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As Nina Persson's velour-smooth vocals prove, LIFE is much sweeter and more profound than simply a box of chocolates. Her gorgeous voice is the perfect complement to the rest of the Cardigans' jazz-tinged, retro sound. Straight outta Sweden, ... Full Descriptionthe quintet plays a unique hybrid of confectionated pop and space-age bachelor-lounge music. The lush arrangements are festooned with vibes, horns, bassoons, bells, strings and futuristic synthesizers, leaving one with the incorrect but plausible impression that these intensely creative Scandinavians have kidnapped Burt Bacharach and looted his back catalog. Amazingly, there's not a sample to be found on the entire disc.
The bureaucratic FDA has yet to develop (let alone, approve) an inoculation strong enough to resist the highly infectous pop of "Daddy's Car" or "Rise & Shine" from attacking your pop immune system. The flute refrains on "Over The Water" and "Sick & Tired" (the first single) are pure Ennio Marricone spaghetti-Western kitsch, while the trip-hoppy "Our Space" could be a track on a Portishead album. With nary a lame-o song to be found on the entire 14 tracks, LIFE is worth living over and over again.
Recorded at Tambourine Studios, Malmo, Sweden.
The Cardigans: Nina Persson (vocals); Peter, Bengt, Magnus, Lars-Olof.
Additional personnel: Asa Hakansson (violin); Ivan Bakran (cello); Anders Nordgren (flute); Sven Andersson (saxophone); Petter Lindgard, Tore Johansson (trumpet); Jens Lindgard (trombone).
Spin (1/96, p.64) - Included on Spin's list of the "10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear In '95." - "...The Cardigans are the great beat combo you've never heard, creating childlike melodies and wit-filled arrangements to tickle your cranium and set your toes a-tapping..."
Entertainment Weekly (2/23-3/1/96, p.126) - "Call them the Swedish Pizzicato Five, the Rentals in their own wildest dreams, or the true heirs to ABBA's legacy: This coed Stockholm quintet are all that and then some..."
- Rating: A
Option (5-6/96, p.98) - "...the sweetest pop since new Coke..."
Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #43 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "...From the Etienne/Pizzicato/Stereolab school of cinematic sixties nouvelle vague....How Swede it is." Hide DescriptionPurchase Life CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Depeche Mode Ultra CD (1997)
Life album
 $7.29   
With Alan Wilder now gone, ULTRA is Depeche Mode's first album as a trio. But in many ways it marks a return to form for the band. Producer Tim Simenon gives ULTRA a rich, lush sound that rejects the straight-ahead rock and analog experimentation of VIOLATOR and SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION. Instead, ULTRA moves deftly between the sparseness of Depeche Mode's legendary ...
| | Cardigans First Band On The Moon CD (1996)
Life CD music
$11.89 
Sweden's Cardigans are steeped in a tradition of lush European pop that loosely stretches from the Beatles, through Abba, to Stereolab. But while FIRST BAND ON THE MOON, the quintet's second American album, hints at these touchstones and others like them, the muscular guitars that emanate from behind the Cardigans' expansive arrangements easily distinguish them from their forebears. Great pop hooks are, after all, a dime-a-dozen in Sweden; but pop power-chords are another matter.
This is where the Cardigans' Black Sabbath influence emerges. No, we're not kidding. ...
| | Cardigans Gran Turismo CD (1998)
Life music CDs
$11.89 
In 1997, even as "Lovefool" climbed the Adult Contemporary radio-play charts and further sold mainstream America on the sound of "Swedish pop," something separated the Cardigans from sugary countrymates such as Roxette and Ace of Base. Yes, they placed their metallic guitars out-front while their colleagues hid behind layers of sequencers, making for a more "alternative" approach to "pop." More defining, though, was the sinister cloud that always hung around their songs, no matter how sunny the delivery and the setting. On GRAN TURISMO, the Cardigans follow this dark muse--which already beckoned them to cover Black Sabbath twice in two records--further incorporating a deeply affected melancholia into their Euro-pop ways.
On a bed of lush, ...
| | No Doubt Tragic Kingdom CD (1995)
Life songs
$10.85
No Doubt was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. TRAGIC KINGDOM was nominated for a 1997 Grammy for Best Rock Album. "Don't Speak" was nominated for 1998 Grammys for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
No Doubt's members cite a strange variety of musical influences: Kiss, Prince and Madness, to name a few. And it's easy to imagine that their hometown itself, Anaheim, California (home to Disneyland), may have played a part in forming the band's schizophrenic, high-energy sound, which took TRAGIC KINGDOM, the band's second album, on a slow, steady ride up the pop charts. It finally hit No. 1 in December 1996, 14 months after it was released.
This is ska-punk-new wave-dance music, with instrumentation ranging from hardcore guitar to mellow, reggae-style horns. Singer Gwen ...
| | Madonna Ray Of Light CD (1998)
Life album
$9.55
| | Cardigans Emmerdale CD (1999)
Life CD music
$13.55
| | Firesign Theatre Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers CD (1970)
Life music CDs
$9.25
| | Leatherface Dog CD (2004)
Life songs
$11.49
| | Various Artists Perfect Playlist Freestyle: Vol. 1 CD (2005)
Life album
$10.15
| | Paladin Charge CD (1971) (Import) Japan; Limited Edition; Digipak; Mini LP Sleeve
Life CD music
$44.09
| | Sound Effects CDs (2006)
Life music CDs
$9.75
Track Listing of songs: DISC 1: Lions Roar; Ducks in a Brook; Monkeys; Elephants in Jungle; Japanese Nightingale; Turtle Doves Courting; Jungle Animal Sounds; Blackbird; Dogs in a Countryard; Horses Rounding Curves on Graved; Horses Passing on Concrete; Cows on Farm; Horses Galloping and Jumping; Frogs; Lions; Monkeys; Parrots; Sheep; Storm With Thunder & Wind Gusts; Rainstorm in the City; Violent Rain and Thunder; Rain on a Window; Thunder Without Rain; Thunder and Rain; Snow and Wind Storm; Scots Bagpipes on Parade; Glockenspiel; Vibraphone Glissando With Pedal; Basque Tambourine; Pianoforte; Machine Gun; Beretta Pistol, 32 Cal.; Beretta Shotgun, 12 Cal. Shooting Water; Land Battle/Machine Gun Fire; Jet: Boeing 707 Landing; Jet: DC Take Off; Helicopter Flying Overhead; Freight Train Passing Station and Call; Express Train in Transit; Electric Engine in Transit; Steam Locomotive; Steam Locomotive; Italian State Railroad Train; Railroad Station Departing Train Calls; Fireworks; Fireworks Pinwheels; Fireworks Exploding; Explosions; Firework Display; Automobile: Couple Boarding Car; Automobile Slamming of Door and Departure; Stock Car Race; Sports Car Rounding Curve; Indianapolis Racing Cars in Groups; Indianapolis Racing Cars Single Car; Indianapolis Racing Cars Pulling Into Track; Space Music; Spaceship Landing and Taking Off; Satellite Explorer XV; Satellite Anna 1 B; Satellite Relay 1; Satellite Kosmos XIII; Mercury Aurora VII; Friendship VII Rocket Take-Off; Circus; Giant Roller Coaster; Screams; Swimming Pool Children; Children at the Beach; Child Crying; DISC 2: Glass Window ...
| | Climax Blues Band Climax Chicago Blues Band CD (1969) (Import) Import; Limited Edition; Japan
Life songs
$35.49
| | Dixie Stompers At Westminster College CD (2007)
Life album
$12.89
| | Judalynn RN CBT Garcia Coming Out Of The Dark CD (2007)
$16.19 | | Signature Songs Classic Covers (Collector Ed) CD (2007) (Import)
Life CD music
$36.79
This special two ...
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