Swedish pop band the Cardigans will return with new album Long Gone Before Daylight, the follow up to 1998's Gran Turismo, later this year. The quintet, who initially found success in the U.S. with smash single "Lovefool" (from 1996's The First Band on the Moon), spent nearly two years writing and re-recording the set.

"After a couple of months we discovered we weren't really happy with the recording, says guitarist Peter Svensson, "so we threw away half of it. We wanted to make a more live sounding record, going back to the classic session kind of recording, I think it took a while to get the band cooking again."

Helping to add some flavor to the release are three fellow Swedes: Grammy-nominated Soundtrack of Our Lives frontman Ebbot Lundberg, who sings on "Live and Learn," and the Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, who joins Hellacopters frontman Nick Royale on "Good House."

"We had this kind of AC/DC choir thing," Svensson says of "Good House." "None of the guys from this band were really up for the job. We've known these guys for some time so we invited them to help us out with that one."

Other tracks "For What it's Worth," "Communication" and "You're the Storm" are also tipped for the release, which the band produced with longtime friend Per Sunding.

"Song wise, it's not too far away from the last record," Svensson says. "Very simple songs, strong melodies and quite simple harmonies and stuff. It's a quite mellow record."

JOLIE LASH
(February 19, 2003)