Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity
By: Patrick Vu | Category: Album Reviews | 12/15/05 | 08:30 AM
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 Grade: B |
Genre: Rock
Summary: Today's band sees a maturity beyond what we could have expected from the Swedes, and though it may not be what we fell in love with originally, it is surely what we can come to be comfortable with and whose company we can enjoy.
The Cardigans (Nina Persson - vocals, Peter Svensson - guitar, Bengt Lagerberg - drums, Magnus Sveningsson - bass, Lasse Johansson - keyboard, acoustic guitar) flirted with our guilty pleasures in the mid-90's with candy-coated tunes from Emmerdale, Life and First Band on the Moon. It was Nina Perssons' sugary sweet voice that washed away the dirt stains left by the grunge acts that ruled the time's album charts. Here was a band from the land of Abba who reinvented the pop sound with their 60's hippie chick grooves and somehow found space in a crowded industry covered in flannel while moshing in their Doc Martens.
Whether it be our love for the music or our fascination with the sexiest pop tart of her time (we'll call Ms. Perssons the Blondie of our generation), these Swedes lifted us from our funk and made pop cool again. Pardon the overly used expression, but they were our alternative to the alternative. Super Extra Gravity is the latest from The Cardigans, but will it still be a love affair or are we ready to move on to the next "It" thing of the moment?
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We definitely saw a musical growth in The Cardigans' catalog with 1998's edgy and darker Gran Turismo. It was a departure from the bubble gum but a welcomed evolution for a band not afraid to grow up. However, 2003's Long Gone Before Daylight saw the quintet over themselves and their image, which leads us up to their latest, Super Extra Gravity. It's still grounded in the same soft rock that Gravity introduced but does in fact rock harder with a more infectious beat than their previous effort.
Gravity opens unspectacularly with "Losing a Friend," which doesn't do much to usher in a new chapter in The Cardigans' discography. The sound still remains quietly raw and doesn't necessarily introduce the new album but breaks us in as if we'd walk in right in the middle.
The pace is sped up on "Godspell" and "Drip Drop Tear Drop," which actually do a good job of warming you up to the continuing rock sound in which The Cardigans have evolved. If Long Gone's departure from the trendy pop sound was a disappointment, Gravity somehow creates a new found appreciation for it. Listening to it again, I found that my personal rating of it increased by leaps and bounds. It's all about letting go of your first love so that you can grow with the music.
The current single, "I need some fine wine and you, you need to be nicer" was originally my first intro to the new album and had me wondering in what direction The Cardigans are heading this time around. Knowing that they re-teamed with Gran Turismo Producer Tore Johansson, you weren't expecting to get "Love Fool" all over again, but hoped for a dab of the lip-gloss pop that smoothed away the rough edges of our snobby record collection. "Fine Wine" rocks for sure, by Cardigans standards, and has you embracing the more mature sound.
If you remember the tale of domestic abuse from Daylight's "And Then You Kissed Me," you'll no doubt wonder whatever happened to the victim who was swept off her feet one moment but then knocked to the ground the next. Gravity provides the sequel where the victim is still left "blue" with no real resolution. You wonder if she stayed with her abusive lover when she confesses, "When he kissed me I gladly gave in / To a fight nobody could win" and how "True love is cruel love." Of course, we are given no answers and are left hanging...possibly until the conclusion is revealed in their next album.
Underneath the blonde locks and reflections of Pizzicato Five, was a deeper and darker haired voice suppressed by the pop trends of the day. Over the years the dark hair and voice have risen above and taken over the musical direction by which The Cardigans charted. Today's band sees a maturity beyond what we could have expected from these Swedes, and though it may not be what we fell in love with originally, it is surely what we can come to be comfortable with and whose company we can enjoy. Gravity still misses that twinkle in the eye that brightly sparkled for all the world to see in the mid-90's, but still manages to create solid music for those prepared to let go of the past. I guess we all have to grow up sometime.
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