For the first post of 2024, I want to talk about a record that I have become absolutely obsessed with over the last few months, Life by Swedish pop-rock group The Cardigans. This is their 1995 sophomore album to their 1994 debut, Emmerdale, which did not originally have a release outside of Sweden and Japan until 1999. I note this because on most streaming services the primary version of Life is the U.K. version of the album which was a mishmash of most of the brand-new tracks from Life with some greatest hits from Emmerdale all on one album. I will be talking about the original Swedish version of this album with only the new songs because there are some songs missing from the U.K. version and I much prefer the original sequencing as it was intended.  

I have no idea why I decided to check out The Cardigans backlog to be completely honest. Up until this year, Lovefool was the only song I knew from the band since it has frequent airplay on 90s on 9 and other similar radio stations. I was under the impression that this was the band’s one-hit wonder, which might be technically true if sales figures are the only metric used to measure a band’s success (which I find to be a very shallow way of appreciating music). However, Lovefool has always stuck in my mind, not only for its incredible chorus and very glamorous production. But the song has this very anachronistic quality to it to my ears, a song that heavily borrows from 1950s and 60s Lounge and Easy Listening with the very 90s production and angst-filled lyrics. I am admittedly a sucker for music that combines the old with the new whilst creating something entirely original and unique, so I browsed The Cardigans’ discography for an album to spin, looking for more songs to scratch the itch left by Lovefool.  

While I could have just picked Lovefool’s parent album First Band on the Moon (the follow-up to Life), my eyes were immediately caught by Life’s album art. It features frontwoman Nina Persson in a very throwback-to-the-60s-or-70s, wintry outfit posing as if she is on a classic magazine cover promoting a brand. It is very camp in its presentation but in a very charming way and I think, having listened to the recording in full several times, it is the perfect representation of the music presented. A twee, sunny pop rock album that heavily utilizes the sounds of Lounge and Chamber pop.  

The opener, “Carnival,” is such an incredible opener and it is such a shame that this song does not have the same recognition in the States as Lovefool has. The chorus is instantly snappy accompanied by incredibly clean drums, vocal harmonies, and funky guitar riffs. And then the strings that enter after this chorus, perfection! This song has genuinely become one of my most replayed songs this year solely because I am in awe of the great production that flips between the very playful and sugary choruses and the very ornate verses and transitions that gives a sense of melancholy behind the sunny mood. Already amazing! 

Some other songs I have really grown attached to are “Daddy’s Car” which has a chorus that makes me feel like a supermodel driving down a summery vista in a 1960s convertible. The song “Pikebubbles” borrows from 50s Lounge the most with the very understated jazzy vocals and marimbas. This is one of the songs that were omitted from the U.K. version of the album which is why I urge anyone interested in this record to use the original sequencing. The songs “Fine” and “Hey! Get Out of My Way” are much straightforward indie pop cuts but again, the choruses on these songs are so earwormy, it immediately attaches itself to my brain. I also really love the woozy acoustic guitar production on the latter which reminds me a lot of Donovan’s music particularly with how he would play the guitar.  

There is not really a song that I feel warrant a skip, except for the closer “Closing Time.” This song’s runtime at 10 minutes sticks out like a sore-thumb compared to the other 10 songs that were a snappy 3-4 minutes. What really disappoints me is that all those previous songs had great pacing, amazing verses and choruses, and produced with so much ear-candy that it holds your attention the entire length of the song. “Closing Time” however, while very epic and noisy at times, just feels like an outlier amongst these nostalgic pop cuts. The U.K. version cut out this song and instead uses their cover of Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” off Emmerdale, which is an insane cover and I highly recommend listening to it just for how creatively this band reworked a metal song into a subtle jazzy lounge banger. And I will say that this cover unexpectedly works very well as a closer on this album.  

If it is not clear enough, I am totally in awe of this album. It does not have the most envelope-pushing, experimental, mind-bending production or songwriting. But a concise and well put together album of sunny, nostalgic pop bangers can still be just as fulfilling in my eyes! This is such an underrated album and so I hope I can convince you to at least check out one of these songs. Also listen to Emmerdale even if this album does the same thing as their debut but better in every way. There are still a lot of great songs to be found on there! : )