The Cardigans

Released: March 24, 2003

Songwriter: Peter Svensson Nina Persson

Producer: The Cardigans Per Sunding

[Verse 1]
So you're trying to do what they did
Your friends that turn to liquid
And got lost in the sea
Now you're drowning me
With your talk of four-leaf clovers
You turn to rocks and omen
To beat the ambient harm
That is bruising your karma

[Verse 2]
Oh I wish my arms were wider
I wish that I could hide you
So you can rest and repair

[Chorus 1]
Without the blanket of sorrow
The thick and the grey
Your blanket of woe
Is so heavy and stained
And it only weighs you down

[Verse 3]
So you thought that getting sober
Would mean your life was over
I don't think it's that bad
I don't think it's that sad
Just you sleep a little, baby
Leave the world alone and later
If you wake up alive

[Chorus 2]
That old blanket of sorrow
Could be feathers and down
Your blanket of woe
Would leave you alone
And I can love you 'til you drown

[Outro]
Come to me let's drown
Come baby let's drown
In feathers and down

One of the most pleasing pop groups of the ‘90s, the Cardigans specialized in sugary confections that would grow annoying very quickly if they weren’t backed by solid musicianship and clever arrangements. The band’s 1995 breakout album, Life, reflected the Cardigans at their most saccharine – the sunny disposition of vocalist Nina Persson being the major argument in favor – and critics inserted the group into the space age pop revivalist camp. the Cardigans later proved that they were more difficult to pigeonhole, however.

Even the band’s origins showed that their later appearance was quite misleading; two heavy metal fanatics formed the group in October 1992 in Jonkoping, Sweden. Guitarist Peter Svensson met bassist Magnus Sveningsson in a hardcore group, though he had previously trained in music theory and jazz arranging. The two later grew tired of metal and decided to form a pop band with vocalist Nina Persson – an art-school friend who had never sung professionally – plus keyboard player Lars-Olof Johansson and drummer Bengt Lagerberg.

All five Cardigans moved into a small apartment in 1993 and began recording a demo tape that entered the hands of producer Tore Johansson later that year. He liked what he heard and invited the group to record at his Malmö studio. Signed to the dance-oriented Stockholm label, the Cardigans released Emmerdale in May 1994. The single “Rise & Shine” became a hit on Swedish radio soon after the release of the LP, and a readers poll in Sweden’s Slitz magazine voted Emmerdale the best album of 1994.

more tracks from the album

Long Gone Before Daylight

From the album

Long Gone Before Daylight (2003)

The Cardigans popular songs

Feathers and DownThe Cardigans

The Cardigans

Long Gone Before Daylight