a POLLcard from where life is a thrill - Cardigans - Gran Turismo

ERase Rewind is so good

This is a fantastic album I always forget to listen to. Hanging Around is my favourite, but the electro remix of 'Explode' is up there with one of my all-time favourite bits of music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-nFEotlSXo

I always associate this album with Up by REM - all the electric piano and organs, ominous atmosphere, general vibe of fluorescent blue lights and hospital life support machines

I guess it makes me think of hospital life support machines because some of the rhythm parts sound like breathing or a heartbeat but also very mechanical and rigid?

"Explode" is my favorite. might guess that it's Beach House's favorite as well.

nice remix, dog latin!

love the production on this record, the distorted drum sounds kinda feel at times like a left over mutation of trip hop

Such a product of its time but in a good way. That whole sleek bubblegum futurism makes me nostalgic for 97-98

I heavily associate this with Blur "13." Both are in my 50 or so favorite albums, and I'm pretty sure I had a Maxell cassette with these 2 on either side Aug/Sept '99.

Lol I guess Beach House does sound like a bunch of "Explode" homages.

between the deftones cover of "do you believe" and the speedy ortiz cover of "hanging around" i've long wanted to assemble a full-length cover version of this album

This thread has reminded me that I've found myself stood in a field full of people watching The Cardigans and waiting for another band to come on no less than three times, and even though I like 'Lovefool' and portions of this album just fine, all three times were underwhelming.

The latter two times, nothing at all got the crowd going until they played 'My Favourite Game' ...

Whoa, Turrican, that's great you've seen them though. Fairly jealous. I find their best shows are their earlier ones where they play stuff like "sabbath bloody sabbath" and "your new cuckoo". Their refusal to later play anything older is pretty disappointing

the glottal stop in the middle of the "hanging around" chorus is top 20 moments in pop music imo

^ otm

First time would have been a couple of months or so before First Band on the Moon came out... 'Rise and Shine' got the biggest response.

Of their earlier work, I really like the song 'Seems Hard' because Ethel band sounds like the pit orchestra in a medium-sized theatre

I saw them play a bunch back in the day, and would agree with Turrican that they're maybe more of a studio band.

That said, my god, that keyboard hook on Erase/Rewind just really hits the spot.

It looks like they still do a fair amount of '90s stuff
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cardigans/2017/grona-lund-stockholm-sweden-33e644d1.html

There’s a little bass figure in erase/rewind in the break (the one that sounds slapped) which is fairly simple but it always feels exciting to me.

Love how this album sounds, used Nil in a lot of saddo ambient mixes back in the day, lotta contenders here but Erase/Rewind is one of my favorite songs of all time so

Cardigans are so underrated. Their 90s singles alone stomp over so many discographies from the decade.

They’re also the only band that should ever cover Black Sabbath.

Their music also gets so much better in retrospective. When I was like 13 I thought Lovefool and Carnival were pretty much pop perfection, but didn’t care about thesurrounding albums and considered the band one hit wonders. Nowadays I sometimes think they might be one of the top 10 bands from the 90s.

It was weird to come back to the albums much later bc of lovefool and realize they were deerhoof for awhile.

voted "Junk Of The Hearts" but it could have been anything.

Super Extra Gravity is a super-under-rated album, Cardigans are secretly one of the greatest bands ever and the guitarist going on to be a writer for pop superstars makes total sense really

I haven't seen them live but I don't necessarily think Gran Turismo is better as a studio album (minus obvious exceptions like "Erase/Rewind") -- "My Favorite Game" and "Hanging Around" are almost muffled on record

I seem to remember some magazine article about '90s UK TV music show The White Room, and both The Cardigans and The Smashing Pumpkins were interviewed because they were on the same episode.

The Cardigans were asked what it was like to play on the same show as The Smashing Pumpkins, and they replied "Ask them what it's like to play on the same show as The Cardigans"

So, the interviewer asked Billy Corgan this and the response? "What!? Are they huge!? Have we missed the boat, or what!?"

This has always been my least favourite Cardigans album. For some reason, I've just never connected with the second half. I'll give it another listen before voting. Erase/Rewind is the obvious choice just ahead of Higher and Explode.

Totally agree with the praise on this thread. Such a brilliant group that have aged so beautifully. Long Gone Before Daylight creeps up my favourite albums of all time list as the years go by. Also, agree with Boxedjoy about Super Extra Gravity. I remember rushing out to buy that on the day of release before work. There was absolutely no hype for it at all and HMV only had one copy in stock. Godspell, Diamonds and I Need Some Fine Wine are all incredible songs.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Gran Turismo is The GOAT.

I went with "Erase Rewind" because it's amazing but I feel like no one is going to vote in this and I should have went with a non-single.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow