Sweden’s undersold powerhouse of the ’90s, mastering every form of pop with musical magnetism and lyrical spunk. Nicole Yun ( Emissary Of Shimmering Sounds
Until then, I hope you enjoy an album that has left a huge impression on my life. There are so many other details about Life and about the Cardigans that I could harp on for days - how Peter Svensson is one of the best and most versatile guitarists in pop music, how Nina Persson’s use of her natural voice was a huge step forward for women in music, how the high standards of musicianship in Sweden seem uncanny and untouchable, but so necessary to exist in the world - but those I will save for a much longer essay, or more likely a nerdy conversation with other Cardigans enthusiasts. The fact that they covered “ Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” in a slinky lounge style, and continue to cover other Black Sabbath songs on subsequent album just shows their sense of humor. The lyric in “ Daddy’s Car” where Nina Persson chimes “our car became our spacecraft, flashing through the world, crashed down in Amsterdam,” just makes you want to daydream about that possibility. I always enjoy it when I know a band isn’t taking itself too seriously. Though the musicianship in the Cardigans was serious, the tone on this album is light, airy, fun. On “ Over The Water,” the skronky yet charming melody on flutes just send the song to a new level of catchiness that make it a total pop masterpiece. Even their instrumental hooks were undeniable. On tracks like “ Rise & Shine” and “ Fine,” there is an unapologetic sense of pop tunecraft in the vocal melody that results in the satisfaction that everything is exactly in the right place - like a perfectly solved math problem, a fun one. Organs, horns, flute, classical guitar, jazz, lounge, psychedelia, pop - all the colors of this new palette changed me. At a time when I was playing in a band at school that covered Rage Against the Machine while I personally idolized the current guitar fuzz of Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam, this music was so sweet, so nuanced and utterly magical. It was the moment I heard the intro for the song “ Carnival” off of the album Life by the Cardigans, I knew that my musical world had flipped over. Then it was early Moby, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers - still refreshing but I just couldn’t connect with any of it. Dre, Cypress Hill, and The Pharcyde, all of which I knew was insanely cool, but unrelatable for me. I always looked forward to what new music she would bring home for her summer visits. It was a summer in the mid-’90s that Katie, my oldest sister, came home from art school in Toronto. It was in their musical influence that I felt their loving guidance and acceptance. By the time I was ten years old, I was exposed to my high school sister’s mix tapes, as well as my college sister’s library of CDs. I knew what clothes to wear, what their dating lives were like, but most importantly I was able to immerse myself in their music. Though I was often their gullible victim, I was also the greatest benefactor of their worldly influence. Monopoly became my least favorite game because my sisters knew all the tricks, and they knew my early elementary school math wasn’t able to keep up with their brutal hypothetical world of capitalism. This would keep me out of their hair for hours in a day. I remember my sisters sticking me in a closet and threatening me with a bat if I tried to come out. As the youngest of three girls, I was all too familiar with being tricked, manipulated, or just blatantly ignored. When you’re the baby of the family, life is unfair. Beautifully written and accessible, yet also very clever, it is also known as part of the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's brilliant film adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.This Week’s Selection Chosen By Guest Contributor Nicole Yun (of Eternal Summers) Lovefool is from the third album of 1996 First Band on the Moon, and also plays with traditional forms, switching between A major in the chorus, and A minor in the verse, with a four-bar middle eight. I should have seen it when my hope was new I really thought that I could take you thereīut my experiment is not getting us anywhere I'm losing my baby, losing my favourite game
You haven't found it baby, that's for sure My Favourite Game, from 1998's Gran Turismo album and written by guitarist Peter Svensson and lead singer Nina Persson, is unusual in key (C minor) and avoids the usual verse-chorus structure, with plentiful words more in verse and middle-eight sections, and the chorus essentially 'sung' by a two-note guitar riff. Two wonderful 90s tracks from the Swedish band, both looking at relationship problems in wry and musically inventive ways.
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