The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight (2003)

1) Communication; 2) You’re the Storm; 3) A Good Horse; 4) And Then You Kissed Me; 5) Couldn’t Care Less; 6) Please Sister; 7) For What It’s Worth; 8) Lead Me into the Night; 9) Live and Learn; 10) Feathers and Down; 11) 03.45: No Sleep; BONUS TRACKS 12) Hold Me (Mini Version); 13) If There Is a Chance

Rating: 9/10

Americana certainly isn't the first thing that would come to mind when thinking of The Cardigans, but it's the best guise they ever wore.

Key tracks: "Communication", "You're the Storm", "Live and Learn"

Five years went by between Gran Turismo and Long Gone Before Daylight. The international, pigeon-holing success of “Lovefool” had caused The Cardigans to radically re-invent themselves for the cold, electronic Gran Turismo in order to shed their novelty success, only for “My Favourite Game” to turn into another soundtrack success and the brush with fame to continue. Burnt out, the members took a break from the band and focused on side projects.  Nina Persson turned to americana with A Camp, Peter Svensson recorded an album of Swedish melancholy with Kent’s Joakim Berg and Magnus Sveningsson’s Righteous Boy released their single album of homely indie pop. Every release signaled a sizable desire to do something different from their main band, but by coincidence they all to shared themes and tones: a move onto something earthier and more personal. 

Those albums form a direct line to the otherwise another sudden style change that Long Gone Before Daylight represents, which is for all purposes concerned a complete reboot for The Cardigans: the only thing connecting it to the early twee pop records are the band members themselves. It’s a somber album by seasoned musicians where the arrangements are more elaborate and the songwriting more nuanced. Everyone had grown, learned new things and wanted to explore a more serious direction while still retaining the band chemistry. You could call it matured and it wouldn’t be a vague exaggeration. 

“Communication”, which opens the album, lays down the ground rules. The calmly moving but slowly unfurling ballad resembles nothing the Cardigans have done before in tone or arrangement. Persson has shed away her old girl-next-door vibes and become a powerful frontwoman, her voice now resonating emotional gravitas, while Svensson introduces the subtle guitar licks and less-is-more melodies that will define much of the album later on. It all comes together to form a song that hooks right from the start despite how unassumingly it begins, but turning into a gorgeous showstopper by the time it ends with Persson’s resigned desperation and the lush strings around her. It might actually be the best thing the band have put their names under. 

The point of “Communication” is to clear the table and re-set it, and once it has done so it paves the way for the rest of Long Gone Before Daylight to surprise, excite and hit the feels. The arrangements are rich and full of layers and intricate details, but the band understand the power of the space between notes and let the music - and Persson’s voice - have breathing space. Persson in fact is such an integral part of the album: Long Gone Before Daylight is an 11-song collection of romantic fatalism, of mistakes regretted and redemption plead, arranged into americana-twinged moodpieces that would be right at home in the wee hours accompanied by an emptying bottle of wine. Her charisma grew intensely during the band’s hiatus and her lyrics became more nuanced, and now they’re both key reasons why songs such as “And Then You Kissed Me”, “Lead Me into the Night” or “03.45: No Sleep” have the listener hang onto every moment and why they resonate so deeply. 

These moments of calm where the wistful emotions cling onto every note highlight most obviously what a gorgeous sounding album Long Gone Before Daylight is, but when it does shift gears all that pent up emotion finds a moment of release. The album can handle it classily (“Please Sister”, “For What It’s Worth”) or wildly (“Good Horse”) if it wants, but most powerfully when they let their new sound to simply soar with “You’re the Storm” and “Live and Learn”: the former is a yell of liberation against the tides as moves from its gentle verses to its colossal chorus, and the latter is all-around fantastically life-affirming but especially notable in the way how introduces a new backing vocal harmony for each part of the song, each one grander than the previous time around. “Live and Learn” actually gets so majestic by the time it reaches its most anthemic heights that it’s the one major challenger for “Communication” as the album’s masterpiece. 

Two such superlative songs and a whole group of consistently great accompaniments is wild when you compare it to the past albums. They were fine albums and had an assortment of great songs here and there, but were by no means the kinds of records that would inspire you to crave for more. I don’t intend to say that you can only create truly meaningful records when you go all serious and moody (let’s not forget that was the entire shtick of Gran Turismo, much more so than here), but it’s really evident that moving away from their established method of working and taking time off to re-discover and develop their musical selves helped everyone in the band to really focus on their craft. Long Gone Before Daylightis more than just a reboot, it’s a brand new start from scratch. It couldn’t have worked out better - the debut album by the New Cardigans is downright a classic album.   

My copy of the album is the standard UK edition that comes with a couple of bonus tracks. “Hold Me (Mini Version)” is a half-minute intro to the full song that was released separately as a b-side and its inclusion here without the full deal is questionable at best, and mainly acts as a bridge between the main album and the bonus cuts (alongside a gap of silence, which more bonus-featuring albums should do more often). Thus the main extra is “If There Is a Chance”, another lovely ballad-type that shares much of its traits and strengths with the main album. It’s more of the same, which in this case is by no means a bad thing.