The Cardigans
First Band On The Moon (180g) Vinyl LP

Call me stubborn but “Lovefool” is still a peak time dancefloor bomb to this day, even with the open format era so far in the past that modern club kids don’t even know what the term “open format” means (cue that meme of the guy yelling into the girl’s ear in the club, mansplaining something she couldn’t care less about). Still, it’s sort of an outlier in the band’s catalog, a quirky, satirical love song written on a napkin in an airport terminal. The rest of First Band On The Moon, The Cardigans’ third studio album, is consistent with their slick brand of Scandi pop rock, but mostly upbeat enough to hang with “Lovefool” and swell their international fanbase into a cult following. Highlights include album opener “Your New Cuckoo” (I’m amazed they didn’t put Lovefool at the front, actually sorta ballsy!), “Been It” (there’s a pretty good Todd Terry remix of this, b/w his mix of “Lovefool”), “Iron Man” (yup, Sabbath cover), the Stereolab-esque “Heartbreaker,” “Choke,” and of course “Lovefool.” Kinda impossible to believe but the album only got a modest vinyl release in UK and Sweden in 1996 without a single repress in the time since, until now. 180g black vinyl pressing housed in gatefold sleeve, recommended.

• first time on vinyl since 1996
• 180g vinyl pressing
• remastered at Sterling Sound NYC
• gatefold jacket
• music label: Island Records 2019

reviewed by tom violence 12/2018