Word: gran
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Cardigans and Kent-two of Sweden's most popular bands--played the Roxy on Saturday night, drawing an enthusiastic crowd in spite of an impending snowstorm. Each band was touring to promote its new album: The Cardigans' dark, complicated Gran Turismo was released earlier this fall, as was the American distribution of Kent's Isola. Taking advantage of their wider stateside popularity, The Cardigans headlined the show, leaving the lesser-known Kent to play a short opening set. But popularity was not the best predictor of performance. Kent's brilliant, lacerating set was a tough act to follow...
...back room at the club, I chatted before the concert with the bassist/lyricist for the band, Magnus Sveningsson, and the guitarist/keyboardist, Lasse Johansson, about this massive reversal on their new album, Gran Turismo. Tall, with gelled-back hair and an intelligent worker's face, Svenningsson explained, "We and Tore [the producer] sat down, and we wanted something new. We even thought about changing producers, but [Johansson] felt the same way: the Cardigans' sound was a bit dull....So we bought a big computer and made this album." If the brave new Cardigans struggled at certain points, as when the electronics...
Though their early albums Emmerdale and Life musically indulged the lighter guises of the band, distorted guitars and power chords have been seeping into the Cardigans' sound with increasing insistence and intensity. On Gran Turismo, for the first time, the Cardigans finally capture the state of cutting-edge rock circa 1998 rather than the state of vintage pop circa...
...great part, the reinvention of the Cardigans has been enabled by their bold passage into the world of trip-hop electronica. Rather than the familiar panoply of flutes, horns and strings of their previous work, Gran Turismo grooves to the unfamiliar rhythmic contortions and techno loops of an electronic beat box. Impressively, the Cardigans integrate these new elements seamlessly, brewing a series of the catchiest pop songs this side of Alanis Morissette; every track sounds as if it were designed to rule the airwaves. Unlike the beat-driven atmospherics of classic trip-hop bands like Portishead, the Cardigans fix their...
...mimics, though, the Cardigans do use the razor-sharp melodies and propulsive perpulsive percussion awfully effectively. None of the stylish songs on Gran Turismo may have the impact of something truly new, but they do have the impeccable production of Tore Johansson elevating the sounds into a stratosphere of classic pop song delight. Maybe Gran Turismo is just tasty candy, but you won't be getting these sweet, sinister confections out of your teeth any time soon...