1995 album by The Cardigans
Track listing
1.
Carnival
2.
Gordon's Gardenparty
3.
Daddy's Car
4.
Sick And Tired
5.
Tomorrow
6.
Rise and Shine
7.
Beautiful One
8.
Travelling With Charley
9.
Fine
10.
Celia Inside
11.
Hey! Get Out of My Way
12.
After All...
13.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
The Cardiganss second album, in part a rehash of Emmerdale, as it includes five tracks from that album which was released a year before (1994), but some have been rerecorded (and given a slightly more acid feel).
Life and Emmerdale make up the first part of the band's style up to this moment. Jazzy pop at it's finest, slightly dated and, above all, sweet sound with bitter lyrics and Tore Johansson's production.
As most of The Cardigan's records, the presentation is quite interesting. The booklet and cover portrays the band members characterised. Nina's on the cover as a skater, Peter is a secret agent, Magnus is a boxer, Bengt and athlete and Lasse a submarine captain. This tries to capture the spirit of Life magazine, as Nina Persson says:
The aim of Life was to be a sixties album. We wanted originally to make the booklet like a piece of Life, the magazine. Life is a 60s magazine (I think it still exists) about celebrities, extraordinary people... We wanted to make something like it, so we chose different characters that could have been in Life.
The booklet also includes detailed instructions on opening the case and retrieving the disc (instructions found inside, of course) and a list of the instruments used to make the album including feet, fingers, hands and pernod bottles.
All in all, a polished version of Emmerdale, losing some of its original innocency but gaining some quality. After this one, the band would go on to First Band on the Moon, less of a happening and more of a rock ditty, so this is the album to get to taste the original The Cardigan's sound (though the later albums are interesting in their own ways).
Sources:
http://thecardigans.olleprojects.net
http://www.cardigans.net