Swedish Quintet Cardigans Not Ready for Prime Time

The Cardigans’ hit album is called “First Band on the Moon,” but the second coming of ABBA will have to wait. This young Swedish quintet lives and dies on its melodic hooks, and at the El Rey Theatre on Thursday--the first of two sold-out nights there--it was mostly barren stretches brightened intermittently by a beacon of tunefulness.

Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” recast as a pop nursery rhyme, and the effervescent hit “Lovefool” were two of those highlights, reinforcing the lightweight allure that marks the best moments of “First Band.” But while the album manages to sustain itself, the live show was marked by an unusual flatness, both on stage and in the audience.

Fronted by Nina Persson, whose thin but insistent voice went in and out of emotional focus, the Cardigans are certainly not a band that’s out to change the world or give voice to a generation. Their aims appear to be more modest--simply to offer the agreeable pleasures of pure, naive, classic pop.

But even there they seemed to be in over their heads Thursday. They failed to capture the layered textures and orchestrations that give the album its confectionary appeal, and they didn’t replace it with any sort of live dynamism. Sweet but faceless, they seemed like a neighborhood band at a local hall, undeveloped and unprepared for this level.