The Cardigans Album: “Emmerdale”

At first listen, you may hear the Cardigans' jazzy arrangements, kitschy keyboards, and wispy vocals, and think of it as a light, airy, piece of fluff.

But listen closer, and you'll notice a dark cloud befalling the music. This fog of apathy, betrayal, misery, and depression is what makes this album work, and this is why I gave it five stars. The surprisingly downcast lyrics on this piece of music elevate it above many other pop albums today.

Though the album does get dull during some of it's songs, some high points include: the orchestral complexity of the guitars in Sick & Tired, lead singer Nina Persson's dreamy depression in Black Letter Day, a slightly disco version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and the sugary sweet Seems Hard fades into chaos.

Also, the overwhelmingly sad album closer (appropriately titled Last Song) is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard.

The bonus EP on the U.S. version is also filled with pure, bubbly sweet pop songs, and is a personal favorite of my younger relatives.

A great album, worth your money and time.

At first listen, you may hear the Cardigans' jazzy arrangements, kitschy keyboards, and wispy vocals, and think of it as a light, airy, piece of fluff.

But listen closer, and you'll notice a dark cloud befalling the music. This fog of apathy, betrayal, misery, and depression is what makes this album work, and this is why I gave it five stars. The surprisingly downcast lyrics on this piece of music elevate it above many other pop albums today.

Though the album does get dull during some of it's songs, some high points include: the orchestral complexity of the guitars in Sick & Tired, lead singer Nina Persson's dreamy depression in Black Letter Day, a slightly disco version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and the sugary sweet Seems Hard fades into chaos.

Also, the overwhelmingly sad album closer (appropriately titled Last Song) is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard.

A great album, worth your money and time.

The Cardigans have over the past nearly 20 years, traversed a wide range of musical styling's yet at the same time, retain what is inherently Cardigans. It is rare and in between when, though you may not recognize a song, you know who the band is not by the singer but by the entire sound of the band. I had never heard this album until after (as I'm sure many Americans at the time) "First Band on the Moon" had exploded on the scene behind the weight of the song "Love Fool". Emmerdale is the sound of a band tentatively yet at the same time surefootedly making it's presence known. I'm giving the album 4 deserved stars just upon it's own merits but taking one away for the incorrect information listed on Amazon. The listing states that there is a bonus disc with 4 tracks that were removed from their second album "Life". This is no longer the case and Minty Fresh Records discontinued the bonus disc some years back. For the record the American release of Life is incorrect and rather muddled. Four songs were removed from the album and substituted with four tracks from Emmerdale. I'm not sure what the thinking was behind this but Minty Fresh corrected this in 1999 not by re-issuing "Life" with the corrected track listing but by adding a bonus disc to Emmerdale with the jettisoned tracks. But as stated, Emmerdale no longer contains this bonus disc so go into that knowing when you purchase it (and you still should) you sadly won't get the second disc or those songs which are:

1 "Pikebubbles"

2 "Travelling with Charley"

3 "Sunday Circus Song"

4 "Closing Time"

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.

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.