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 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

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 ~

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

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.

The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon Ja vel, så denne plata høyrer heime her altså? Det syns ikkje eg. “Lovefool” er i mine øyrer ein av dei mest irriterande hittane frå 90-talet og er vel grunnen til at eg aldri har høyrt heilt plata. For det første er eg overraska over kor ofte det smakar bade disco og lounge/bossanova av denne musikken. For det andre hadde eg aldri trudd at Nina Persson over ei heilt plate skulle bli så irriterande å høyre på. For det tredje må eg sei at det Black Sabbath-coveren er heilt hinsides jævlig. Eg trur det er noko med den sofistiker-og-søtt-på-eing-gong-greia eg slit med. Nei, veit de kva… The Cardigans suger. 3/10

3stars The 90s were a very nostalgic period. This is a time that that had a swing revival, neo-psychedelic music was popular, movies like Dazed and Confused and Austin Powers were popular. And even the drug choices were going back to a previous time, like Eric Stoltz drug dealer character in Pulp Fiction said "Coke is dead as fucking dead. Heroin is coming back in a big fucking way" This album seemed to have captured this zeitgeist. It has an influence of songs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s but with a modern tinge. Just about every song has a different feel to it while having the same vibe. On knock on the album is its somewhat dull in the energy, while not trying to be a 'chill' type of album. Also, could be Apple Music but the sonics on this album are kind of all over the place. It was the bands biggest selling album mainly due to the massive hit 'Lovefool'. Even though the album sold well, they were considered a "one-hit wonder' in the States. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would listen to it again, with only a couple songs I would skip. Your New Cuckoo: This snare sound is harsh and kind of ruining the whole song, which I think I would like otherwise. Been It: Great 90s pop song. Surprised this wasn't a radio hit similar to 'Lovefool' Heartbreaker: Digging the transitions from song to song so far. Honestly this is not the type of song I was expecting from the band based on the only song i know by them. I mean that in the best way possible Happy Mal III: Good song. Feel like I should be paying attention more to the lyrics. Never Recover: Their sound is kind of like an updated version of 50/60s bubblegum pop music. If that makes sense? Step on Me: Enjoying the album so far. Seems very 90s but not repetitive Lovefool: This is the big hit song. This song is somehow different from the rest of the album but also the same. Each song has been unique but in a singular vibe. Losers: Dream pop/Shoegaze kind of vibe?? This album has the whole decade condensed Iron Man: Cover song. Interesting, but ultimately not a big fan. Prob the first song im not a fan of so far. Great Divide: its fine Choke: kind of a light psyc influence.

I really liked this!! They had a cool sound even though the cover of iron man was weird haha. 4

Solid, but for an album with Lovefool on it, I was expecting more hooks

Been fine. Lovefool is a classic but her voice a bit annoying after a while.

Good, overall. It's an album I'd enjoy listening to at the right venue (a coffee shop or maybe like a Bed Bath and Beyond) but I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to listen to it. With that being said, Lovefool is a good song I enjoy listening to, and the first few tracks felt like they were continuously teasing this song.

3,5 ★

I really only knew “Lovefool” from hearing it on the radio nonstop when I was growing up, and it’s still ridiculously addictive. I expected the rest of the album to sound more or less like that, but there’s a lot more going on here than I remembered. Nina Persson’s vocals are the best part for me. She has this smooth, slightly detached delivery that makes a lot of the album feel like I’m sitting in a smoky cabaret watching her sing from a little stage in the corner. It gives even the lighter songs a little extra character. Then there’s the cover of “Iron Man,” which was certainly a choice. Hearing Black Sabbath filtered through this kind of soft, loungey pop sound was weird, but interesting enough that I was glad they did it. Really enjoyable album overall, and way better than I expected from a band I basically knew from one giant radio hit. Favorite song: "Lovefool"

This is the one with Lovefool, but nothing else on this album sounds like Lovefool, and while I like that song okay, the differences are much better. I was not expecting crunchiness and dissonance and unconventional song progressions from The Cardigans, but they're here and they're great. "Never Recover," "Step On Me" and "Great Divide" are particular highlights, but everything is good. Bummed I wasn't hip to this band outside of Lovefool back in the day, would have definitely taken in a concert.

I really enjoyed this; particularly the iron man cover. Fun Swedish pop about heartbreak

I don't like that cover of Iron Man, but I think the album otherwise is quite alright.

Really cool sound, and great vocals, reminiscent of Cibo Matto. They prefigure all the pop-oriented indie groups of the early 2000s (The Strokes, Regina Spektor, Franz Ferdinand, etc.).“Lovefool” and “Iron Man” were shocking to me, but where the former was a pleasant surprise, I found the latter to be a courageous but corny effort. 4.5 stars!

"Loveless" plays over the loudspeaker at my job on a regular job and I always mildly enjoyed it. Needless to say, I was surprised when it came up on this listen. The whole time I thought this would be good if it was in another language, I'm not sure why English didn't fit the bill here. The Iron Man cover was a great surprise too, always love when an artist takes something and makes it their own. 3.5

Very sweet sounding vocals over some surprisingly interesting playing. Nice album.

If you want to drive someone to the brink of madness, insist that Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" was a cover and that The Cardigans version was the original. Never waver from this assertion even as evidence is presented to you. Now you know how fake news works. This is a delightful album anchored by "Lovefool."

Great album. I don't know much by the Cardigans, but what I do, I like!

This holds a special place for me because my daughter loves it.

I’m so tempted to give this one star for that awful Iron Man cover alone. But that travesty aside, this is soothing mediocre pop rock, which I could see growing on me after a few more listens. For now, this only had two standouts, and no, one of them isn’t Lovefool, which I’m frankly sick of at this point. 2.5 Top tracks: Step On Me, Great Divide

The opening two tracks had me so excited, then I subsequently was put to sleep by these two lullabies that followed. I actually really like Nina Perssons voice. There’s something super nostalgic to the 90’s about it. That combo works when it works, but when the arrangements are too slow and drawn out, I lose Interest. I actually think the rockier more upbeat production suites her voice so much better than the Hope Sandoval type shit. Also this Iron Man cover is kinda cringe not gonna lie. It’s an interesting take on it, but it’s 100% not it.

This is an amazing album that I want on CD so bad. What a beautiful vibe and emotion this creates and the reason it is so great is because it bridges into self. Love fool is on this and what more to say. Female vocalist really are amazing in this era.

It was fine … but that voice does get irritating after a while.

Lovefool is the winner. ★★★

Liked this a lot! The vocalist is awesome