Number 1 of 2003 — The Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight
I never thought much of
The Cardigans until they released
Gran Turismo. It featured, notably,
Erase / Rewind and
My Favourite Game. The latter causing controversy with its nihilistic, homicidal, suicidal video. Although most probably, you’ll only have seen the sanitised version in which Nina Persson drives her car. And that’s it. Funny how music channels show
Unkle’s
Rabbit In Your Headlights,
The Prodigy’s
Smack My Bitch Up and most relevantly
Madonna’s
What It Feels Like For A Girl after the watershed, but not this one. I’ve only seen the full video once, and it’s quite affecting. That said, it was
Erase / Rewind that made me buy the album. After all, after the media overload of the hideously soppy and sappy
Lovefool I needed to be cautious. But the electronic-Blondification of the band meant that it lived on my iPod for quite sometime, and I was rather pleased with it. However, in retrospect, the album didn’t have enough good songs to warrant it being in my top 10 of 1998.
My scepticism was renewed when they released For What’s It’s Worth – the first single from this album. I didn’t much care for it. So it took a lot of self-persuasion to buy the album. To this day, I don’t know why I bought it. Lucky I did though.
The first time I listened to Long Gone Before Daylight I remarked to myself that it was a good album, albeit somewhat different from their previous one; perhaps a bit too ‘country’ for me. So I left it alone for a few weeks, then came back to it. I repeated this over a good three or four months. Then I read the official review on Amazon, which piqued my interest again. So I listened to it some more. During this period I must admit the album sounded better and better.
Then there was a defining moment for the relationship between me and this album. It, naturally, involved a bottle of red wine. I decided to listen to this album one evening, around about September 2003. Lights out. Headphones on. Wine in hand. Eyes shut. Onto the first track:
Communication: “For 27 years I’ve been trying / to believe and confide in / different people I found / Some of them got closer than others / and some wouldn’t even bother / and then you came around”. Uh huh. “I didn’t really know what to call you / you didn’t know me at all / but I was happy to explain / I never really knew how to move you / so I tried to intrude through / the little holes in your veins.”. You have to listen to this. Whilst there are at least three ways to interpret the lyrics, written on a page, they only give half of the story. The song starts barely as a whisper and grows gradually with the most subtle string accompaniment. Actually, this is pretty much the tone of the album. Downbeat is an understatement. Reigned in, restrained. Sparse. Spacious. Sublime. You can sit yourself right inside the performance.
The lyrics to You’re The Storm help to clarify the confusion. This is Imagery 101. ”..and if you want me I’m your country / If you win me I’m forever”. It’s this track that made me realise that this album wasn’t merely a collection of songs. Maybe there’s a cohesion across all the tracks. It’s a view that I couldn’t shake once I considered it.
So, here am I listening to the album, making up my own mind about how one travels from A to B. A Good Horse, ”..now I’m trying out another heart” onto And Then You Hit Me, ”..you gave me your name and signed / with a halo around my eye”. Then Couldn’t Care Less, “My heart don’t beat like before / It’s never been this slow / No, my blood don’t flow anymore / And you couldn’t care less, could you?. Again, at least three ways of interpreting the song. Confusing, yes. But it makes me think. A lot.
Now, having written this. I must point out the close of Couldn’t Care Less. It ends with a drawn out coda, almost like an orchestral arrangement in the middle of a play, where stage hands are working behind the scenes getting ready for the next act. Then there’s a gap. Of about 5 seconds. And it’s so so important. Because we’re then into Please Sister. And I realised, as Amazon pointed out, that this is a soundtrack to a musical. You can sing along to the album too. Please Sister is remarkable for its more upbeat arrangement. Nina pleads throughout the song for a new lover. Which is why Couldn’t Care Less preceeds it. For What It’s Worth picks up the tone more. Nina’s found her new friend and she’s making the most of it “Hey, baby come ‘round / keep holding me down / and I’ll be keeping you up tonight”, but she gets more than she bargained for: “For what it’s worth – I love you / and what is worse – I really do..”. Which ruins their relationship.
The consequences of the next song Lead Me Into The Night are laid out on Live and Learn. The latter an affirmation of the journey taken “I got blistered and burned / and lost what I’d earned / but I lived and learned / yes, I lived and learned”. A justification of where she went and what she did. But she then turns to drink on Feathers and Down, “So you’re tryin’ to do what they did / your friends that turned to liquid / and got lost in a sea / and now you’re drowning me”. It’s a beautiful song. But not as beautiful as the final track 03.45: No Sleep. Nina lies awake, reflecting on her life, her past lovers, her despair, but she seems to be aware that things will change and get better, although this is never stated.
One thing I should point out is the second half of the album. In my book that’s from Please Sister onwards. There’s no other series of songs on any other album I own that are as remarkable, as perfectly written – musically and lyrically, arranged and performed as those six tracks. Plus there’s Nina’s amazing singing. Nothing comes close. In the right mood, it’s a truly emotionally draining experience. Whilst I really listened to the album for the first time that night in September, nothing else mattered to me. Truly, nothing else existed. It’s ultimately for this reason, this experience and these feelings that this album makes it to the top spot for 2003. Thank you.
