Released: March 24, 2003

Songwriter: Peter Svensson Nina Persson

Producer: The Cardigans Per Sunding

[Verse 1]
Oh it's healing, bang bang bang
I can hear your cannons call
You've been aiming at my land
Your hungry hammer is falling

[Pre-Chorus]
And if you want me, I'm your country

[Verse 2]
I'm an angel bored like hell
And you're a devil meaning well
You steal my lines and you strike me dumb
Come raise your flag upon me

[Pre-Chorus]
And if you want me, I'm your country
If you win me, I'm forever, oh yeah

[Chorus]
'Cause you're the storm that I've been needing
And all this peace has been deceiving
I like the sweet life and the silence
But it's the storm that I believe in

[Verse 3]
Come and conquer and drop your bombs
Cross my borders and kill the calm
Bear your fangs and burn my wings
I hear bullets singing

[Pre-Chorus]
And if you want me, I'm your country
If you win me, I'm forever, oh yeah

[Chorus]
'Cause you're the storm that I've been needing
And all this peace has been deceiving
I need some wind to get me sailing
So it's the storm that I believe in

[Post-Chorus]
You fill my heart, you keep me breathing
'Cause you're the storm that I believe in

[Outro]
And if you want me I'm your country

The Cardigans

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.