Listen with Jonathan: Out of order:- Voulez Vous and SuperTrouper by ABBA

Over the Christmas break I was round at my in laws and my mother in law had the above two albums so I thought it would be stupid to overlook this gift horse and so I listened to both albums back to back.

These are among the later albums issued by the band. Their musical style has by now been well established and gone are the experimental tracks and the forays into genres other than pop. The sound and the layering of the vocals is obvious but the fractures between the band are there lyrically.


Voulez-Vous? (1997 remastered edition)

This album is crammed full of hits records. There are no less than 6 singles present. We start with a classic opener with As Good As New and then follow up with three classics (Voulez Vous, I Have A Dream and Angel Eyes). You feel safe at this stage feeling that you know what you are going to get. Then we have a hybrid track. The King Has Lost His Crown has hints of disco, punk and rock music and is an interesting listen. Then we have the next single, Does Your Mother Know? This song is predominantly delivered by Bjorn. He should stick to writing and guitar, he is no vocalist. The album then offers up a slightly Country & Western track with If It Wasn't For The Nights. This downward slope leads to utter schmaltz in the form of Chiquitita and sheer awfulness with Lovers (Live a Little Longer). The album closes with Kisses of Fire, Summer Night City and Love Light.

After a strong start this album loses its way somewhat. Albums rarely contain all cracking tracks and so that is not a fair criticism to level here. It is an album of two halves and the second is not as strong as the first.  It is worth a listen nevertheless.

Track recommendation: Voulez-Vous?

SuperTrouper (1997 remastered edition)

This album is not nearly as strong as Voulez-Vous? I loathe and detest the title track which opens the session. I am not sure why I dislike it so much but I always have. The second track is simply a classic. The Winner Takes It All is breathtaking in terms of sound and lyrics. According to Bjorn and Agnetha it was one of the hardest songs to sing given the backdrop in their personal life. We then have On & On & ON which for me is just new romantic rubbish. ABBA were never New Romantics. Andante, Andante is actually quite good and it might have been interesting if they had left it as an instrumental. Then we have an track which appears to be about multiple personality disorder and seems to have a Jean-Michel Jarre feel to it. The next single we come across is Happy New Year. I can imagine Julie Andrews singing this. I need to make it clear that that is not a recommendation. Our Last Summer is insipid and The Piper is not much better.

Lay All Your Love On Me is another ABBA classic. The rest of the album with the exception of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (originally released on a compilation album) is tedious.

It is not their greatest album and the band appears to be on the wane somewhat.

Track recommendation: The Winner Takes It All

I may revisit the other ABBA albums later but I feel the need to listen to something else.

The listening experiment 2: ABBA - Waterloo

This is ABBAs second album. It kicks off with the title track. This song made ABBA huge as it was the one which won Eurovision.  However, unlike Ring Ring the tracks following the opener are different. Sitting In The Palmtree which follows has a reggae beat underlying it. At times the vocal style of the band is at odds with the beat but unlike with Ring Ring the contrast doesn’t great and it is an understated little number.

Next we have King Kong Song which has more of a glam rock undertone which is in keeping with the times.  This is followed by Hasta Manana. This is one of the singles from the album. It has a very Eurovision feel and I didn’t recognise the song until I heard the chorus. The song is very much of its time and has that ABBA feel to it. It is a well crafted song. My Mama Said has a rhythm which would come to be associated with disco in the following years.

Dance (While The Music Still Goes On) is another track which would only have come out of the 1970s and is another pop song. This is followed by the third of the singles which was released, Honey Honey. This is a bit of an ABBA classic. From the pop we move back to glam rock with Watch Out. The problem with this song for me is that it isn’t sure what it wants to be. One moment it is glam rock then pop. It would have been stronger if it had stuck to the glam path.

Then we have What About Livingstone. It is unclear whether this is about the town in Lothian, the Scottish explorer or if it is indeed about anything at all.  Next we have a ballad, Gonna Sing You My Love Song. It is pure ABBA but is still not particularly strong. Last we have Suzy Hang A-Round. It has a feel of something from the 1960s possibly The Mamas & The Papas.

Overall it is a much better album than Ring Ring. It didn’t do too well in the charts and only the title track made any real impact on the UK charts. That being said it is much more obvious to see where the band are starting to go. What they needed to do was define their style and decide what sort of music they wanted to do. This album shows the breadth of musical influence but is still not the finished article.

Track recommendation: Waterloo

Listening to albums 1: Ring Ring by ABBA

Well the experiment has to start somewhere and the letter A is as good a place as any. The first band in my Itunes library is ABBA. Many of my friends will be alarmed to hear this as I am something of a metalhead. However, as I have grown older and my senses of appreciation have developed I certainly understand better what made their music better than just about everybody else. It is also clear to see why ABBA became one of the few Eurovision winners to achieve very much success.

Ring Ring was the album before they became known as ABBA and the one before their Eurovision success. The first track is the title track. Unfortunately for the album goes downhill from hereon in. Ring Ring is a good track and you can see why it became a hit. Apart from Benny & Bjorn the track is co written by Neil Sedaka and on listening to it you can see where his style of writing comes through. However, the tracks from that moment on were bland and there was nothing that would lead you to the conclusion that this group would become one of the biggest on the planet and who would launch a thousand tribute acts.

The final track Rock N Roll Band is alright but no more than that. So having been disappointed by this album I returned to ABBA Gold which is their greatest hits album. My recommendation would be to stick to the Greatest Hits as you will not be disappointed by it. Ring Ring is a fairly weak album and for me I would not recommend it.

Track recommendation: Ring Ring