| · Scandinavians: they grow up so fast, don’t they?
The last we heard from Nina Persson and the Cardigans, the Scandinavian super group was doing their best to shed all traces of super-hit "Lovefool" on the dark and electronic Gran Turismo, followed by a straight-outta-left-field turn toward lo-fi country-rock in Persson’s Sparklehorse-produced side-project A Camp. Regrouping for Long Gone Before Daylight, the Cardigans have traded the computers for an organic downcast Americana, somehow melting all expectations.
Song titles like "Communication" and the album’s overall focus on lovelorn slowie-ballads imply we’re in full-on adult territory here, but the Cardigans’ infallible knack for mind-sticking tunes is still strongly in evidence. For the first time, they’ve managed to create more than a merely pleasant pop-rock diversion and put to tape an album that won’t gather a quaint obsolescence in a matter of months.
Like the best of the Cardigans’ work, Long Gone Before Daylight works surprisingly well as an alt-country about-face – a bit like a radio slightly off the station – because through a European reflection of a traditionally American style matched with the cutely accented lyrics, their occasionally slight grip on what they’re trying their darndest to do transforms into a great advantage.
Abba wouldn’t have even half a prayer of pulling this off.
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