Gran Turismo
by The Cardigans
Released in 1998. Rock, Electronic Rock. Take a listen.
Sometimes, you can't hate the radio enough.
From the absolute trite that they usually play to their decision to only play pop (and almost nothing else), there's zero reason for me to switch on the FM radio in my car ever when the power of Bluetooth and 256 GB phone storage allows me to play most of my music collection.
However, this ignorance (admittingly) also has the effect of not recognizing the pure gold nuggets that eventually airs on the radio. The result is then when you put on an album of a unfamiliar artist for the first time and, to your surprise, discover that you already know the band.
That happened with me and The Cardigans.
The Cardigans is not necessarily a band that you can pinpoint to a style of music. Especially not by their two biggest hits (well, three if you count TikTok hits, but why do that?). Gran Turismo, their forth record, has one of those hits My Favorite Game, that you may or may not remember from the classic PS1 game Gran Turismo 2 (Yes, there is a correlation with the title).
A far cry from the pop-disco sensibilities of Lovefool, My Favorite Game enters into rock territory with its catchy guitar hook and the drums keeping it 4/4. But the bass makes its dominant presence here, being on the forefront and overshadowing the rythem guitar and even the drums to some extent. It all sounds so produced and yet so distant from within.
Gran Turismo was the band's first record that was recorded digitally with Pro-Tools, and it shows. It's the band, tired of its retro/indie darling status and success of Lovefool, going into much more of a (for a lack of better words) 90's industrial electronic Depeche Mode-like soundscape. You could be well forgiven into believing that, at first listen, it was a different band. But that was the band's philosophy with making music, however - to shred the skin of what came before, and steer into new inspirations.
As such, there are many bleak, unsettling and heavy songs on this album, like Paralyzed, Marvel Hill and Do You Believe, with the latter in particular coming with the heaviest riff of the record and showing the guitarist and primary songwriter Peter Svensson's interest in heavy rock. Hanging Around is also rock, but with the production making an eerie atmosphere as mentioned before, it's not as in-your-face as the riff in the verses make you believe. It's almost teasing you something wicked, that just never comes. There is also the vocals of Nina Persson. She doesn't have that teen glare like with previous outings, but instead has a more mature vocal style with an edge to it.
Even with the soft ballads like Explode or Higher, the coldness of the production never leaves. The only time there's some warmth is with Junk Of The Hearts, the last song (not track) on the record that has a very nice and sweet guitar melody as its theme. It's a nice way to come on the other side after a pretty heavy ride.
Gran Turismo is an interesting time capsule. It's the sound of a band unhappy and tired with the Lovefool-like spotlight that had cast and typecast them on to the world, and in response throw all expectations at people's faces. The following promotional tour wasn't exactly uplifting for the band either with most of the band members feeling burnt out and yearning for something different. There's not any other record in the Cardigans discography that sounds like it. It's cold, dark and moody, but still with some fun and sweetness stuck in-between. Recommended
Tunes for the playlist: My Favorite Game, Hanging Around, Erase/Rewind, Junk Of The Hearts
Filler for the black hole: Nil (probably?)