ABBA - Ring Ring The Visitors Are At The Door
RING RING
Released: 26th March 1973
Bjorn Benny & Agnetha Frida
Firstly, that's not an error on the accreditation, this doesn't actually come under the ABBA name. The whole name thing was deeply confusing anyway, because, well, even in Swedish, Frida does not begin with the letter 'A' and there was always a mild suspicion that the use of Anni-Frid was just to make the whole thing work (and FABB would have kind of worked anyway wouldn't it?). The release date is for the original Scandinavian issue, although it was also released in a raft of countries which can in no way be logically connected including Mexico, Germany and South Africa. In the UK and the US this wasn't released until the early nineties and the first we ever heard of many of these tracks was on the 'Greatest Hits' compilation whose artwork featured them paired off on park benches, with Bjorn and Agnetha ignoring each other while Benny and Frida were devouring each other's faces. Every household in the land had a copy. 'Ring, Ring', 'Nina, Pretty Ballerina', 'People Need Love', 'Another Town, Another Train' and 'He Is Your Brother' were all featured on it. 'Ring Ring' originally appeared in Swedish on this, and you can hear that version on reissues and Spotify (unsurprisingly "Ring, Ring" in Swedish is "Ring, Ring", but with the 'r' sound pushed right to the back of the throat) but the rest, I assume, were always in English. That's the cultural anglosphere for you. More on this when we get to the 'Waterloo' album. Anyway, what do we actually have here? It's really quite mixed and some of it is pretty bland to be honest - 'Another Town, Another Train' is about as drippy a ballad as you can imagine and while 'People Need Love' is catchy enough, it's no more than a pub singalong (and 'He Is Your Brother' isn't too different). The insipid 'I Am Just A Girl' doesn't really rise above hotel lobby muzak, and 'Rock 'n' Roll Band' promises something but doesn't come up with the goods. However there are hints of hidden depths on the Agnetha co-written 'Disillusion' where they begin to tap into all that Scandi-angst, and the plodding 'I Saw It In The Mirror' could never be described as an upbeat pop-disco number. The inherent sibilance of their language and accents was always a strength for ABBA lending a wistfulness when it was needed. However, Frida and Agnetha can get rather piercing at times on here. Maybe that's the production - too much treble - but there are times when they seem to be shrieking. The snappily titled 'Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)' is a good example. There are sound effects (trains and cheering crowds) on the sweet story of dull little 'Nina, Pretty Ballerina' who comes alive on a Friday night when she gets on the dance floor. It's the standout track I'd say, although the title track is a corker too.
'She's My Kind Of Girl' sits rather uneasily with the rest of it. More like The Hollies than anything recognizable as ABBA and not actually part of the original Scandinavian release, it dates back to 1969 and doesn't really have anything to do with the 'A's (Hey! I can avoid problematic references to 'the Girls' and 'the Boys' by simply talking about the 'A's' and the 'B's' - gender politics solved at a stroke!). Look at that cover art, no ambition beyond the Easy Listening section.
Side 1
Ring Ring (Swedish or English Version, take your pick)
Another Town, Another Train
Disillusion
People Need Love
I Saw It In The Mirror
Nina, Pretty Ballerina
Side 2
Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)
Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother
He Is Your Brother
She's My Kind Of Girl (International Versions only)
I Am Just A Girl
Rock 'n' Roll Band
WATERLOO
Released: 4th March 1974
ABBA
ABBA as avant-garde art-pop terrorists? It's not so far fetched as you might think. The third track on this is called 'King Kong Song' and in places it sounds like Devo and features the lyric "Well who can tell a monkey from a monkey?". Elsewhere, the light, plinky reggae of 'Sitting In The Palmtree' might have inspired some of the Tom Tom Club's lighter moments. You can't really call this a breakthrough album because ABBA broke through in a such and unusual - and I would argue unique, to date - manner to to any other pop act you might be able to think of. Winning the Eurovision Song Contest is kind of synonymous with being a global one-hit-wonder. I suspect that the few British winners who did have a life after the contest didn't really make much impact outside the UK. Brotherhood Of Man became a pale ABBA imitation (Let's do a song about someone with a romantic sounding name like Fernando or Chiquitita, hmm, what about 'Angelo'), Bucks Fizz did reasonably well and survived bus crashes, line-up changes, mergers with Dollar and careers on home shopping channels to retain some kind of musical career. Katrina And The Waves only really raised the question of why they were resorting to this when 'Walking On Sunshine' is such a great feelgood summer classic. Our better artists who entered (Cliff, Lulu, Mary Hopkin, The New Seekers) didn't win it, although they all came close. ABBA may have just been in the right place at the right time. The right time and place being Brighton in 1974. It's hardly a surprise that Waterloo won it, it's bright, energetic and driving, with Benny knocking seven bells out of the piano. There's a real charm to the slightly accented English and the phrasing too ("And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way"). By this stage, contestants didn't have to sing in one of their official languages, so, since the cultural anglosphere already had a firm grip on Europe ABBA seized the opportunity. It's always puzzled me a little, because I'm unsure that the Battle Of Waterloo has much cultural significance outside the UK, especially in Sweden. It's historically significant as Napoleon's last hurrah, but the phrase 'finally meeting my Waterloo' seems a particularly English one which it's surprising a Swedish band would have latched on to. That may just be the B's genius though - they knew exactly how to appeal beyond their own cultural landscape. Outside the odder tracks on the album, most of it comes across as a Eurovision audition tape. Lots of these songs resemble the type of thing that still gets trotted out every year, usually with some success. 'Hasta Manana' is like 'Tie A Yellow Ribbon' and has the additional checkbox of a Spanish title and 'Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)' is a catchy swayalong. I would suggest that 'My Mama Said' owes a little to Nile Rodgers and Chic, but it predates them. It's all feathery guitars underlaid with complex basslines. They tackle an important social issue in the song 'What About Livingstone?'; not the social problems of Scottish new towns but the ignorance of Swedish youth regarding famous explorers of the past. Surprisingly, the second best known song on the album, 'Honey, Honey' wasn't even released as a single in the UK, but it featured on the aforementioned Greatest Hits album. It's a funny thing about their early album artwork, this, Ring Ring and Greatest Hits are all careful to present them
as two married couples. It kind of adds to the poignancy of what comes later musically that both would break under the strain of the success that these albums,
mainly about uncomplicated love,
heralded.
Waterloo
Sitting In The Palmtree
King Kong Song
Hasta Manana
My Mama Said
Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
Honey Honey
Watch Out
What About Livingstone?
Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
Suzy Hang-Around
ABBA
Released: 21st April 1975
ABBA
Now at the back of mind, I think I'd decided to avoid references to the Mamma Mia The Musical, a thing so perfectly ridiculous and insanely enjoyable on all kinds of level that it must be beyond parody. But then 'S.O.S.' started playing on this album and I was compelled to remind myself of the extraordinary performance of the song by Pierce Brosnan. So here it is...
Streep is actually pretty good, but the Third Best Bond seems to be struggling with some kind of chest constriction device under his shirt (he could well be really wearing a corset). His controlled fury at being forced to spend time on a sunny Mediterranean island with the people he loves is palpable. Anyway, what it does prove, as does the entirety of the rest of the movie, is that ABBA songs are indestructible. If Pierce cannot ruin them then they must possess a particularly strong magic. This album kicks off with 'Mammia Mia' itself, which carries a lot of the hallmarks of the ABBA winning formula - plinky insistent piano, smooth transitions in musical style, perfectly pitched, joyful singing and an accomplished underlying rock and roll knowledge. One of the reasons Mamma Mia is the ultimate musical adapted from a band's oeuvre is that the B's have such an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music styles and know exactly how to apply them. All the must modern musicals know how to mix and match different types of song. ABBA knew how to take different types of music and just add them as a seasoning to the main pop dish. Second track 'Hey, Hey Helen' starts with a riff that isn't a million miles from AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long' and 'Tropical Loveland' is a featherlight reggae that Bruno Mars nicked for that daft 'Lazy Song'. 'Man In The Middle' is sort of a jazz-funk thing. But they don't forget their roots, 'Bang-A-Boomerang' is the biggest Eurovision cliche you'll ever hear "Bang a boomer-boomerang, dum-de-dum-dum, dum-de dum-dum dum". 'I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do' borrows heavily from 'Blueberry Hill' and on 'Rock Me' they appear to be channeling Mr Neville 'Noddy' Holder of Slade. 'So Long' is a more conventional take on the Glam Rock tendencies of the time.
But it begins to get weird toward the end. 'Intermezzo No. 1' is an instrumental cheesefest whose only possible use is the theme tune to an eighties gameshow featuring a paternalistic host and teenage contestants laden with furry toys for luck (yes - I'm saying it sounds a lot like Blockbusters) and they close (on Spotify - not the original album) with a medley featuring 'Pick A Bale Of Cotton', 'On Top Of Spaghetti - sorry - Old Smokie' and 'Midnight Special'. Apparently this was the B-Side to the single 'Summer Night City' which did not appear on an album.
The photograph on the album cover is pretty much an indication of where the world now saw ABBA, massively successful, global stars living a life of glamour.
Mamma Mia
Hey, Hey Helen
Tropical Loveland
S.O.S.
Man In The Middle
Bang-A-Boomerang
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
Rock Me
Intermezzo No. 1
I've Been Waiting For You
So Long
ARRIVAL
Released:11th October 1976
ABBA
Now they've ditched the stretch limousines and are biffing around in light helicopters. However, they can't afford one each (yet) so they all have to squeeze into one. Things look a bit cramped and it's probably as well that there are four of them, that thing looks like it might be prone to imbalances. The packaging is worth a bit of attention. There was a copy of this back in the ancestral home, and it may still be gathering dust in my brother's shed in Leeds for all I know. All joking aside, the artwork is excitingly glamorous and indicative of the position that ABBA held in the mid-seventies poposphere (in the UK at least). They must have been the biggest pop act by quite a distance. Even more thrilling was that instead of the white paper inner sleeve with the round window for the label, Arrival had a glossy inner sleeve with another picture of them standing by the chopper in their pristine white jumpsuits (having 'Arrived' presumably) and, I think, the lyrics printed on the reverse side. The 9 year old me had never seen anything more beautifully designed. The album matches the packaging for quality too. This is ABBA at their creative a commercial peak and on the cusp from being a bit of euro-pop fluff to something deeper and more nuanced. Some of the songs have the characteristic layering of the vocals - 'When I Kissed The Teacher' and the real groundbreaker here 'Knowing You, Knowing Me'. Lyrically there are some mis-steps but it's more just the over-literal effect of translating your thoughts into a second language I think. "He was leaning over me, trying to explain the laws of ge-o-met-ry" is a bit clunky after all - and the general tone of 'When I Kissed The Teacher' is maybe not something anyone would try today. There's 'Dancing Queen' - which is on my list of wedding disco songs, along with 'Come On Eileen', which tends to flummox the casual dancer. It's possible that ABBA's continuing success is due to the probably wholly unintended consequence of calling a song 'Dancing Queen' and therefore making it completely accessible to pretty much every sexual orientation. The fact that it's pretty much a perfect pop song helps too.
'Money, Money, Money' is here too. I could criticize the sentiment that the answer to a woman's problems is to find a rich man, but on a song like that I don't think they were trying to say anything profound back then anyway.
The relationship cracks begin to show too - 'My Love, My Life' , 'Why Did It Have To Be Me?' and 'Knowing You, Knowing Me' all have a bitter edge. The last has almost been ruined by Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge - it is really hard not to do a strident "A-HA!" at the appropriate moment. However in the unadulterated version, they even pull off the rather melodramatic whispered "Good days...bad days".
I remember that the 9-year old me found 'Tiger' to be about the most exciting and edgy piece of music I'd ever heard. Those thumping drums and the A's shrieked words give a genuine sense of threat. The idea of a tiger stalking a city was thrillingly scary "And if I meet you, what if I eat you?" Well quite. It's probably a sophisticated metaphor, but I hope not.
Just like on the previous album, there's an instrumental - although there is some vocal contribution from the A's too - which is the title track. It's very good. An Oldfield-ian Celtic anthem. It finishes the album on most versions, but Spotify includes 'Fernando' after it which was added in some territories.
When I Kissed The Teacher
Dancing Queen
My Love, My Life
Dum Dum Diddle
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Money, Money, Money
That's Me
Why Did It Have To be Me?
Tiger
Arrival
THE ALBUM
Released: 12th December 1977
ABBA
Released at the same time as ABBA: The Movie, which my Mum took me to see. I remember little of it and have never seen it since, but I expect it's worth another view. Some kind of featherlight plot about a journalist trying to get an interview with them during an Australian tour. Essentially a device to link a series of song performances. We had this one too and I was always a little uneasy with the artwork. A bit too avant-garde for the 10 year old me. It's a curious mix of mega-smash pop hits like 'Take A Chance On Me' and bitter break-up songs like 'One Man, One Woman'. Sometimes you get both together like on 'The Name Of The Game'. 'Take A Chance...' raises the question of whether the chugga-chugga-chugga backing vocals were done naturally or put through some kind of sequencer. Lyrics are sometimes endearingly off-kilter -"Tell me please; Cos I have to know, I'm a bashful child, Beginning to grow" The use of the word 'bashful' in popular culture is pretty much limited to this and Disney dwarfs. There's a rather creepy spoken intro to 'Move On' from Bjorn. It might just be his accent, but it sounds like his dental plate has come loose. The song itself is something of a forgotten gem once it gets going though. I always like the rather manic rock-out of 'Hole In Your Soul' but I'm not so sure about 'Tssank You For The Mussic', all rather pedestrian and earnest, and as for the line "I've been so lucky, I am the girl with the golden hair" - well they seem to be directly including a subtext about how Agnetha and Frida were viewed by the world at large. Not The Nine O'Clock News tackled it a bit more bluntly when they took the piss out of Super Trouper a few years later; "One of us is ugly; One of us is cute". The Streisandy big show number 'I Wonder (Departure)' goes a bit too far too. Then they throw in the rather unsettling, jagged, 'I'm A Marionette'. All three of these are from a mini-musical (The G. with the G.H) and it shows, there's a showy feel and an obvious underlying narrative going on. Spotify has a second version of 'Thank You For The Music' sung by Doris Day and stripped back a little, which I'd take over the original.
Eagle
Take A Chance On Me
One Man, One Woman
The Name Of The Game
Move On
Hole In Your Soul
Thank You For The Music
I Wonder (Departure)
I'm A Marionette
VOULEZ VOUS
Released: 23rd April 1979
ABBA
On the ABBA career arc, we're now over the commercial peak and freewheeling down the other side. The irresistible catchiness is still in full working order, but they've had their time in the sun and the Gods of Pop are becoming bored and moving on to the Prophets of Electronica. There's something else I've noticed throughout about them, I'm not so convinced that the A's are great singers. or at least, when you binge on ABBA, the spikiness and snap of the vocal delivery becomes more apparent. However, for all this, the hits keep coming. 'Voulez Vous', 'I Have A Dream', 'Does Your Mother Know' and 'Chiquitita' are all here. The title track is just fine, but it doesn't have any meaning, simply a high tempo disco stomp with some nice basslines and brass stabs. 'I Have A Dream' is as sickly sweet as a coke with a scoop of Ben And Jerry's. It's like a school choir on parent's evening even before they bring in the...school choir. I have no idea what instrument that is on the intro to 'Does Your Mother Know', it must come from a keyboard but heaven knows what the setting is called. Bass Wobble Board? The vocals on it are particularly squawky too. They aren't squawky on 'Chiquitita', at least not at first, the change of pace from the verses to the marching chorus is pretty extreme, but, like the rest, you can't deny how memorable it is. Of the non-single-released rest, 'The King Has Lost His Crown' is an ex's gloat on her former lover's romantic misfortune. The opening 'As Good As New' goes from Vivaldi-esque intro, to Stax-style bass driven funk with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-thrown-at-it bridge. They also prove they are entirely capable of forgettable album filler just like any other band. 'If It Wasn't For The Nights' efficiently traverses from one ear to the other without leaving any trace behind. Look carefully at the album cover photo. Are they coming out of a lift to attend some glitzy evening event? And if so, why has Benny brought a pole with him, and how did he get it through the doors?
As Good As New
Voulez Vous
I Have A Dream
Angel Eyes
The King Has Lost His Crown
Does Your Mother Know
If It Wasn't For The Nights
Chiquitita
Lovers (Live A Little Longer)
Kisses Of Fire
SUPER TROUPER
Released: 3rd November 1980
ABBA
It starts strong. The title track is as good a piece of disco-pop as you'll ever hear and it's lyrically interesting enough to distract you. "I was sick and tired of everything, when I called you last night from Glasgow" is worthy of Morrissey. The B's backing vocals are best considered at face value, otherwise you start hearing "Sue Pooper, True Pooper". It's followed by 'The Winner Takes It All' which is probably considered the epitome of the stable of ABBA songs which are all about bitter breakups. Never been sure about the line "the loser standing small". It's not one side of an idiomatic coin is it? You'd say "the winner is standing tall", but you don't really say "the loser is standing small". Anyway, it's probably just something that got a little lost in translation. However, once we get past these two behemoths of pop it begins to get a little patchy. There is probably no song that has lived up to it's title like "On And On And On", which really does just push forward like a force of nature and the words are almost stream-of-consciousness ("
He said, "Who am I and who are you and who are we?;
What's our situation, do we have some time for us?";
I said I was not exactly waiting for the bus"). 'Andante Andante' is something and nothing and then 'Me And I' starts and convinces very early on that it is another bid for a Jean-Michel Jarre-ish instrumental TV theme tune - probably for a sports or travel show - before they take you completely by surprise by providing vocals and lyrics which reference Freud and split personalities and you
realize
that this is ABBA's meditation on schizophrenia! But then they go a little darker still when they trot out 'Happy New Year' which sounds like they aren't looking forward to the next 365 days at all. In fact they project their thoughts over the coming decade. The closing shot is "May we all have have our hopes, our will to try; If we don't we might as well lie down and die". 'Our Last Summer' recalls what sounds like quite a nice stay in Paris, but yet again they bring it all down by revealing that the male half of the relationship is now football-obsessed and working in a bank. It's also noted that his name is Harry - surely she knew this before - but that she still holds a candle for him. At this point in the song there's a rather incongruous guitar crunch, reminiscent of Radiohead's 'Creep'. I can't decide if 'The Piper' is just insanely annoying or a work of genius that combines about 4 or 5 different musical cliches in one song. There's the nursery rhyme aspect of the chorus, the piccolo led breaks that remind you of the dancing of the little children of Stone'enge, the Gregorian chants and the general epic silliness of the whole thing. The album is redeemed at the end again by 'Lay All Your Love On Me' and they also tack on a live performance of 'The Way Old Friends Do', which is rather like 'Wild Mountain Thyme (Will Ye Go Lassie Go)' and only really makes you want to listen to The Corries doing that instead. But, it is by no means awful, whatever impression I've given above, just rather odd when you start to pay attention to what is actually going on.
One more thing, I alluded to the Not The Nine O'Clock News 'Super Duper' sketch earlier when discussing ABBA The Album. Here it is. It's mostly funny because the regular cast of the show pull off the ABBA look quite so well. Mel Smith in particular is a perfect Benny.
Super Trouper
The Winner Takes It All
On And On And On
Andante Andante
Me And I
Happy New Year
Our Last Summer
The Piper
Lay All Your Love On Me
The Way Old Friends Do
THE VISITORS
Released 30th November 1981
ABBA
One reading of the ABBA story is that it is an extended metaphor of a relationship from the early euphoric days to bitter break up (or you could just take them as a great pop band who tried to add a bit of weight to some of their songs). If you do subscribe to that theory then their last effort might be described as a last ditch attempt to add a bit of spice and so revive it. The opening title track is kind of like a popped-up interpretation of The Beatles 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. One of the A's (I never did learn how to distinguish their voices) delivers the verse in a trancey way with just a hint of woozy sitar sounds before they burst into a synth-pop chorus. Maybe it sounds awful as described, but it's quite a grower. When you start to consider the lyrics too - seemingly anxiety about having to entertain guests - it starts to become quite disturbing. Next, I notify ABBA's lawyers that early eighties pop-twerps The Thompson Twins and their song 'We Are Detective' might be a nice little earner should the foursome ever find themselves in the unlikely situation of being on their uppers. The opening few bars and the general feel of the melody of 'Head Over Heels' is pretty much identical. 'When All Is Said And Done' nags at the bag of my mental song archive too, but I can't place it. It's a good song though and shows a hint of optimism in the vein of "OK, we've broken up, but it's time to look forward and get on with it". 'I Let The Music Speak' is rather grandiose and epic with a chorus that, would be a great fit if Benny and Bjorn have a tilt at a musical version of Doctor Zhivago. By now, the singles chart success was probably tailing off, although they did release 5 of the 9 songs, but 'One Of Us' is the one that has endured. Whatever progress they had made when they wrote 'When All Is Said And Done' was written was not being applied for this one. She's basically moping around and lying in bed. There's also the Bjorn-led 'Two For The Price Of One', a very odd but catchy thing. The story of the song is that a lonely railway station cleaner sees a personal ad in the paper essentially promising a threesome (two for the price of one, d'you see?). He calls the number, the woman on the other end of the phone sounds nice, but possibly puts the mockers on the deal with the closing line: She said, "I'm sure we must be perfect for each other; And if you doubt it you'll be certain when you meet my mother". Crumbs! That's the Swedes for you. 'Slipping Through My Fingers' is guaranteed to bring a tear to Mrs RockOdyssey's eye, and she doesn't even have a daughter. It is certainly ABBA in full sweet and wistful mode. They finish off with ‘Like An Angel Passing Through My Room’, which has a curious musical box/ticking clock motif running through it.
The Visitors
Head Over Heels
When All Is Said And Done
Soldiers
I Let The Music Speak
One Of Us
Two For The price Of One
Slipping Through My Fingers
Like An Angel Passing Through My Room
VOYAGE
Released 5th November 2021
ABBA
We've been gaslit into thinking we all wanted this, but the real reason the sudden announcement of an initial two new songs, new album and virtual concert/installation grabbed the attention was that we had all resigned ourselves long ago that they'd never get back togather again. They should not have either. This is SO MUCH an Abba album that it borders on parody. The vocals are sibilant and most of it sounds like not-quite-up-to-it demos that got dropped off the albums in their heyday. BBC Radio 2 have been mad for it ever since they got the exclusive first interview, but then they're mad for Adele's latest wail too, so we'll take their view with a pinch of salt.
There's a fair amount of tweeness. Let's assume that they all have grandchildren now and so 'Little Things' is the song equivalent with one of those 'Grandkids Spoiled Here' signs. Maybe they intend a pitch for Xmas number one with it. 'I Can Be That Woman' is even worse as it focuses on the family cat and dog getting caught up in a marital breakdown, which is clearly presented as the fault of the female narrator who is now pledging to mend her ways. Maybe the last 40 years never actually happened in Sweden?
I'm not the first (even in my own house) to point out that 'Just A Notion' seems to be a tribute to 'A Wombling Merry Christmas'. Rarely will you hear a more lazy effort at a song.
On the plus side Agnetha and Frida's voices are still more or less intact, and they picked the two outrider songs well, they are the best on here, mainly because they tackle the more grown up themes of their best original work.
I Still Have Faith in You
When You Danced with Me
Little Things
Don't Shut Me Down
Just a Notion
I Can Be That Woman
Keep an Eye on Dan
Bumblebee
No Doubt About It
Ode to Freedom