THE CARDIGANS: FIRST BAND ON THE MOON (1996)
1) Your New Cuckoo; 2) Been
It; 3) Heartbreaker; 4) Happy Meal II; 5) Never Recover; 6) Step On Me; 7)
Lovefool; 8) Losers; 9) Iron Man; 10) Great Divide; 11) Choke.
This is the one that has ʽLovefoolʼ on it — the
song that made the band in the eyes
of mass European and American audiences, because, let's face it, if there is a
pop-rock band that consists of several male musicians and one blonde female
singer, it's Blondie, right? But no band is really Blondie until it has a
genuine Blondie mega-hit, and so ʽLovefoolʼ was selected by mass tastes as
their ʽHeart Of Glassʼ, with which it does share some things in common: the
light-headed, bitter-hearted attitude, the disco danceability, the funky riffs,
the sweet sweet catchiness. And it's a nice song alright, but for someone like
me, who totally missed it in the Nineties, it is not even the best, or the most
memorable song on this album, let alone in the Cardigans songbook as a whole.
Even without ʽLovefoolʼ, you could tell that
the band is trying to modernize its sound here: ʽYour New Cuckooʼ opens things
up with a strong neo-disco beat, and throughout the album there are plenty more
signs of moving away from the relaxed, folk- and jazz-influenced atmospheres of
the first two albums and into more dance-oriented, contemporary territory.
However, this troublesome «commercialization» is only superficial. Not only
are the actual melodies as strong as ever, but the band's bittersweet romance attitude,
as personified by Nina's singing technique, remains exactly the same as it used
to be. Consequently, this is one of those rare cases where a sellout is not
really a sellout — it is simply a matter of becoming able to sell precisely the
same thing that, earlier on, you were not able to sell. For technical,
unimportant reasons.
Besides, other than ʽLovefoolʼ and ʽYour New
Cuckooʼ (whose saccharine disco chorus is admirably turned into a
tongue-in-cheek expression by Nina's sarcastic "let's come together, me
and you... your new cuckoo" delivery and the grumbly guitar riff), the
only number presented as a modern dance track (slow trip-hop style) is, would
you know it, another Black Sabbath
cover. Unlike ʽSabbath Bloody Sabbathʼ, which they really nailed — unveiled, in
fact — as the sentimental pop song that it had always been in the first place,
this take on ʽIron Manʼ is less successful. They do a good job jazzifying the
classic riff, and Nina's scat singing on the outro is hilarious (especially
when she does that little «scratching turntables» routine), but the lyrics just
don't fit in. More like ʽGingerbread Manʼ than ʽIron Manʼ, if you know what I
mean. No purpose to it, really, other than a "let's really go down in history like that crazyass Sabbath cover
band" sort of statement. Which, on the other hand, is also respectable in
its own strange way.
But then there's just lots and lots and lots of
other good songs on top of this.
ʽNever Recoverʼ is a fast, upbeat, snappy post-Beatles / post-Bangles power-pop
gem, with a resplendent chorus full of energy and sunshine. ʽBeen Itʼ should be
primarily respected for the
sexy-seductive instrumental and vocal melody of its chorus, and only
secondarily for the lyrics ("ooh, she calls herself a whore! that's so Madonna! this is, like, disturbing!") — actually, she makes bitter fun of former lover
boy rather than degrading herself, and all the guitar riffs sound like whips
across poor unfortunate male skin and flesh. Did I ever use the word
"misandrist" yet in a review? Probably not; well, 1996 seems like the
right time to start.
Slow, moody, haunting tunes? Yes, still plenty
of them. The pretty moonlight waltz of ʽHeartbreakerʼ. Lounge sounds still pursue
us with ʽGreat Divideʼ (chimes, strings, treated guitars, tempo changes, mood
changes — there's quite a lot going on in these three minutes). ʽChokeʼ,
closing the album, is impossible to describe in genre terms: it combines
elements of alt-rock, R&B, and jazz, and on top of it, there is the riff from ʽIron Manʼ! Somehow, it slipped and fell
through the cracks, landing on top of the final track and finding it
comfortable enough to stay there. Gee, these whacky rover riffs.
As you can understand, this is yet another
major thumbs up:
the band's third melodically strong, atmospherically captivating, technically
inventive album in a row. And I'm sure that, as long as you do not associate
it exclusively with ʽLovefoolʼ, you'll be all right.
"the lyrics just don't fit in"
ReplyDeleteNo problem for me. Lyrics don't play any role when I decide if I like music or not. They can recite the alphabet afaIc. Again I think Iron Man an excellent cover.
Loved this album when it came out and still do. The Cardigans are similar to Prefab Sprout in a couple of important ways: they both wrote melodic, emotional, clever and memorable pop music which has stood the test of time; and both groups have really bad names!
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