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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 7:50:36 GMT
stu77 likes this
Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 2, 2020 7:50:36 GMT
My album of the day is...  ABBA - Super Trouper (1980)
I’ve been meaning to do a deep dive into Abba for some time and had this album ready and waiting.
I grew up with Abba and can still recall their Eurovision win at The Dome in Brighton, and Waterloo subsequently racing up the charts.
From then on Abba were a staple in the charts and on Saturday morning Kids TV. The only single I bought was SOS (when I was about 13). I heard them all the time though and, although my tastes were more orientated to glam and then punk, I always appreciated them. I was vaguely aware of an increasingly frostier vibe to their music and, when I was 18, and heard The Winner Takes It All was in no doubt that things were definitely no longer rosy in Abba land.
So, having established my Pop Kid credentials, you’ll realise that I am very familiar with The Winner…, Super Trouper, and Lay All Your Love, and so my mission is to get to grips with the other stuff.
Will it be filler or killer?
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 7:50:59 GMT
Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 2, 2020 7:50:59 GMT
In the meantime, let's talk ABBA?
What's yer verdict?
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 9:02:27 GMT
Post by personunknown on Dec 2, 2020 9:02:27 GMT
No denying the hooks and presentation but not for me. However, give this a go. Nottingham power pop band cover.
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 10:03:49 GMT
Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 2, 2020 10:03:49 GMT
No denying the hooks and presentation but not for me. However, give this a go. Nottingham power pop band cover. Great cover version - I've got a digital version of their album Top triv: The Favourites arose from the ashes of the much revered Nottingham band Plummet Airlines in late 1977 Abba's songs work really well as cover versions |
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 11:36:43 GMT
stu77 likes this
Post by Lord Emsworth on Dec 2, 2020 11:36:43 GMT
No denying the hooks and presentation but not for me. Not for me either I was very familiar with The Winner…, Super Trouper, and Lay All Your Love, and so my mission was to get to grips with the other stuff. Would it be filler or killer? Sadly it’s more filler than anything. Technically perfect but the mannered singing and pristine arrangements leave me cold. Tracks like Our Last Summer, The Way Old Friends Do, and Happy New Year are borderline unlistenable. The more driving, disco-fied tunes like On and On and On, and Me and I are slightly better. I should probably confess here that Super Trouper always annoyed me (reinforced by the Not The Nine O’Clock News Super Duper pisstake) Lay All Your Love On Me and The Winner Takes It All are Abba at their best. Banging dancefloor disco and maudlin, divorce pop. Fab. Shame the rest of the album is so patchy, indeed truly dire in places. I can’t imagine anyone loving it but clearly legions of fans do just that. Abba Gold is sufficient for my needs. |
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 13:46:12 GMT
via mobile
Post by johnnyoi on Dec 2, 2020 13:46:12 GMT
Never did anything for me to be honest.Always thought they were overrated.Just a better than normal Eurovision Song Contest band.Didn’t realise the 1974 one was held in Brighton.Can’t believe I used to watch that as a kid,in the hope something decent might come on.It never did!
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Post by politician2 on Dec 2, 2020 13:58:30 GMT
Whilst I like a lot of Abba, they were a very patchy band – Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus started out in schlager music and penned a fair amount of dross to fill out their albums. I'd rate Super Trouper as one of their more consistent LPs – the first couple feature great singles and some terrible album tracks.
Their greatest achievement was the first side of Abba – The Album, which features some magnificent progressive pop and opens with their best-ever song "Eagle". The second side of that LP, however, features stage musical-influenced songs and is far from a delight.
You might also like their final LP The Visitors. Aside from a joke track about a man having a threesome with a mother and daughter, it's a sad and reflective LP, due to their marriages breaking up and their children starting to age. The opening title track is superb (with lyrics about the paranoia of dissidents in communist countries) suggests that they could have been a pretty good prog band had they taken a different path:
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Post by politician2 on Dec 2, 2020 14:07:21 GMT
Another great song from the Abba stable is "I Know There's Something Going On", the first post-Abba single by Anni-Frid Lyngstad. It's surprisingly convincing hard rock and confirms that she has a truly great voice (something not always obvious from listening to Abba). When I play this for most rock fans, the answer is usually "I didn't know she had it in her".
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Abba
Dec 2, 2020 21:49:23 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2020 21:49:23 GMT
They were certainly better than this mob..
Whatever you think of ABBA, the vocal harmonies were dead on.
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Post by jsm on Dec 2, 2020 23:07:39 GMT
Abba was about singles. Some good songs. The albums sound pretty hit and miss.
Meanwhile, what about this mob?
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Post by AndoII on Dec 3, 2020 4:01:18 GMT
^  Leave Stockholm... priceless. ABBA were a pop machine, they had the hooks and melodies, simple-sentiment lyrics, and great-looking singers. A bit later, they also had the edgier-songs due to the Fleetwood Mac-style band / relationship dynamics. They really put Sweden on the map in the 70's and were a massive boost to it's economy. The countries' previous GDP comprising mostly of smoked herring, saunas, and pornography.  |
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Abba
Oct 27, 2021 14:54:44 GMT
stu77 likes this
Post by Lord Emsworth on Oct 27, 2021 14:54:44 GMT
Super troupers! Abba on fame, divorce, ageing backwards – and why they’ve returned to rescue 2021
World exclusive: Here we go again! After nearly 40 years, Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid are back together. We get the inside story of the greatest reunion in pop
by Alexis Petridis
It started with a mysterious image on billboards all over the world (and the internet). The sun rising above four dark planets; the only words Abba: Voyage. By the time an announcement was made on 2 September, it had fair claim to call itself the most anticipated comeback in pop history.
And the details exceeded expectations. Not only was there a new album, Voyage, the first in 40 years: 10 new songs that brought the original band together in the studio for the first time since a split that had been precipitated by the couples in the band divorcing. Not only that, but there was to be a new “immersive live experience”, in a bespoke stadium in London – nobody seemed to have noticed the planning application being published online – featuring futuristic de-aged “Abbatars” playing a potentially never-ending series of gigs. In the depths of a miserable year, it seemed, Abba were coming to rescue 2021.
Rest here....
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Post by Billy Idle on Oct 29, 2021 10:27:08 GMT
Resistance will be futile .
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Post by stu77 on Oct 31, 2021 5:15:56 GMT
A few favourites.
Some of their stuff leaves me cold. How did Name of the Game spend four weeks at number one??
Generally though their mastery of pop music was astounding .
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Post by zeopold on Nov 1, 2021 9:30:22 GMT
Anna was a product of the Nazi 'Lebensborn' eugenics programme.
...I'll get me coat.
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