Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is when the unknown becomes clear that we can feel like we have lost a friend, the moment may take months, years even, before the realisation kicks in that an artist or group may never take to the hunting ground of the studio again, and what you have left is to be cherished, to be seen as the reminder of a relationship that once was.
Arguably the significance of this might be less clear in a world where the download and ethereal transfer of files is second nature, there is no holding memory, just the beauty of someone else’s thoughts invading your mind. The physical release though, that sense of the substantial which takes up space in your home, to see that as the final moment of recorded history is to feel the sadness that the like might never come again. It is in this hard-hitting act of solemnity, the Super Extra Gravity, that we mourn the loss, we have given time and space to the physical act of a love which is sadly taken from us.
The final studio album from The Cardigans, re-issued in 2019, is a case in point, still feels like an enormous loss, all good things must, and will, eventually end but there is something almost written in the stars with this sixth recording, a symbol of fate perhaps, the darker turn in which they had entered into with Gran Turismo is exemplified within Super Extra Gravity, still focused on the pop epic but somehow now delivered with the enormity that comes from understanding that the pleasure in which you first start a project is soon overtaken by the demands of those around you, that you are no longer the one that people see as producing something special, you are only there to fill their emotional void, to allow them the inside of your own soul because they believe that you owe them everything.
It is no wonder that groups split up and only get back together when the feeling is right for them, heavy is the responsibility that wears adoration, weighty is the gift of worship, and yet if something must end then to depart the scene on a high is perhaps worth the price; leave them wanting more being the perfect scenario as players leave the stage.
It is in songs such as Losing A Friend, I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer, Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds), Little Black Cloud, Holy Love, Good Morning Joan, And Then You Kissed Me II and Drip Drop Teardrop that The Cardigans final studio farewell shows the listener exactly what they were going to be missing, a series of progressive songs that touch upon the story of our time here in the moment, the loss which we suffer everyday and never realise how profound it is, the gaining of respect, the lack of wonder, all leaving the indelible mark upon our skin as a measure, an inch by inch proclamation that gravity is the heaviest burden we have to shoulder.
A final act, at least in studio terms, that frames exactly what The Cardigans meant as a force of nature, as a group, one that remains a fan favourite and one that is given justice in this 2019 vinyl re-issue.
Ian D. Hall