While in HK, I picked up the double CD issue of The Cardigans’ Best Of. I had liked some of their older songs (e.g., My Favorite Game) and some of their newer hits too (e.g., Don’t Blame Your Daughter or I Need Some Fine Wine, and You Need To Be Nicer) but I always thought they were a bit hit or miss. I remember thinking that Lovefool was super-cheezy back in high school.

I was pleasantly surprised on “mature” listening that the Cardigans are really great. I consider them a pop band and their music is catchy that way, but their lyrics are deep and meaningful. Even disc 2, b-sides and rarities, contains quite a selection of great songs.

After doing some research, I found out that Nina Persson, the lead singer of the Cardigans has a side, solo project called A Camp. I’ve been listening to their latest album, Colonia and it is just as good as the Cardigans’ material. The lyrics are still smart leading me to kind of think of Nina as the female John Mayer (at least from his first 2 albums…not so feeling the last two). Although A Camp‘s songs are more in a folk or singer-songwriter style, there are still some great pop tracks: