FEATURE:
Second Spin
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
___________
AS a certain Swedish band…
formed in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1992, I am marking that upcoming thirtieth anniversary by including them for the second time in Second Spin. Their fifth studio album, Long Gone Before Daylight, was released in March 2003. I previously included the underrated Gran Turismo (1998) in this series. There are a few albums from The Cardigans (their first three really) that are seen as classic, whereas everything that came after that gets a bit of a mixed response. Whilst not as consistent as, say, Life (1995) or First Band on the Moon (1996), there are some seriously good songs on Long Gone Before Daylight. Where Gran Turismo was more Electronic and Rock-driven, their follow-up was sparser and brought in new sounds. Many people might know Long Gone Before Daylight from the singles, You’re the Storm, For What It's Worth and Live and Learn. For What It’s Worth is classic Cardigans. With lyrics written by Nina Persson and music by Peter Svensson, the album sports the combination of great songwriting and stunning vocals from Persson. I think that Long Gone Before Daylight deserves reappraisal. The band’s most-recent album, Super Extra Gravity, was released in 2005. One suspects that it may be the final release from the Swedish wonders. Maybe the band were finest when they had that irresistible Pop sound early on. One that seemed to mix a sweetness and sound of the 1960s with the esteemed and remarkable songwriting from the band.
Not to say that everything post-1996 lacks the magic The Cardigans are known for. I feel a lot of critics will always hark back to songs like Loverfool (from First Band on the Moon) and want that in subsequent albums. As I do with these features, I am going to bring in some contrasting reviews. Long Gone Before Daylight is much stronger than a lot of its reviews suggest. Perhaps The Cardigans were trying to push away from their early happier sound. Maybe seeing it as a bit twee or lacking substance, I think that a combination of the grit and spunk from Gran Turismo could have paired well with the glee and irresistible sound of Life. All that being said, The Cardigans won three awards at the 2003 Grammis (the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards). They picked up Album of the Year, in addition to winning Rock Group of the Year. I want to start with AllMusic’s rather mixed take of Long Gone Before Daylight:
“If any clue were needed to confirm a new direction for the Cardigans -- that is, other than the music itself -- it's the change of hair color for vocalist Nina Persson. Previously an icy blonde that approached white (best flaunted on the cover of Life), Persson's hair is now jet black, a color that matches her confessional mood and conflicted feelings about love on the Swedish group's fifth studio album.
Produced by Per Sunding (career-long collaborator Tore Johansson left after an initial session), Long Gone Before Daylight is understated and well-designed, a musicians' record, one that sounds more like an MTV Unplugged session than the high-energy chamber pop of their early recordings. Unfortunately, it's also over-produced to within an inch of its artistic life, and lacks the quality songs and exquisite productions that the group had made a hallmark. Persson composed all the lyrics, rewriting the Spector standard "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)" into "And Then You Kissed Me" (sample lyric: "Baby you hit me/Yeah, you punched me right in the heart/And then you kissed me...and then you hit me"). Guitarist Peter Svensson took care of all the music, relying on familiar pop archetypes but forswearing the catchy hooks in favor of carefully constructed songs. Still, the Cardigans don't have enough musical personality on their own to carry these songs; they've always been a surprisingly workmanlike band -- their performances here are sympathetic and intricate -- but they simply can't rise above this subpar material. [The American release, which followed over a year after the Canadian and European issues, included a bonus DVD featuring three videos and three live tracks, plus interviews.]”.
To me, Long Gone Before Daylight is a really strong album where The Cardigans do not try to replicate themselves. Maybe the band were a bit dislocated at that time. Between Gran Turismo and Long Gone Before Daylight the members released various solo records. With darker material that included subjects such as domestic abuse and depression, this was a band quite a long way away from their start. Every group progresses and evolves. On its own weight, Long Gone Before Daylight is a great album that boasts many strengths. NME reviewed Long Gone Before Daylight in 2003 and remarked the following:
“Reviving the career of Tom Jones with a song whose video featured a large amount of the colour orange! Soundtracking Leonardo DiCaprio when he became boring! Making solo albums of interest to approximately three people, including oneself! For these heinous acts and various others, it may be hard to forgive the cast of The Cardigans.
For Nina and co it may of slightly more concern that it's been suspiciously easy for us to forget The Cardigans, too. It's been almost half an S Club Junior's life since The Cardigans' last album. Some of this time has been consumed with recording - then rewinding and erasing - a successor to 'Gran Turismo', then starting work all over again on a new album entirely. These things happen, of course. But if we're honest with ourselves the threat of a new Cardigans opus has hardly had the world on the edge of its collective record-buying seat. Even tales of an all-encompassing Swedish new rock supergroup - Pelle from The Hives, Ebbot from Soundtrack Of Our Lives and Nick Hellacopter join the cast at various points across the album - has had difficulty raising a solitary eyebrow. And if you can say anything for The Cardigans, it's that they're good at eyebrows.
As it happens, while there’s not much here of the flog-it-to-a-car-ad variety, ‘Long Gone Before Daylight’ is the band’s best album yet – which is to say that it contains considerably more than three good songs. Where the cold production wedges of ‘Gran Turismo’ were distant and aloof to the point where they ignored the songs themselves, the flourishes here are sparse enough to let them bloom. Best of the bunch are country-tinged opener ‘Communication’ and the Spector-referencing ‘And Then You Kissed Me’; heartbreaking pop with an unstable psyche and a fresh, naked charm. And those guest stars? They’re not even important. This is an album powered by its own radiance – like a solar-powered torch stringed up to a pair of mirrors, driving itself on forever, and still going strong, even by daylight”.
If you are more acquainted with the earlier work of The Cardigans or have not played Long Gone Before Daylight for a bit, I would definitely advise you to get back into it. I do hope that there will be something from The Cardigans this year. On their anniversary year, even if it alum reissues, that would be very welcomed! With great deeper cuts like Couldn't Care Less and Lead Me Into the Night, there is plenty to appreciate when it comes to The Cardigans’ fifth studio album. Nineteen years after it came out, I think this album still…
PACKS a punch.