The Cardigans Singles Poll

6 votes outside of "Lovefool" perhaps. And then 2,000 votes for "Lovefool."

not voting cause i've only heard "Lovefool"

"Erase / Rewind".

For What It's Worth

Long Gone Before Daylight is one of my favorite pop albums of the last decade

Torn between Your New Cuckoo and Carnival.

Carnival has too many things I love tho:

* Nina clearing her throat at the intro.
* The break after the chorus.
* Those drums.
* Lyrics and how they... sort of break and fold on top of each other... don't know how to explain it. I'll use slashes to separate the interruptions made with the magic of overdubs.: The carnival / came by my town today / bright lights from the / giant wheel fall on the alleyways / and I'm here by my door waiting for you.

"I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer", one of my fave singles of the 2000s. But "You're the Storm" is right up there too.

There's nothing particularly special about the video for I Need Some Fine Wine but I love it. Great light and seems to draw inspiration from Guy Bourdin's photographs.

carnival, though rise & shine is up there and has a cool b-side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYdsIk4hm7U&feature=related

She has to be one of the best-looking frontwomen I've ever seen.

Am I the only one who thinks their early singles (eg: Sick & Tired, Rise & Shine, Hey! Get Out of My Way) sound like Stereolab? I might be alone on that one.

inasmuch as both took some subtle-to-obvious influences from the free design

She's still gorgeous, but there were a few years where she was celestially beautiful to an almost unsettling degree.

I think I'd go for "I Need Some Fine Wine..." here. The later albums are all individually great in totally different ways.

the people who are like "i didnt know the cardigans had more than 1 song" are missing out.

Man, I'm listening to Long Gone Before Daylight right now for the first time in several years and, like whoa.

I would vote "Gran Turismo" in an albums poll and I have some friends who are way into their first 2 albums.. However I don't know anyone who likes "First Band On The Moon" the best.

the people who are like "i didnt know the cardigans had more than 1 song" are missing out.

i've been hearing their praises for years, just haven't gotten around to it. and that 1 song everyone knows is certainly one of the better ubiquitous 90s songs ever.

Between Sick & Tired and Carnival, for me. Nothing they ever did compared to the first two records.

Am I the only one who thinks their early singles (eg: Sick & Tired, Rise & Shine, Hey! Get Out of My Way) sound like Stereolab? I might be alone on that one.

i remember thinking exactly this at the time!

i like "lovefool" but didn't really have time for them when they were that twee. enjoyed the steely-electro stuff more even though it was a bit try-hard. it was long gone before daylight that really blew me away though - incredible album, incredible songwriting, and completely unexpected. i'll probably vote for one of those, maybe "live and learn", though its best tracks ("communication", "please sister") weren't singles.

Yeah the Stereolab comparison makes sense, the early Cardigans sound is pretty close to something like 'Cybele's Reverie'.

My favourite here is 'Rise and Shine' by quite a margin. Really love the pre-chorus.

Seconded re: Stereolab

Voted "You're The Storm", just such an evocative bit of songwriting, typical that one of the few extended metaphors in pop to really work was done by non-native speakers. "Lovefool" probably second best for me. Their best songs from First Band onwards tended to be non-singles as Lex said - "Never Recover", "Step On Me", "Paralyzed", "Higher", "Please Sister", "Lead Me Into The Night", "For The Boys", "Hold Me", "Overload" are particular favourites of mine.

Erase/Rewind is amazing, especially this remix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHSh5x0l80

I only know a few of these but I'll vote for "I Need Some Fine Wine," which is a heck of an earworm of a song.

The band themselves seem to have ditched everything pre-Gran Turismo which is a shame because, despite the tweeness, there's great stuff in there. First Band On The Moon is probably my favourite album, although the last one was severely maligned I felt. Life is the one that I don't go to as much as the others. I voted for Been It but it is true that all their best songs were never singles.

Great band who had quite a diverse range over their career. Have a lot of time for their pastoral pit-orchestra tweeness as well as their move towards neon cabaret-rock. Never a big fan of Lovefool, but that's probably due to over exposure. Plus Nina Persson was the hottest female star of the Britpop era (yes, I know they were Swedish, but y'know...)

If Seems Hard had been released as a single, I'd have voted for it. Beautiful song. Also my favourite moment by them is the anonymously remixed version of Explode, which came free with a magazine and pre-dated the electroclash boom by a couple of years. Not sure if this is the right version as I have no speakers, but it's well funky and emotive Kraftwerkian stuff:

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

As such I'm voting for Hanging Around - best song on Gran Turismo

always thought this should have been a single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4eBXkMawY

Agree with above post, would easily vote for "Never Recover" here if it was a single. This is actually pretty tough. Between "Sick and Tired" and "Erase/Rewind" here. Hmmm.

Voting for "Hanging around". Never understood the song as a single but love the building tension and release at the end

agreed on never recover; as far as real singles, rise & shine.

This is a seriously great run of singles. I'd have to go for For What It's Worth or maybe Carnival.

Love all of these too.

Rise & Shine
Lovefool
Your New Cuckoo
Erase / Rewind
Godspell
I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer
Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)

They were a really solid albums band too. Gran Turismo is the only album I don't really love. Long Gone Before Daylight was so underrated at the time. Communication is one of the most moving songs I've ever heard.

Haven't heard a lot of these, but My Favourite Game is a great little pop tune, so I clicked.

the people who are like "i didnt know the cardigans had more than 1 song" are missing out.

― billstevejim, Thursday, 17 May 2012 02:08 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am one of those people!

So happy to see I'm not alone on the Stereolab comparison (but as electricsound said they both are influenced by the free design so it makes sense) and also to see a fraction of ILM does appreciate them. I honestly thought noone really cared about them here.

I only know 2 of these, but I'm kinda indifferent to "Lovefool" and love "My Favourite Game." it was very bittersweet to see the latter on 120 Minutes a couple times before it sunk like a stone.

I remember them being really good live when I saw them tour their first album. I love "Carnival" and "Rise & Shine" the most, probably.

That remix dog latin links upthread is also on the "Erase/Rewind" CD, which was an essential package as it had all four endings of the "My Favourite Game" video on it. VALUE. Also happy to see lots of love for these guys. When they were "big" I was convinced "Been It" was my favourite because it was so angry and yet so sweet, like being completely told off by a total angel, and I appreciated its single release as a big "Well, fuck you, we aren't just a bunch of ironic candy-floss-eating poseurs, we also do THIS!".

checked long gone before daylight from my library on a whim back in... 2006? only knew "lovefool" and "my favourite game" before and i was totally blown away. such a gorgeously composed, lush record

I need some fine wine.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

more than 10 times the voter turnout predicted by the threadstarter!

Lovefool, Carnival, and Over The Water are their best.

The new solo Nina Persson album is really good, picks up where the under-rated Super Extra Gravity left.

Really wanted to love this but the title track is the only song that made any impression.

I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer - Torpus & the Art Directors

Stumbled across this cover on Spotify and enjoyed it.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1hjm2c5kukOWwqoKYxMpUA

Lacking some of the bite of the original obviously.