The Cardigans

The Cardigans were formed by two Swedes Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, both ex-members of heavy metal bands. In 1992 they decided to unite their efforts and play a different genre to attract bigger audience. To complete the band, the musicians recruited Bengt Lagerburg, Lars-Olof Johansson and Nina Persson. The debut album by The Cardigans, Emmerdale, saw light in 1994. It met critical acclaim and had sales good enough for a first effort. The subsequent CD, Life (1995), appeared a much loved record in the USA, the UK and Japan as it had a good charts run in these countries. The band made an unexpected move delivering each song from this long player as a separate single. All of them entered Top 40 of the UK. To promote the record, The Cardigans went on a tour along with Blur. As a result, Life was distributed to the amount of one and half a million copies worldwide. The lyrics for the first two albums were written by Magnus. Since 1996, Magnus has shared this duty with Nina.

The Cardigans released their third album, First Band On the Moon, in September 1996. It featured a hit single called Lovefool, heavily played by the world’s leading stations. The song did much to make the whole album platinum in the US and Japan. This release was followed by a long streak of concerts held by the band in Scandinavia, Europe and Japan. The Japanese turned out to be the biggest fans of The Cardigans as they bought three hundred thousand copies of the new album in a week after its release. Considering the special relations with the local audience, The Cardigans tried to visit this country as much as possible and even issue an exclusive CD for Japan, The Other Side Of the Moon (1997 featuring B-sides and one new song It’s War.

The 1998 release of the fourth album, Gran Turismo was preceded by the single My Favorite Game. The original version of the video for this song was prohibited from MTV broadcasting. It featured Nina driving the car carelessly and eventually crashing dead. In the end the viewer was presented an image of her separated head. The band was forced to quickly remove the video from their site and shoot another one. Reaching the peak of world fame and getting ready for the global tour, The Cardigans suddenly came to the brink of collapse. The disputes between the musicians led to Magnus and Nina leaving the band to take up their own solo careers. 2001 was the year of silence and searching for the new way to develop. However, by the end of 2002, all the conflicts were settled and the band resumed the activity in the original lineup.

The new album called Long Gone Before Daylight recorded by The Cardigans in cooperation with Soundtrack Of Our Lives, The Hives, and The Hellacopters. The record hit the stores in May 2004. The critics noticed the shift to a more melancholic atmosphere compared to the previous works. Nina called it a night album. The changes in music and mood were well welcomed by the press and the public. Some of the songs featured Nina’s voice with the masculine vocals of the invited singers. In the early 2005 The Cardigans locked up in their Malmo studio to work on the next long player. Super Extra Gravity (2005) signified an even more decisive step away from pop music sound. The Cardigans recorded a material aimed at an audience different from those who liked their first works. Since then The Cardigans have slowed down their studio and concert activity. It took them three more years to deliver a new album. However, it was a collection of their best songs instead of new material.