Lopez Blogs: Flashback: ABBAMANIA

Friday, July 18, 2008

Flashback: ABBAMANIA - Part Two

Posted by ai at 11:31 AM

For part one of the abba flashback - click here

For my review of Mamma Mia - click here

For my thoughts on which Abba songs could "pop" again - click here

For my thoughts on A*Teens and how they came into their own after the covers - click here

For my thoughts on A*teens and their remixes - click here

I have pondered for ages about how to beat my last opening paragraph for the Abba flashback post, which probably quite rightly, Adem (with an e) said may be the greatest opening to a blog post ever. Thanks for putting me under so much pressure Adem. I am now unable to perform. On my dayz. This is what it must be like to be impotent! Anyway, it's time to look at the second part of Abba's career, which includes three - not one, not two but three - of the greatest albums of all fucking time. No question. And if you do question it, then I may well have to break your kneecaps.

It's always a bit dodgy, innit, when popstars decide to make a film. Look at pretty much everything Madonna has ever done (except her best acting gig ever in Truth or Dare/In Bed with Madonna - not Bedtime with Madonna as Christopher Ciccone called it in his tres disappointing autobiography. Nice fact checking), the Spice Girls movie, Honest with the All Saints and Kylie in The Delinquints (but ace in Moulin Rouge). So Abba the Movie may not have been the most inspired film in the world, but it was rather jolly in a camp sort of way (is there any other sort of way when it comes to Abba?!). And Abba - The Album was sort of the soundtrack to it. It's probably my least favourite Abba album - which is frankly like saying Season four is my least favourite of all the Buffy seasons i.e it's still head and shoulders above most everything else in the world. This is probably the most "treading water" album that Abba produced inbetween Arrival and Voulez Vous. There are still plenty of treats to enjoy within including more pop perfection with Take A Chance, the brooding Eagle and more melancholia with Name of the Game. It's the mini-musical that is the most interesting here - I Wonder is one of Abba's lovely ballads while the angry I'm A Marionette is possibly the angriest song Abba did at this point and was foreboding for their ultimate demise in years to come. And if sometimes perfect final tv episodes come half way through the show's run (Buffy's Normal Again being a prime example), the ultimate ending song for a career - Thank You For The Music - is an instant classic, and rather wonderful in the Doris Day piano version that surfaced some years later.

Voulez Vous, in my opinion, is the greatest Abba album of all time. Seriously, every single track could've been a single and should've been. It was Abba's response to disco fever, yet done in their own inimitable style and just luxuriated in opulence, bitterness, catchiness and pop confectionary (the likes of which wouldn't be topped until Kids From Fame had a fair bash at it with Hi-Fidelity) that sparkles and fizzes with each listen. As Good As New kicks off the album with a rather brilliant orchestral classical intro which adds a touch of class to this intricately crafted song (which actually hit number one in Mexico!) before leading into the title track. A truly discofied number, it was remade years later with some reverence by Erasure and remains the best of their Abba-esque EP. There is more disco extremities done Abba style with Gimme Gimme Gimme and more gentle pop with the lovely Chiquitita, Angel Eyes and Lovelight. If It Wasn't For The Nights is sad Abba lyrics set to a gloriously upbeat tune, and just gloriously upbeat is the aces Lovers (Live A Little Longer). Also standout on the (rerelease) of this album is Summer Night City (which on the Thankyou For The Music boxset has a brooding ballad type intro that then sweeps into this breakneck speed pop song that leaves me breathless everytime) and the emminently superior Kisses of Fire. Don't forget I Have A Dream which somehow seems a bit out of sorts on the album, but is still rather lovely and the rather spiteful King Has Lost His Crown which sets up the sadness for Super Trooper and The Visitors. It's no surprise to me that some of my favourite Abba covers are taken from this album. Just fantastic fantastic fantastic!!

As the 80s rolled around, the best charting years of Abba were behind them, but as the world moved on, Abba continued to be at the top of their game. The real genius of the final two Abba albums was in the ease in which their songs addressed the ups and downs of personal relationships from both a female and male perspective and also managed to address the crumbling relationships within the band. How the girls found the strength to sing some of the most poignant lyrics this side of a Carpenters ballad is beyond me. While Super Trooper continues to swirl with the disco sound that made Voulez Vous so bloody out of this world (such as Lay All Your Love On Me and On & On & On with frankly more bonkers lyrics in the form of "over in the corner, I could see this other guy, he was kinda flirty he was giving me the eye" Magnif!), it's the more profound songs that make this album so elegant and beautiful. The Winner Takes It All is about the break up of a relationship and though claimed not to be autobiographical, Agnetha sings the hell out of this track and the emotion makes this a timeless classic. Even perky songs like Super Trooper show a weariness that is reflected in the wistful yearnings of Our Last Summer and The Way Old Friends Do. Unreleased Put On Your White Sombrero surfaced on remastered versions of the album, but really i can take it or leave it. Everything else however, is certainly Abba gold and further showcases incredibly mature writing and intricate creation.

The Visitors continues to see Abba in a more sombre mode as they create what is to be their final album. They can barely look at each other in an album cover shot that speaks volumes about the relationships in the band. At this point I still think that the title track should have been the lead off single. I mean, a song about Russian dissidents? How avant garde is that? The song is full of paranoia, cleverly created through the production of the vocal and instruments, and listen to it late at night in the dark and it's rather terrifying. One of Us was the lead off single proper and is just gorgeous. Someone I know once described it as Greek tragedy meets Swedish cool and that's quite an apt way of framing the song. Head Over Heels is a cheeky little number where Benny possibly makes his ex sing a song about herself that is not altogether flattering. It's the always take the high road song of When All Is Said And Done that has a rather defiant lead vocal and is bittersweet rather than bitter where the coda for the act is "thanks for all the generous music thanks for all the fun". Slipping Through My Fingers is beautiful creation about capturing memories that have gone by as life moves on and things change. Things have moved on for Abba and sadly there was to be very little more from them...

A greatest hits album featured two songs that were still classics rather than just bunging any old trash on there a la the Spice Girls. Under Attack represents the majesty of downbeat lyrics set to upbeat poppiness, while the epic - EPIC - Day Before You Came sees diary like entries recount the monotony of waiting for that one you love to come back into your life. Top line? "There's not I think a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see"... Unreleased tracks like I Am The City and Just Like That are fun perky tracks that possibly could've formed Opus Ten, while amazing pop songs and ballads from Benny and Bjorn surfaced in Chess; most notably the oft covered One Night In Bangkok and gorgeously harmonised I Know Him So Well. Abba were over. Their legacy still lives on.