The Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald Rating: * * *)

It had looked that the end was nigh for frosty pop Swedes the Cardigans, what with the five-years since last albums and the side projects of the intervening years. But singer Nina Persson and her band of men with difficult surnames have finally made it back and here deliver what is a curiously country-fired, warm collection of songs.

Some, like the opener Communication and And Then You Kissed Me remind of Chrissie Hynde's aching ballads, others rock in a decidedly American accent (A Good Horse), and a few like Couldn't Care Less and 03.45: No Sleep are lovely, if sleep-deprived, songs.


Label: Stockholm