Word: johansson
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...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...
...Cardigans. Sveningsson explained: "We wanted to become a pop band; [Peter and I] played in individual hard rock bands back in the '80s. We met because we needed someone new to play with. Peter is still in that scene, but I have found other things to listen to." Keyboardist Johansson had a more pithy account of new, harder Cardigans: "We're back, and we're loud...
...Bloody Sabbath" replete with wailing guitars and a three minute code of distorted power chords. The fans seemed dazed, but not unimpressed. Even those who came for the kitsch stayed for the clamor. This wasn't the Cardigans of "Lovefool," but the confidence of this heavier aesthetic was winning. Johansson proclaimed, "People may think we are trying to get more commercial, but we don't make music for a special kind of audience. We make music for ourselves, and we wanted this sound. Lots of violence." Loud guitars, ominous techno noises, and rough ideas: This, then, was the new guise...
...both familiar and fresh. More than any of their previous work, the album reveals the clash of personalities that enlivens the ensemble: the heavy metal/hard rock lineage of guitarists Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson and the '60s girl-group pop song tradition of singer Nina Persson and producer Tore Johansson. Certainly, the group is far from a mere novelty project of classic pop archivist Johansson; as their First Band on the Moon cover photograph displays ardently, the Cardigans can rock...
...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...