Swedish Blondie
Whilst we primarily write about up and coming Scandinavian bands or at least one’s that are little know internationally, we do occasionally like to write about acts that have stood the test of time (as we did in the case of Kent). Fear not, we’re not likely to be writing about ABBA or A-Ha any time soon. It’s time to confess that we’ve listened a lot to The Cardigans in the last 10 years and followed their progress from bright 90’s pop-tunes with indie leanings to their current darker more complex rock ballads. If anything the The Cardigans have gone from strength to strength as evidenced by their last album, Super Extra Gravity, which was released to much critical acclaim. Take a listen to a track from it below.
The Cardigans - Nina Persson (vocals), Peter Svensson (Guitar), Bengt Lagerberg (Drums), Magnus Sveningsson (Bass) and Lasse Johansson (Keyboards, Acoustic Guitar) - originally formed as a band in 1992 in the town of Jönköping, Sweden. A classic tale of a band that lived together and recorded their first demo in a garage........
Their debut album Emmerdale (1994) gave them a solid base in their home country and some notice abroad, especially in Japan but it wasn't until their breakthrough second album Life (1995) that international audiences and critics responded. After the success of Life, The Cardigans signed to Mercury Records, under which they released First Band On The Moon worldwide in 1996. With this album, the band had developed into a more complex, darker animal, the songs included themes of heartbreak, infidelity and despair. Lovefool was a hit across the globe, especially in the United States and again in Japan, where the album reached platinum in only three weeks. However, it was unrepresentative of the album as a whole and, although it helped it achieve gold sales status in America, many critics branded them saccharine soft-pop on the basis of 'Lovefool'. The song was shown on MTV in the late 90's as a music video with clips from the 1996 hit movie Romeo & Juliet (directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) in which it was featured.
Gran Turismo, released in 1998, was darker and more moody, and was followed by a long hiatus during which the band members pursued solo side projects. During that break, Nina Persson released an album as A Camp and the Cardigans recorded a duet cover of Talking Heads' Burning Down the House with Tom Jones on his album Reload. Peter Svensson worked on the project Paus with help from Joakim Berg from Kent, and Magnus Sveningsson recorded as Righteous Boy.
The Cardigans returned in 2003 with Long Gone Before Daylight, a quieter, more ambient collection of songs mainly written by Nina Persson and Peter Svensson. Long Gone Before Daylight became one of the best selling album in Sweden of 2003 with sales over 120, 000 (2xPlatinum). At the end of 2005 the band released their sixth album Super Extra Gravity to major critical acclaim and it went straight to the #1 spot on the Swedish album chart.
More recently, in November 2006, Nina Persson was featured on The Cake Sale album set up by Oxfam Ireland. It contains 9 tracks from some of Ireland's leading artists. Proceeds from the album go to the Fair Trade campaign. Nina is also due to appear on two songs from the forthcoming Manic Street Preachers album Send Away The Tigers (May 2007) - 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough' and 'Autumn Song' – on which she will share vocals with Manics frontman James Dean Bradfield.
Take a listen to the excellent Don’t Blame Your Daughter, one of the two singles released from Super Extra Gravity.
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