Just like most of you, I came to know The Cardigans from their single that ended up on Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet OST entitled Love Fool, where the chorus beged “Love me, love me.” Coincidentally, after purchasing their third album from which the single came, First Band on the Moon, I did. This led to me purchasing their first two albums as imports and more love being obtained. I skipped Gran Turismo when it was released, but then became reacquainted with the group in April of 2003 on a trip to Tokyo. I bought Long Gone Before Daylight and fell in love all over again.

It was actually lucky that I came across the album when I did, as by 2003 The Cardigans had lost US distribution and their last record was not released in the states for at least a year after it’s European release. The same scenario seems likely for Super Extra Gravity which was produced by the knob turner behind franz Ferdinand’s debut. Tore Johannson actually produced all of The Cardigan’s albums before being fired during the recording of Long Gone Before Daylight for depending too much on computer wizardry. After the Franz album he seems to have gotten back to basics and reunited with the Cards. He is also the man behind the curtain on the new Ok Go album.

This album is a deliberate departure from the maturity of their last album. It seems that as the members of the band began to reach three decades on the planet, they thought that it was time to grow up and that was the theme of Long Gone Before Daylight. Then once they passed that milestone and did not immediately turn into their parents, they changed their minds and decided there was still some time left to have some fun and color outside of the lines. At least, that’s what I did, so I’m just guessing.

Bonus Track: Give Me Your Eyes

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