The Cardigans: Nina Persson (vocals); Peter, Bengt, Magnus, Lars-Olof.

Additional personnel: Asa Hakansson (violin); Ivan Bakran (cello); Anders Nordgren (flute); Sven Andersson (saxophone); Petter Lindgard, Tore Johansson (trumpet); Jens Lindgard (trombone).

Recorded at Tambourine Studios, Malmo, Sweden.

Personnel: Peter Lindgard (violin, trumpet); Asa Hakansson (violin); Ivan Bakran (cello); Anders Nordgren (flute); Sven Andersson (saxophone); Tore Johansson (trumpet); Jens Lindgard (trombone).

Audio Mixer: Tore Johansson.

Recording information: Tambourine Studios, Malmo, Sweden.

Photographer: Martin Bogren.

As Nina Persson's velour-smooth vocals prove, LIFE is much sweeter and more profound than simply a box of chocolates. Her gorgeous voice is the perfect complement to the rest of the Cardigans' jazz-tinged, retro sound. Straight outta Sweden, the quintet plays a unique hybrid of confectionated pop and space-age bachelor-lounge music. The lush arrangements are festooned with vibes, horns, bassoons, bells, strings and futuristic synthesizers, leaving one with the incorrect but plausible impression that these intensely creative Scandinavians have kidnapped Burt Bacharach and looted his back catalog. Amazingly, there's not a sample to be found on the entire disc.

The bureaucratic FDA has yet to develop (let alone, approve) an inoculation strong enough to resist the highly infectous pop of "Daddy's Car" or "Rise & Shine" from attacking your pop immune system. The flute refrains on "Over The Water" and "Sick & Tired" (the first single) are pure Ennio Marricone spaghetti-Western kitsch, while the trip-hoppy "Our Space" could be a track on a Portishead album. With nary a lame-o song to be found on the entire 14 tracks, LIFE is worth living over and over again.

Spin (1/96, p.64) - Included on Spin's list of the "10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear In '95." - "...The Cardigans are the great beat combo you've never heard, creating childlike melodies and wit-filled arrangements to tickle your cranium and set your toes a-tapping..."

Entertainment Weekly (2/23-3/1/96, p.126) - "Call them the Swedish Pizzicato Five, the Rentals in their own wildest dreams, or the true heirs to ABBA's legacy: This coed Stockholm quintet are all that and then some..."

- Rating: A

Option (5-6/96, p.98) - "...the sweetest pop since new Coke..."

Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #43 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "...From the Etienne/Pizzicato/Stereolab school of cinematic sixties nouvelle vague....How Swede it is."