for love then, come the Doors-like "And Then You Kissed Me", actually finding it. Real love, too--not the fascinatingly twisted variety of before. It's a terrible shame, for love reduces the Cardigans to the level of other musicians. But then, unpredictable devils, they hit you with "Couldn't Care Less", as Persson loses it all again, in the following "Please Sisters" begging for advice, succour, anything. And now you realise; it's a pop-rock opera, the tale of one heart's tortuous and tortured journey through the mill. And it's superb. Persson, the finest pop lyricist working today, is on peak form while the band's back-to-roots grand piano and grander acoustic guitars provide an appropriately magnificent backing. --Dominic Wills
Super Extra Gravity >>
Scorn, revenge, agnosticism and kinky sex; all this deviance may come as a surprise to the multitudes who bought into the fluffy easy-listening effervescence of The Cardigans' earlier material. Super Extra Gravity will, however, be less of a culture shock to long-term subscribers; The Cardigans - fans of black Sabbath, apparently, while other historical clues have pointed towards a fondness for The Stranglers - always had their darker side, the band's sound taking a turn down a more shadowy alleyway as long ago as the Gran Turismo album.
On Super Extra Gravity Sweden's finest set out to make something "twisted and spectacular". They achieve this - the bible-trashing "Godspell" sounds like Sheryl Crow riding the fairground ghost train while "Losing A Friend" takes the tenderness of the third Velvet Underground album and adds clumping drums and a torturous electric-shock guitar solo worthy of Jonny Greenwood - without losing sight of a winning pop melody. And what of the extraordinary "I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer"? Has it anything to do with dog-training, booze and master / servant sexuality ? Eye-brow raising curiosities abound but Super Extra Gravity is a winning combination of the strange and beautiful. --Kevin Maidment
Emmerdale >>
Super Extra Gravity >>
Indie Anthems >>
