The Cardigans - Emmerdale

Reissue of the hit Swedish pop quintet's 1994 debut with four tracks from the European edition of their 1995 album 'Life' added as bonus tracks, 'Pikebubbles', 'Travelling With Charley', 'Sunday Circus Song' and 'Closing Time'. A combined total of 16 tracks, with the album itself featuring the European hits 'Sick & Tired' and 'Rise And Shine', plus their unique cover of Black Sabbath's 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Double slimline jewel case. 1999 release. Album Description

A superb Cardigans disc

Emmerdale, like the band's second album, Life, is unabashed happiness-inducing candy pop/lounge tunes, driven by smart hooks, and balanced with dark lyrics. The band creatively employs a vibrant sonic palette (flute, bassoon, xylophone, etc.) to reinvigorate the standard guitar-keys-bass-drums sound.

My favs: Sick and Tired, Celia Inside, Rise and Shine, and the amazing cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (this is as awesome as their cover of Iron Man on First Band on the Moon -- who knew how well Ozzy's melody and lyrics could translate to other musical styles?!?!?).

While I love it, I am not sorry that the Cardigans have moved past this sound -- they have deftly demonstrated they can develop and create new sounds 13 years after the release of this album.

I recommend this to all Cardigans fans, and those pop lovers who want to open up their ears and minds. March 24, 2007

Trying to come to the rescue

I think the easiest thing to do with the early work of The Cardigans is to give it a few listens and then realize it's pleasant, poppy, cheerful, with creative covers.
Those who delve deeper can see that there's a lot more going on under there than just Audio Prozac.

The magic of The Cardigans is that their music sounds so effortless that we take it for granted.
Emmerdale, for me in particular, is the stand-out of their first two cd's.
It is thoughtful, masterful, and should not be tossed off easily.

If you have the bucks, I say go for it. Every Cardigans album is worth the cash and then some. December 16, 2006

Sweet

Sweet voice, sweet songs, sweet (little-known) CD.
"Sick and tired" and "Last song" are my favorites. October 17, 2005

More than just Free-and Easy Pop!

The was the debut 1994 album from the Cardigans. First impression may be that this is just a nice free and easy pop-album with no other ambition than to please the ear. But after a few listens you discover that this is an unusually talented band that cope with a great variety of styles. Over the last decade songwiter Peter Svennson has proved himself a very gifted tunesmith with hits several world-wide hits. On this album he has ( as always ) written the majority of the music, and there are many fine tunes among them. "Sick and Tired" and "Rise and Shine" are catchy up-beat pop-tunes; but more sophisticated songs like "Black Letter Day" and "Cloudy Sky" really show the band's potentials.

Singer Nina Persson, who would later become the band's lyricist, did not write any lyrics to this album, and her personal writing may be missed here, but her vocals are great as we know them. October 9, 2005

Great album and NOT a reissue of Life

I have to disagree with the last reviewer--I have this album and it's excellent--and it is NOT a reissue of life. Upon more than a superficial examination of the album description, it reads, "Reissue of the hit Swedish pop quintet's 1994 debut with four tracks from the European edition of their 1995 album 'Life' added as bonus tracks, 'Pikebubbles', 'Travelling With Charley', 'Sunday Circus Song' and 'Closing Time'."

It is their first album with bonus tracks from the European version of Life. Carnival isn't one of them. It's probably not a good idea to judge this album based on facts that aren't true.

The Cardigans always release great, interesting and intelligent records and I would recommend Emmerdale and any other Cardigans CD to future listeners.

August 15, 2005

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