Jeffrey B. Fartford

🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

Setting aside that we all know that the first band on the moon was an inside job staged by the US government, I did find this album by the Cardigans easy to listen to. As it kicks off with Your New Cuckoo, you could’ve been forgiven for placing this album in the wrong decade, given its disco-esque initial feel. It’s certainly been a while since I’ve heard a good yazz flute as an accompanying instrument. But surely as the album progresses it begins to return to the decade from whence it came, with alt rock/grunge inspired tracks like Step on Me. For those of you who, like me, knew you had heard of the Cardigans but couldn’t name a song by them, the peak 90s nostalgia doesn’t kick in until track 7 with the ubiquitous, seductive, soft vocals pop rock hit Lovefool, which has to have graced almost every rom com soundtrack from that era. It was refreshing to give Lovefool a thorough relisten and savor some of the details like the spoken lyrics over the final chorus. Finally, Iron Man was a creative and unexpected take on Black Sabbath. Oh, Iron Man.