First Band On The Moon

One of those fine, nice little gems of an album. Also has the best cover of "Iron Man" ever, so distinctive and feather-light. I'm convinced that more metal bands need to make pop music and more pop musicians need to make metal music. 4.1/5.

The nineties... there, that's my review. Oh, and Nina Persson 💙💛 Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit 🫳 ★★★☆☆(6/10) Total reviewed : 450 Already owned : 99 Purchased : 25 To buy : 2 Nope : 324

I am aware of the existence of the Cardigans and remember they had the big hit "Love Fool", which apparently is on this album. I was never a huge fan of that song and thought it was overplayed at the time. I currently don't have any songs liked by them on Spotify. They have always just been a 1 hit wonder kind of band to me. Just yesterday, on this project, I had the album Franz Ferdinand - which I did not like. When listening to that one I read that they used the same producer as the Cardigans. Hopefully this one is better. A few times I thought her voice had a slight similarity to Poe - and I like a lot of Poe's songs. But mostly the Cardigans singer's voice is very baby/girl-ish. Still crazy to me that Poe does not have any albums on this list. The subject matter of nearly every song is being in love or losing love or something like that. It gets a little old after awhile. I thought the musicianship on some of this was actually interesting - and better than the pure poppiness that they demonstrated on "Love Fool". I don't think anyone needed this cover of "Iron Man" - but props to them for trying. I ended up liking 3 songs - "Been It", "Step On Me", and "Losers". They each had a little bit more interesting music and / or lyrics. I'll see if these are still welcome after I hear them pop up on my playlists. Liked songs on Spotify: 3/11 Rating: 2/5

Not a bad album, just not really anything outstanding. A good single, and a bad cover. Good for the time, but not much more than that.

Listened before?: i've heard Lovefool and Step On Me in the past, but that's it Your New Cuckoo - 4/5 Been It - 4/5 Heartbreaker - 3/5 Happy Meal II - 4/5 Never Recover - 4/5 Step on Me - 5/5 Lovefool - 5/5 Losers - 4/5 Iron Man - 3/5 Great Divide - 4/5 Choke - 4/5 Average score: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ i was slightly worried i'd only come away liking the 2 songs i'd already heard before, but it's a cute album overall. love the singer's vocal performance. that is all

Not heard this before apart from the famous song. Only had time for 2 listens but didn’t feel it growing on me. The singer has a strong voice but slightly annoying (?) Average Brit pop stuff. 1.3/5

Other than Lovefool, there werent any that I really loved. Nice morning listen to ease me in to the day.

I love some actually good pop music from the 90s. This band is a bit nostalgic for me as I grew up in the 90s. First, I think that I like their other album better; and second, I wanted this album to be over a bit sooner than it was.

we love weird girl music from the 90s

Gives me 90s anime opening/ending vibes. Love it.

Why?

Odd inclusion. Smacks of 90s twee, like it’s the soundtrack to a teen rom com but underneath the surface has no real substance. No chance this is a must hear before you die.

corny, obnoxious aber sehr fun. ned mis chas appreciate als pop rock album. müest ich ned nomol lose. maybe L take tho

Nothing special

Kul med en av våra svenska stoltheter här!

Lite besviken på de andra låtarna (de som inte är Lovefool, obv)

Brilliant, cute singer, great band. They have much better albums than this one but the points are obvious.

I can see why this band was just a one hit wonder. There are very few memorable moments on this album aside from the single. Overall this album is just ok.

Je crois que j'aime vraiment beaucoup ce groupe (album du tube Lovefool), pop rock chill avec des morceaux variés

Je connaissais que « love me », très chouette album

J'ai beaucoup aimé, il y a la chanson connue des pubs contrex je crois mais le reste de l'album était une chouette découverte

Pleasant without being outstanding at any time. I'd enjoy a coffee and a cinnamon swirl to this at anytime, but would move on musically when the wine was opened

I owned it at one point. It’s good. But definitely not something I would say someone HAD to listen to before they die.

Another one I’m not familiar with. Sometimes these are exciting to hear though and sometimes they are a slog to get through. Lot of energy right away. Good instruments and sound right away. Wasn’t expecting her voice. Has a solid indie rock sound overall. Almost a throwback 70s soft rock vibes at times. Certainly an enjoyable catchy sound. Something like Heartbreaker is a unique song that changes the rock heavy pace of the first few songs. Her voice is different but it does get a little tiring. And the sound of the album does seem to have some changes that lose a little consistency. A lot of this is pretty good. There’s a good rock sound on a lot of it and it randomly gets pop heavy at times. I know the song Lovefool and that’s a catchy song. Swear I thought that was an 80s classic pop hit. I like it better when it rocks a little more. The Iron Man cover is something really fun and different. This feels like a 3. At times it was a little lower than that but I liked a good amount of it.

lovefool is one of the best songs of all time. also, the iron man cover is really cool

Lovely voice, I never realised they were Swedish until today, for some reason I thought they were Welsh😂 1st band on the moon, is a cool, flavoursome album, full of treats

Oh that’s where that song came from

A really fantastic album that I have never heard before. Great vocals and well written lyrics.

Prior to the record being assigned, I thought the Cardigans were the definition of a one hit wonder. After listening, I think that is probably still true, but I think I like the rest of the album better than that one hit. It probably ought to be said that, while I recognize Lovefool’s status as a hit, I never much enjoyed it. And, when I say that the rest of the record is better than that song, it is, but I’m still not super into it. It’s not a bad record, really, but it doesn’t do much for me. 6.5/10

Nice little album, I enjoyed it

wholesome

Music is good - voice kind of grates on me - 3/5

Very infectious, glossy pop and rock, with little elements of edge that would be more prominent in their coming releases.

A pretty pleasant collection of Swedish pop-rock. The songs range from classic bangers (Lovefool) to forgettable and even includes a baffling cover of a metal song. Nice!

Love me, love me???? It’s you guys!! Never ever have I heard that song and thought, “I need to find the band that wrote this,” but now I know and that’s cool I suppose. Album was pretty good, I liked 4ish tracks, felt pretty ambivalent about the rest, and didn’t hate any of them so that’s an easy 3-star.

Cunt

What a surprise. Decent album. Good songs. Nice music. 4.

A totally fine album. Better than I expected

Feels very nostalgic

1 great song. Their version of Iron Man was a great idea, but did not connect with me.

Yes

Good stuff! I was familiar with Lovefool and maybe another song or two. It's not the type of thing I typically look for but I did enjoy this one and would listen again.

Pretty decent album, vocal performance does get old quickly. One of these albums that was included for the one big hit on it 3/5

Not bad. Won't listen to this again though.

love me! love me! say that you'll love meee~ fool me, fool me ~

Amazing!! Creative and original. Pop should take risks more often just like the Cardigans on this album.

The cover of Iron Man was cool and I really, really liked Losers. Lovefool is a classic. There were some wonderful surprises that bumped this up to a 4.

OK, at least I heard of these guys they had a moderate hit in the mid 90s and I thought the lead singer was hot. Not that hot after all. The album actually wasn’t bad at all. There was the obvious Black Sabbath Iron Man cover, but there was another subtle Black Sabbath reference one of the songs use the baseline for the song Black Sabbath and I thought I was imagining things I said probably not and I even checked the credit but then when I heard the Iron Man cover, yes it was absolutely a black Sabbath reference albeit uncredited at least I got something out of this record

This album was so… GOOD! I didn’t go in really expecting anything special and came out floored. The whole band captured the 90s in such a left-of-center fun pop way that it was awesome! I listened to it once and immediately threw it on again. Wasn’t sure about the Iron Man cover, that kept it from a 5. Everything else was cool, 90s and free!

Another successful Swedish invasion of our pop charts, following in the footsteps of ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base and the Wannadies. What's not to love? The one Cardigans song everyone knows - Lovefool - is here in all its glory, standing out above the rest, but the rest doesn't slink into the night. All in all, I rather liked it.

There's some great stuff here, and the abominable Lovefool and the weirdest Sabbath cover I've heard

Lovefool

Quite enjoyed this album esp the cover of Iron Man.

I love everything about this album - 5/5 perfect no notes

Such a unique sound and some really good songs on this album

When I heard this when it cam out I quite liked it. I didn't actually enjoy it that much this time around. I found it a bit boring.

Not bad, got very excited at Lovefool. Some sections of the album are not very memorable.

A few interesting songs. Overall nice sound.

me likey

It's a good pop album. Nothing more, nothing less. Pop. Good.

Ah yes, the album with “Lovefool” on it. I like to hear that song from time to time on the radio. Otherwise, meh? I think what I don’t appreciate about the Cardigans is that her voice is very sweet-sounding and breathy, and while I like other bands with vocalists like that (Cranes, etc), here the rest of it isn’t edgy enough to compensate for that. And the lyrics unfortunately aren’t all that interesting either. This is a perfectly reasonable pop album, but not really for me.

Nice but not mind-blowing.

POP ALBUM? SAY LESS. ACTUALLY SAY MORE.

I remember listening to this when it came out, it has not aged well I don't find this very appealing at all it's quite mediocre I don't think I'll be listening to this one again

I have always enjoyed the Cardigans immensely. It was nice to listen to more than just the hits on this one!

lovefool is an amazing song, but the rest of the album is frankly pretty dull. 2/5.

I've heard The Cardigans name is passing, but I don't think I've actually heard the music before. 01. Your New Cuckoo A really great opener! Addicting pop rock, with a great vocalist and some great instrumentation. 02. Been It I really love these verses! The chorus is a little strange, but I forgive it for the catchiness. 03. Heartbreaker My favorite song far! This is strangely beautiful, and yet so eerie. 04. Happy Meal II Least favorite so far, but still real good! Just kind of samey to me. 05. Never Recover A very jazzy feel, and I love it! Favorite verses so far! 06. Step On Me God damn... This shit made me cry lol. 07. Lovefool So fucking classic. Plus, it's great! Who can deny this? 08. Losers That chorus left me agape in more ways than one. 09. Iron Man One of the most interesting covers I've ever heard. It's not better than the original, but it's still damn good. 10. Great Divide One of the weaker tracks... and it's still absolutely incredible. 11. Choke Awesome lyrics, immaculate instrumentation. This is a wonderful first impression!! This does something no other album has done yet; made me wanna hear more of them!! This is badass!!!

30 Sep 2026 · 8/10 I really enjoyed this album! I saved a lot of songs and will be listening again. A very nice surprise.

Nice, but not something I feel like I’ll come back to.

Review - I wanted to be a sassy little bastard and call this "Stereolab for people who don't understand Inception" but it's actually a very good slick alt album of the era. Weird vocals on the opening track feel like the kind of thing Gen Z would like. Guitar on Been It is actually cool. Good songwriting. Hard to hate. Score - 7.5/10 Need to listen? YES

It’s intentionally artistically saccharin and it accomplishes it in spades. Not for me but the Iron Man cover is interesting and Lovefoot is certainly an earworm.

Brit pop. They try hard, and have a sense of music production. Overall, ABBA went to art school, on gummies.

Loved the iron man cover. Overall a really good album. 4.5/5

Fröhliche Musik

One of my favorites! Incredible production, sick guitar. The music is so familiar and so original, feels like there’s something for everyone. Her voice is perfect, sounds normal but also very unique, perfectly suiting the funny and relatable lyrics.

Listened to this one while playing Zelda lol It was alright tbh I liked the singers voice and the instrumentals were nice but nothing really stuck out to me even after listening to it twice all be it I wasn’t paying that much attention when I was listening. I might give it one more go to see if it’s something that will stick with me but idk probably a 2.9778/5

It's all just a bit twee for me...

This was pretty good. I dont know why it was on this list, because it feels like a pretty typical mid 90s pop rock ish album.

Sehr schönes Album, mit "Love me" ein Hit meiner "jungen Jahre". Sängerin klingt ein bisschen zu viel nach Mädchen, aber tolle Band - und natürlich auch eine tolle Sängerin... das Album ist schon gut...

Knew a couple of cardigans songs coming in to this. Album was much less poppy than I was expecting but I enjoyed it. Loved the iron man cover although I can see why people wouldn’t!

I wasn't expecting to like this, but this is honestly one of my favourite discoveries from the 1001 Albums list! 'Your New Cuckoo' opened the album on a high, it was followed by another 2 brilliant tracks. There's then the mid-album peak, with 'Step On Me' and 'Lovefool' both being 10/10 songs, and 'Losers' not being too far behind. The cover of Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' was very different, but I actually quite liked it, but the album ends on another high, with 'Choke' being one of the greatest tracks on the whole album. I'll definitely be exploring some more of The Cardigans' discography over time!

i was the first one to kill the monster in the corner of your room in worship of a strange mysterious god that was just gone all too soon but i see out the windows of my eyes cardigans and turning mans that will rot beneath these skies

Good album but misleading title. Zero space sounds, no radio chatter. I suspect this album was actually recorded on Earth.

ne znam jesam li potpunoma poludio, no ovo mi se jako dopalo. na prvu sam mislio da će bit samo bezvezni pop album, no sve mi se više sviđalo... na pola me već uvuklo. »lovefool« mi se sviđa unatoč tomu što je radijski iskasapljen. četvorka!

It's a good album and of course it has one of their best songs on it

It is hard to put in words how much I love this band.

Nice but just doesn't stick

A good, highly enjoyable album - that i will never listen to again. It's light and breezy, slickly produced, has the occasional jazz chord thrown in the pop mixture to catch the ear - nothing wrong with this at all, I just can't imagine this becoming a regular listen. Oh and it does have Lovefool on it so that's probably why it's here on this list .

Som svensk får man inte sätta lägre än 3☝️ Trots att det bara är en hit 👍

Right up my alley! Diggar The Cardigans sound otroligt mycket. Tyvärr är deras cover på Iron Man väldigt dåligt

Några svängiga låtar, en riktig klassiker och en jätteknasig cover. Mycket tonartsbyten som håller det ganska intressant. Minns att jag lyssnat på deras två första plattor och tyckte typ att dom var bättre? Får lyssna om på det någon gång!

Gav jag 3 till Adele är inte detta mer än 2…

Det här är musik man blir på gott humör av. 4/5

Tell me the whole album is as good as Lovefool. No? That’s disappointing.

For the first time ever, I was struck by the similarity between this album and Casanova, two Britpop adjacent records from 1996 influenced more by European pop than their contemporaries. This comes right down to the easy listening versions of rock songs - although Hannon tended toward college rock like Throwing Muses and Pixies. But the arrangements generally have the same smooth cleverness without ever being smug. Or too smug. There is occasionally an acceptable level of smug. But Nina Persson - name checked on a later Divine Comedy album - is much more grounded than Hannon, despite the title of her record. She presents street smarts rather than booksmarts and, unlike Hannon, she sings of things that sound like actual relationships, rather than relationships cribbed from literature and film. But her thin, cutesy voice doesn't have any of the emotional depth of his. It becomes tiring pretty quickly. However, the emotional (and literal depth) of Hannon's voice is so important in counterbalancing the smoothness, easiness, and smugness. Even on Casanova, his most cynically pop album. Persson and her band, by comparison, offer only empty irony. Although, surprisingly, her voice will sound much more human on the following Cardigans albums, the ones where they play Americana for some reason. Still, even there, she lacks the honest presence of Mark Linkous, her later collaborator in the same style. 2.5 Nina Persson’s relentless cooing, cutesy, submissive burlesque act grates over the course of an album. Chiefly this is because there is so little else of interest going on. The band are good, but they submit themselves too and without Persson’s sense of irony - the arrangements are detailed but tidy to the point of sterility. No one lashes out. Although I can think of Great Escape era Blur, for example, when I listen to First Band on the Moon - there is nothing like the grab for your attention made by Graham Coxon’s guitar lines. There is too much submission; too much conformity. Too much palpable contentment with the pop formula. For this reason, their version of Iron Man fails - it’s just not funny. 2/5

Den iron man versjonen burde ikkje vore lov.

Jeg veit ikke jeg, altså. The Cardigans traff meg aldri noe særlig på de tidligste platene. Det var liksom først på Gran Turismo og Long Gone Before Daylight jeg fant noe jeg likte nok til å spille platene mange ganger. Det var liksom noe litt for analytisk og kalkulert over de første tre albumene. Ja, også den forferdelige trommelyden, da. Jeg synes fortsatt den er kjip, men jeg pleide å få helt grøsninger av den. Fysj! Så joda, fin plate dette altså. Jeg føler jeg burde like den bedre enn jeg gjør, med tanke på hvor mange band jeg liker veldig godt som høres nokså like ut, men det gjør jeg altså ikke. 5/10

Einig i det som er sagt. Mykje (dårleg) stil, lite innhald. Irriterande nittitals kafèmusikk. Synst dei vart eit mykje betre band på dei to neste platene, som eg høyrde ein del på i si tid.

Ikke godt å si hvorfor dette aldri tar fyr, men det virker delvis som en slags transformasjonsplate. Etterhvert i karrieren blir de mer av en konform midt-i-gaten rock, kun overlevende på vokalisten. På dette albumet surrer de fremdeles litt rundt med noe easy listening-estetikk og påstått naivitet. Det er egentlig jevnt over ganske gørr.

Lite engasjerende greier. Liker bedre platene som kom etterpå. Helt i utakt med salgsgrafene, altså.