Pop bands usually don’t have a life span of more than ten years. Somewhere around there there is a critical point when most bands cease to be creative and interesting. But this is not at all the case with the Cardigans – it is almost ten years since they released their first album "Emmerdale" and they are better now than ever. Their latest album, "Long gone before daylight", which came out this spring, differs from their previous albums in that it is more serious and mature – in the best senses of the words. Its mix between folk rock and West Coast pop seems to be exactly what they have been looking for.
Cardigans are on an autumn tour where they are going to play club like venues. They only made one concert this summer, on the dubious Stockholm Calling festival, and it is obvious that they now are eager to perform the songs from "Long gone before daylight" before an audience. They play with great presence to the people that have come to Mejeriet despite the nasty ticket price of 320 SEK. The whole show is very well planned. The stage decor and light show is cool and effective in setting different moods for the songs; for the rock’n’roll parts, the acoustic parts, the pop parts. There are cut-glass chandeliers, starry sky behind them, stroboscopes and disco ball. It is very cool and consciously done and it makes you have full attention all the time.
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They are a confident live band and manage to be professional without being boring. Nina Persson is a great singer and handles the songs, from ballads to big arrangements, without problem. The sound tonight is just at the right volume and is really one of the best I’ve heard in a concert. In the middle of the show there are a few acoustic numbers where Nina Persson changes from the black rock outfit to a green dress. Together with Peter Svensson and his moustache and long hair they become a folk rock duo from the seventies. In this role they are not as super secure as otherwise, which makes it good in another way.
They mostly play songs from the new album and it is evident that it is those songs that they like best and those they stand for. The old songs is played in new versions which work well sometimes like in "Erase/Rewind" which gets a cool detached eighties atmosphere. "Love Fool" becomes a bit of a cheesy disco hit, which works as a funny break from the other serious songs, but makes it very evident that they are a very different band now than they were when they were a young pop band in "Beverly Hills 90210". Other old songs like "Rise and Shine", in the encore, performed dutifully without enthusiasm, they seem to consider like old sins they no longer can stand for. It would be better to skip those songs and instead play even more songs from "Long gone" like the heart breaking "Couldn’t Care Less" which they don’t play tonight.
Cardigans is a versatile band with songs in a lot of different genres such as pop, rock, disco, folk, country etc. but all the time with one foot in the main stream. The concert makes it apparent that they with "Long gone…" have gone in a direction that suits them perfect. I would like to see them continue on that road and let the folk and country influences take over even more.
/Erik Sandberg
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