The cardigans

The cardigans
The Cardigans performance in Brazil in 2006
General information
Genre (s)	Rock , indie pop , alternative rock
founding	1992
Website	http://www.cardigans.com
Current occupation
singing	Nina Persson
guitar	Peter Svensson
bass	Magnus Sveningsson
Drums , flute	Bengt Lagerberg
Keyboard , guitar	Lars-Olaf Johansson

The Cardigans is a Swedish band belonging to the genres of rock , indie pop and alternative rock . It was founded in 1992 by heavy metal musicians Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson. Over time, The Cardigans has become one of the most successful Swedish bands and is one of the critics' favorites of the European pop rock and alternative rock genre.

Band history

Beginnings

Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, both actually heavy metal musicians, founded the group The Cardigans , in German something like “Die Strickjacken”, in 1992 in Jönköping, southern Sweden . A self-recorded demo tape was so popular with producer Tore Johansson that he invited the band to a studio in Malmö . The debut album Emmerdale was released in 1994 on the Stockholm Records label and received the record of the year award.

First international attention

In 1995 the follow-up album Life was released , which contained the hit singles Carnival and the two songs Sick and Tired and Rise & Shine , which had already been released on the debut album . The second album contains a total of five songs from the first album. With Life , the band gained importance outside of Sweden for the first time, which is also evident from their first placements in the British top 40 singles charts.

The third album was First Band on the Moon in 1996 . The release Lovefool almost made it into the British Top 20 in autumn 1996 and was used in the remake of Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes . Lovefool was then re-released in 1997 and reached number 2 in the UK charts. Due to the increased international interest in the band, she got guest appearances on David Letterman or the popular series Beverly Hills, 90210 at the time . The German magazine Visions led First Band on the Moon on their list of the 55 best Swedish rock albums published in 2019.

manifestation

In 1998 the Cardigans released Gran Turismo , the band's most successful album with sales of more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. The three singles from it, My Favorite Game , Erase / Rewind and Hanging Around , were quite successful in the British singles charts - Erase / Rewind even made it into the top 10. The title My Favorite Game was remixed in the second version of the Console game Gran Turismo used as background music for a bonus or intro video.

In the same year the cardigans took part in the score for A Life Less Ordinary with the song War . They contributed the song Deuce to the music for X-Files .

With Tom Jones they recorded the cover version Burning Down The House in 1999 for his album Reload , which reached the top ten in Great Britain .

Reorientation

Nina Persson (2014) - performance with a solo project in Hamburg

After the release of Gran Turismo and the grueling worldwide tours that followed, the cardigans were pumped out. And at the time it was not at all clear whether and how things would go on with the cardigans. The band members concentrated on solo projects: Svensson wrote songs for Titiyo and worked with Joakim Berg on the Paus project . Sveningsson released his solo album under the name Righteous Boy , and Nina Persson tinkered with friends on the A Camp project .

New beginning

A mutual meeting in a hotel room in Los Angeles ushered in the turning point. In 2003 they ended their hiatus and released the atmospheric album Long Gone Before Daylight . Praised by critics, it could not build on the success of the previous album. Of the two singles released, only For What It's Worth made it into the top 40 of the British charts - You're The Storm, however, flopped.

On October 14, 2005, the new album Super Extra Gravity was released . The first single from it was I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer , the second single was on February 10, 2006, Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds) .

Trivia

Due to the musical preferences of some members of the Cardigans, the band played songs by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne at their concerts, especially in the first few years . Some of them also found space on the band's early CDs:

• Iron Man (First Band on the Moon, 1996)
• Iron Man (first try, 1996) (The Other Side of the Moon, 1998)
• Mr. Crowley (performed live & acapella in Swedish radio 1995) (The Other Side of the Moon, 1998)
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Emmerdale, 1994 & Life, 1995)

In a similar way, the Cardigans recorded the Kraftwerk piece Das Model with German lyrics as the B-side of their single For What It's Worth 2003 .

In early 2004, the album Tribute to The Cardigans was released , on which eleven European groups recorded hits by the band. In the TV soap Beverly Hills, 90210 they also had a guest appearance in the 32nd episode of the 7th season.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1994	Emmerdale	-	-	-	-	-	SE29 gold (7 weeks)SE	First published: February 14, 1994
1995	Life	DE50 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK51 gold (11 weeks)UK	-	SE20th platinum (5 weeks)SE	First published: March 16, 1995
1997	First band on the moon	DE83 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK18th gold (14 weeks)UK	US35 platinum (27 weeks)US	SE2 gold (26 weeks)SE	First published: September 17, 1997
1998	Gran Turismo	DE38 (20 weeks) DE	AT43 (5 weeks) AT	-	UK8th platinum (66 weeks)UK	US151 (1 week) US	SE1 × 2 Double platinum (32 weeks)SE	First published: October 19, 1998
2003	Long Gone Before Daylight	DE24 (5 weeks) DE	AT47 (3 weeks) AT	CH22 (9 weeks) CH	UK47 (3 weeks) UK	-	SE1 platinum (46 weeks)SE	First published: March 21, 2003
2005	Super extra gravity	DE30 (4 weeks) DE	AT48 (2 weeks) AT	CH42 (3 weeks) CH	UK78 (1 week) UK	-	SE1 gold (25 weeks)SE	First published: October 14, 2005

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1999	The Other Side of the Moon	-	-	-	-	-	-	First published: January 5, 1999
2008	Best of	-	-	CH78 (1 week) CH	UK32 (2 weeks) UK	-	SE5 (10 weeks) SE	First published: January 25, 2008

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1994	Rise and Shine Emmerdale	-	-	-	UK29 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: 1994
	Sick and Tired Emmerdale	-	-	-	UK34 (5 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: 1994
1995	Carnival Life	-	-	-	UK35 (4 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: 1995
1996	Lovefool First Band on the Moon	DE6 (20 weeks) DE	AT7 (12 weeks) AT	CH22 (10 weeks) CH	UK2 gold (17 weeks)UK	-	SE15 (17 weeks) SE	First published: August 1996
	Been It First Band on the Moon	-	-	-	UK56 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: November 1996
1997	Your New Cuckoo First Band on the Moon	-	-	-	UK35 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: August 1997
1998	My Favorite Game Gran Turismo	DE90 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK14th silver (18 weeks)UK	-	SE3 (18 weeks) SE	First published: October 1998
	Erase / Rewind Gran Turismo	DE71 (6 weeks) DE	-	CH39 (4 weeks) CH	UK7th silver (9 weeks)UK	-	SE12 (12 weeks) SE	First published: December 1998
1999	Hanging Around Gran Turismo	-	-	-	UK17 (6 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: July 1999
2003	For What It's Worth Long Gone Before Daylight	-	-	-	UK31 (2 weeks) UK	-	SE8 (9 weeks) SE	First published: February 2003
	You're the Storm Long Gone Before Daylight	-	-	-	UK74 (1 week) UK	-	SE10 (8 weeks) SE	First published: June 2003
2005	I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer Super Extra Gravity	DE93 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK59 (1 week) UK	-	SE3 (22 weeks) SE	First published: September 2005
2006	Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds) Super Extra Gravity	-	-	-	-	-	SE49 (1 week) SE	First published: February 2006

As a guest musician

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1999	Burning Down the House Reload	DE27 (14 weeks) DE	AT21 (7 weeks) AT	CH31 (16 weeks) CH	UK7 (7 weeks) UK	-	SE2 gold (11 weeks)SE	First published: September 1999 ( Tom Jones feat. The Cardigans)

Video albums

• 2004: The Cardigans - Live in London

The 18 songs were recorded during the First Band On The Moon tour on December 20/21. Recorded November 1996 at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London. The DVD was previously released as VHS in 1997. In 2004 it was decided to re-publish it in a contemporary quality and format. In contrast to the earlier VHS, the DVD also contains a short documentary on this tour, the US promo video for Been It and an interactive picture gallery.

swell

1. ↑ various authors: export world champion . In: Visions , issue 312, page 50
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US SE
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK US SE

Web links

Commons : The Cardigans  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• The Cardigans at MusicBrainz (English)
• The Cardigans at laut.de
• The Cardigans at Discogs (English)
• The Cardigans at SoundCloud
• Further links on The Cardigans in the Open Music Project - MusicMoz (English)