It's been three months since the release of their album Gran Turismo, and The Cardigans are itching to hit the road.

There are shows for the Swedish band to play, fans to dazzle, critics to win over, a major hit single, 1996's Love Fool to follow-up. Most importantly, there's an already flagging new disc to push.

Yet, in a career strategy that some would call suicidal, the band's five, young, would-be pop stars have spent the opening days of 1999 tucked away in their frosty homeport of Malmo in southern Sweden. They've been sharpening up for this month's long-awaited sortie to North America, which brings them to Toronto's Warehouse Tuesday.

"It's been a year and a half since we toured in general," Cardigans lead singer Nina Persson says in a recent phone conversation from her home, where she's busy cooking up one "last, true Swedish meal" of meatballs before going on tour.

"We wanted to keep the album release and touring apart. It's a little confusing to deal with both at the same time.

"Besides, it gives people a chance to decide if the new stuff is something they would want to go to see live."

The Cardigans' democratic attitude checks out nicely in light of Persson's and guitarist Peter Svensson's promotional visit here last fall. Then, their main concern was not for the million-plus people who got into Love Fool, but for the more dedicated fans who collect their records and attend concerts.

Persson now admits the band were also waiting for calm to be restored at their label, Mercury, which was swallowed up by Universal in last month's huge record biz merger that also saw the end of A&M Records.

"We couldn't really see what was going on," she says.

"We know that a lot of people we used to work with were fired. We were worried about what the change would mean. The label was giving us big words about how great the change was going to be, but we didn't care -- as long as things got done."

That's a shrewd outlook for a band whose sweet looks and friendly pop sound, first exported on the 1995 album Life and again on 1996's First Band On The Moon, made The Cardigans the cuddliest thing to come out of Northern Europe since The Smurfs. To be fair, the group's quirky wit, diverse writing skills, and professed love of heavy metal has always hinted at a certain creative savvy, which won them points on the rock-credibility scale.

But The Cardigans also display a bold disregard for commerce. After selling 2.5 million copies of First Band On The Moon -- the sales were spurred by the breezy Love Fool's inclusion on the Romeo & Juliet movie soundtrack -- they delivered the dark, stark, and not-so-radio-friendly Gran Turismo. Lead single My Favourite Game caught on briefly thanks to a controversial video that featured Persson driving recklessly, and, in one of the video's four different edits, getting killed. Then Gran Turismo got lost in November's ridiculously over-stuffed Christmas-release rush.

Persson says her band has been in the dark on the album's performance in North America. Things are faring better for them in the U.K. and the rest of Europe -- they're up for six Swedish Grammy awards next week, seven if you include a nod for best producer. Even with accolades like that, the singer remains steadfastly realistic.

"I think after our five-year duty we were allowed such a grandstand this year," she says. "We haven't sold that much. We're always written about and appreciated, but usually the people nominated are like the Swedish equivalents to Mariah Carey."

It's certainly a small victory for the band.

Earlier, the likable Persson and Svensson had talked as though they knew Gran Turismo was a creative risk.

"It wasn't so much because we'd already had a big hit," Svensson said. "But we'd done one album a year since '94 and were touring constantly. Then we took a break for eight months and it was actually too long."

He added, laughing: "The record company called up and said, 'How's it going, we want the album in mid summer.' We were like, 'Oh. Okay.'

"It was a crazy time but really enjoyable. We never wondered: 'Is this good? Are we on the right track?'"

It's easy to second guess The Cardigans' label in hindsight and suggest the band should've been allowed more time. If Persson and Svensson felt that way, they weren't letting on.

"We've always had so many types of moods and songs on our records," said Svensson. "This record is the one that is most consistent and focussed. Melancholy and darkness took over."

"We dared to be pretentious and serious," added Persson. "We weren't hiding behind anything cheery.

"I think the belief that not making an album full of 'Lovefools' would piss off our fans is completely underestimating people. We would piss them off more if we had repeated ourselves. We needed to do something we feel great about; otherwise, we'd let people down."

THE CARDIGANS FILE

Formed: In Jonkoping, Sweden, in 1992 by teenagers Svensson, Persson, bassist Magnus Sveningsson, drummer Bengt Lagerberg, and keyboardist Lasse Johansson.

Nina Persson on the title Gran Turismo: "It's about going through life as a sort of tourist, the frustration of seeing all the options you have but not taking them in. I think people, especially our generation, deal a lot with those kinds of things. You're told you can do anything, and that only you can put limits on yourself, and that's so frustrating to hear because it simply isn't true."

Peter Svensson on the Pontiac Gran Turismo: "The GTO is one of my favourite cars, even though I don't have one, or a driving licence for that matter. I was really close to buying one, though, to get inspiration to go to the driving school."