07 February 2013

7 February 2013 - The Cardigans - My Favourite Game

I have a tendency to post my favorite songs of all time.  This includes songs that are clear guilty pleasures.  This one isn't so clear, but is one of my 10 favorite songs of all time.  Let me explain.

The Cardigans became a big hit in the US with a particular hit - "Lovefool" - that has been featured on this blog by Scott in the past.  It, like the song that preceded it - "Carnival", which got some alternative radio play in this country - was light fare, with a lovely subject matter.

That's not really representative of The Cardigans.  The followup single to "Lovefool" - "Been It", a future Wicked Guilty Pleasure - was closer to that in subject matter - a little darker.   And this song - the lead single from their Gran Turismo album that followed - was exactly what they are all about - straight-ahead rock sound and dark subject matter.  I, for one, love the guitar hook, a honking-type sound, in this song.

This video is an even greater pleasure, though.  In each of the no less than five versions of the video, Nina Persson is driving a '74 Eldorado erratically down an California highway. This version, the edited version seen mostly in Europe, features pretty much nothing more than that.



The other versions end with a head-on collision with a blue van carrying the rest of the band, with several car crashes caused by Persson included within. These versions include varying amounts of blood and violence.  In the US, we are much more numb to violence.  This is the darkest version of the video, which ends with a dead Nina Persson.


In this version of the video, the ending is more comedic.  While Nina is still using a rock to hold down the accelerator and still has a head-on collision in which she is ejected from the car, she survives that and sits up.... only to be hit in the head with the rock falling with a cartoony sound.



This version of the video is practically bloodless, but still violent, but ends with Nina getting up and walking away from her ejection.



Finally, in this version, (which is identical, so we'll show you just the end) Nina is not ejected - only beheaded. And it's the worst fake head I've ever seen.

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