It’s already been lamented by other able bodied commentators that whilst the likes of Robbie Williams, Coldplay and S Club 7 have grown fat on the milk of undue human kindness and curious market hysteria, true pop-visionaries like the Cardigans and the Wannadies have had to make do with the dregs of past and temporary triumphs; the Cardigans with ‘Love Fool’ and the Wannadies with the splenglorious ‘You and Me Song’. Brit-Pop was kind to our Scandinavian cousins. The present era less so.
Eight years on from ‘You and Me Song’ and a couple of years on from their last red carpet release, ‘Yeah’ in 2000 and the Wannadies are again proving that age cannot wither nor custom stale their infinite variety. ‘Before and After’ is a spunky little trinket box of helium-filled power pop and bone banging grooviness. First half fast, second half slow – the album perfectly redefines pop as suffering a really rather uncomplicated paradigm: the joy that is sorrow, the thrill that is delight.
From the first opening riff of the swinging and bopping ‘Little By Little’ to the ludicrously whimsical ‘Love Letter’ Par Wilksten, Christina Bergmark and co. knock up what has to be the most perfectly formed pop album since the Boo Radley’s ‘Wake Up’ album. ‘Before and After’ is just hook after hook, and tune upon tune of truly delicious ear candy. Even ‘Piss On You’ manages to be as sweet as it is acerbic. Tangy, might be a better word. ‘Skin’ and ‘Uri Geller’ on the otherhand are just about the feistiest thing to have happened to pop this year, spinning like Catherine Wheels into the heart of a waiting nation. And with the delicate ‘Love Fool’ tenderness of tracks like ‘Disko’ as a foil to all this hip-swaying malarkey, you could be mistaken for feeling you’ve just sunk haplessly into love.
The very, very best of forever smiling sixties pop retro.