3 years of ABBA Voyage

Three years ago today, ABBA's 9th and final studio album to date, Voyage was released! I still will never get over the fact that my favorite band ever, the group that I have pretty much dedicated the last 14 years to, actually made music again - the one thing they had had pretty vowed not to do during their 40 year hiatus.

When Agnetha and Frida sing together on top of Bjorn's crafty lyrics and Benny's impeccable compositions, the result is just magical. Even after 40 years, they still managed to capture the same essence that was ABBA from the 70s and 80s into 10 new tracks.

 Last night while working on this drawing (which I'm aware is not from any of the Voyage sessions but that's because I've already drawn pretty much all the voyage pictures haha), I listened to the entire Voyage album from start to finish.  It's nothing new for me to listen to the album from track 1 all the way to track 10 because I'm always listening to ABBA's albums in full, but as I was listening, I couldn't get over how unequivocally ABBA it is.  Even with 39 years since their last recording session, the sound of ABBA was there.  And I'm not just talking about their voices and the music.

We have songs that are about the close bond that people can have (I Still Have Faith In You), slow ballads as well as upbeat dance-able tracks (Just A Notion) and then some happy tracks with hint of melancholy (Don't Shut Me Down and When You Danced With Me).  We have songs about family - be it relationship/marital/divorce issues (No Doubt About It and Keep An Eye On Dan) or just family life (Little Things.)  We have songs that seem downright depressing until the final chorus of the song when we're left with a hint of hopefulness that maybe things are going to be alright in the end (I Can Be That Woman.)  And we have songs that are profound and philosophical (Ode To Freedom) and songs that are commenting on issues with today's world (Bumblebee.)  Just to name a few recurring themes.

I feel like a lot of people who just know ABBA as the band that provided the music to Mamma Mia or as just the band who has only the tracklist of ABBA Gold, aka uncultured dummies hahahhaha jkjkjkjkjk don't realize that these are all topics that ABBA have covered throughout their prior 8 albums.  I've talked a lot of this in my song analysis series that I will get back to posting when I feel like it, but here are some examples of past ABBA songs that are about the same topics. 

Relationship/Marital/Divorce issues: The Winner Takes It All, Hey Hey Helen

Philosophical: Move On

Social Commentary: What About Livingstone

Family life: Slipping Through My Fingers

Songs that are kinda depressing but then leave us with a hint of hopefulness at the end: One Man, One Woman

Close bond/friendship: The Way Old Friends Do

And these are just the ones that I can name off the top of my head.

Even from the moment I first heard the Voyage album in full, it just felt like an ABBA album.  Everything about it screams ABBA, and I cannot be more grateful to have been there to witness this momentous album, and still to this day listen to this album on the regular. 

Happy 3 years of Voyage, the Album. ❤️

Happy 12th birthday, Bjorn Uldollus

 Today marks 13 years since I put in the final stitches on my homemade ABBA dolls, officially completing 3/4 ABBA members.  

I realize how weird it is to be celebrating the birthdays of literal cloth dolls, but who cares haha.  Happy birthday, Bjorn Doll

Song Analysis: Our Last Summer

 Hello.  It has been a minute.  Do I likely have undaignosed ADHD?  Probably...  Erm, anyway, let's talk about Our Last Summer.  In early June of 1980, ABBA began working on the sweet but kinda melancholy track about a past summer romance.  Inspired by Bjorn's own French summer romance when he was a teenager, the song tells of a short-lived romance while away in France - a theme that has come up already once before in Monsieur Monsieur.  It wouldn't surprise me if Bjorn's same summer romance was the inspiration for that song as well.  

Frida takes the lead vocals on this song, perfectly capturing the sweet memories tinged with a bit of sadness in her performance.  

Both the first and second verses give us a glimpse into what this young couple were doing while in Paris -visiting various tourist spots like the Elysee Palace, the Eiffel Tower,  the Notre Dame, and the Seine, as well as trying out various foods like croissants and drinks from every cafe they visited.  You can get a sense that these two characters in the sound were very young, carefree, and happy not having to worry much at all about the future.  Although there were a few discussions of fear of dying, and also flying - which I've always wondered if that was a nod to Agnetha and her fear, but perhaps it's a common fear to be afraid of flying.  But overall, the summer romance was good, happy, and very peaceful.

But of course it wouldn't be an ABBA song if there was no happy ending!  The third verse is as follows:

And now you’re working in a bank, the family man, a football fan,
and your name is Harry.

How dull it seems yet,

you’re the hero of my dreams. 

Basically telling us how despite their sweet summer romance, eventually they had go off in their own separate directions.  He moved on, became a banker and has a family of his own, but she's still here having to reminisce on memories from a happier time.  It's like for her, one of the greatest things to ever happen to her was that summer romance, but for him, it was just a summer romance, you know?  As soon as they left each other, he was truly gone.  He moved on without her, but she's still caught up in him.  

I've seen a lot of people confused by the line "And your name is Harry," like, duh, wouldn't his name always have been Harry? But I see it as maybe Harry is such a simple name, like you wouldn't expect someone to be so obsessed with a guy named Harry hahahahahah, it's such an ordinary name, yet to her, Harry takes on a whole new meaning.  The name Harry will always remind her of happier times and places.

While Frida is the lead vocalist on this song, I truly think she was the perfect choice for the song, Agnetha comes in during the choruses, with amazing harmonies throughout.  One of my favorite parts of the song is when she sings the lines in "walking hand in hand" and "memories that remain" in the last two choruses. And of course the way Frida sings the lines "I stilll seeeee it alllll" and "weeeeee were living for the day, worries far away" in the last chorus honestly sends shivers down my spine each time I listen to it.  Even though that last part is mostly hidden away in the fade-out of the song, I still love it so much.  I don't know how present Bjorn and Benny were when it came to vocals for this song, I can hardly hear them, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're buried in there.

We can't talk about this song and not talk about the hidden harmonies in the instrumental interlude.  Underneath the electric guitar played by the one and only Lasse Wellander are some absolutely angelic vocals from Agnetha and Frida that are sang to the melody of what would become the song Anthem from the musical Chess.  That just goes to show how long Bjorn and Benny had been holding on to that melody.  Although these vocals are buried so deeply in the final mix of the song, you can find early mixes of the song up on YouTube that highlight these vocals perfectly.

 

So that's Our Last Summer, a song about longing for previous times and memories - be it romantic or just in general happier times - something that I think a lot of us can relate to. 

ABBA The Singles - The First Fifty Years

 So ABBA have a new compilation album coming out in October, titled "The Singles - The First Fifty Years", which I find to be an absolutely hilarious title, which is of course based on "The Singles - The First Ten Years" released back in 1982 to celebrate ABBA's 10 year anniversary from the group's formation in 1972.  

The album contains all of ABBA's official single releases give or take from the 70s and 80s, with the addition of the five singles from ABBA's Voyage album, making this a nice compilation of ABBA's singles from the span of their entire career.  

The album is available for pre-order on all of ABBA's official stores, like the museum and the universal music store, as well as Amazon.  I wasn't initially going to pre-order it because it's nothing I don't already have, and dare I say, there's nothing really to entice the consumer to buy it?  

Back in 1979, when ABBA were releasing Greatest Hits Vol.2, the album included ABBA's newest single at the time, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), and aside from the single release, this album was the only LP that featured that song, and it also included Summer Night City, yet another albumless song.  Fast forward to 1982, and for The Singles (The First Ten Years), the album includes two more albumless singles, The Day Before You Came and Under Attack.  Also, although not included on the initial release of the album, ABBA's Greatest Hits from 1976 as it was released in the US, included the albumless track, Fernando.  All three compilation albums featured something new, something that would entice the audience to buy that compilation album,.

 But The Singles (The First Fifty Years) doesn't have anything new.  There's no new single, nothing to really grab anyone's attention aside from the fact that this album is celebrating fifty years of ABBA, which is exciting in its own right!  I feel like this album is mostly targeted towards the existing ABBA fans, the ones who must buy every single ABBA album, compilation or studio, but not the casual listener, like all three former compilation albums from ABBA's active years were meant to do.  Now I know that ABBA are an already established act, and I'm also not asking ABBA to release anything more.  I'm more than satisfied with all that we have, I know better than to ask for more music from ABBA (and I'm also well aware that ABBA LOVE to surprise us and then out of nowhere announce that they recorded an entire new album not just two new songs and then cause me to give them all my money yet again...), I just think more thought could have gone into this compilation album.

Although I wasn't planning on preordering this album, especially as I can't spend over $100 on the compilation album in record format, I did see that it was available on Amazon in its CD form, and because I have prime, I was like, well okay might as well give more money to ABBA.

But that's actually not what I'm here to complain about hahahhahaa.  It's the cover of the album.  First of all, I love the fact that they used an image of ABBA in their prime.  ABBA in late 1975, as they looked when they were working on their most successful studio album Arrival.  ABBA in their prime.  Not ABBA in 1982 like as was originally featured on the back of ABBA Gold.  (They have since changed the image on more recent releases of the album.).  As an obsessed ABBA fan, I never complain about ABBA and their work, I'm always an optimist, but I just have to say, especially where ABBA Gold was my second introduction to ABBA, seeing ABBA at their most worn out and bored as they looked in 1982 as the first visual impression of the band was really confusing to me back in 2010.  Like I had a hard time connecting the way they looked on that image from 1982 to the youthful and energetic sound that I was hearing when listening to each track.  But anyway I digress.  

I also love the title, I think it's a fantastic title.  I like that it's in the style of ABBA's last compilation album from their active years as a band.  ABBA's The Singles (The First Ten Years) is such a stunning album cover, I love the layout of the font, yet, this new compilation looks poorly made in comparison, like a sloppy copy of the original, or more like a bad Disney live action money grab version of the original amazing film.  

I think what bothers me the most is that the modern graphic design, the even letter spacing of digitally applied text doesn't match the 70s appearance that ABBA has.  The drop shadow looks artificial, and it lacks the beautiful hand-written quality of the 1982 album.  It literally looks like the sloppy YouTube thumbnails that I produce for my videos, and I am not professional in any way and that's certainly reflected in my thumbnails hahahaha. 

So, although I love the concept of the album cover, it's really really bothering me, I decided to try my hand at fixing it up a little.  I literally spent all morning trying to figure out photoshop as I have it but hardly use it, and the end result is not perfect in any way shape or form.  I am not a graphic designer, I really don't have the eye for that sort of thing, but I had to do something to make this album cover look better.

I tried to keep it more in the style of the original 82 compilation album, the font a little more squished.  I didn't include drop shadows, and I didn't keep the byline in all caps.  I think it looks pretty good, I think it looks more in line with ABBA's other compilations albums, so if the people at UMG happen to see this simple edit I did in an hour (not including the time spent to learn photoshop....), feel free to use it hahahhahaa. 

Song Analysis - The Winner Takes It All

 In June of 1980, Bjorn and Benny began working on a demo for what would end up being of ABBA's most deep and heart wrenching songs, a song deeply inspired by their personal life, something they hadn't really gone into before.  The name of the demo was already on theme, titled "The Story Of My Life", and then "The Story Of My Life II" and "The Story Of My Life III."  Just a few short days later, Bjorn had come up with the lyrics.  It was the quickest lyric he'd ever written.  After taking a few drinks of whisky, the words just came pouring out, and within a couple of hours, the song was done, and the Winner Takes It All was born.

Considering Agnetha and Bjorn had just done through a divorce, it was no surprise that the topic of divorce was on his mind, however, contrary to popular misinformation, the song is actually not a retelling of how Agnetha and Bjorn's marriage broke down.  In fact, it's actually not our business how and what happened!

To quote Agnetha, "there's no such thing as a happy divorce," however that's not to say Agnetha and Bjorn's decision to divorce wasn't a joint one, and even with the break down of their marriage, they remained cordial, continued to work together, and even found that working together after their divorce twas easier.  In their divorce, there was no winner or loser in the situation, whereas in The Winner Takes It All, the whole song is about a winner and a loser.

The song beings with the line, "I don't wanna talk about things we've gone through.  Though it's hurting me, now it's history," followed by, "I've played all my cards, and that's what you've done too.  Nothing more to say, no more ace to play."  The metaphor of a card game, or just a game, is used through out the song, and in games like that, there is always going to be a victor and a loser.  Basically, both partners had done all they could for the marriage, but now it doesn't matter because it's over.  

The second verse goes on to explain how the narrator thought she was doing everything right, trying to make herself comfortable in the marriage, trying to make herself feel safe with her partner, trying to build a home together, and doing all these things because those are the "rules" of marriage.  But ultimately, even though she tried to do everything right, it still didn't work.  And eventually, she realizes that simply "playing by the rules" and trying to keep the marriage going as long as possible even when it's long gone.

The third verse has me quite interested in the meaning. The verse begins with, "But tell me does she kiss like I used to kiss you. Does it feel the same when she calls your name?" has me wondering if one of the reasons their marriage broke down is because there was some infidelity involved, and he cheated on her with another woman and then as soon as they decided to divorce, he just moved in with her.  Or the narrator is just commenting on how fast he just moved on and forgot her, whereas she's still caught up in their breakup.  

Regardless, the narrator of the song sees him as the winner, because he's happy and he's not hung up or worn down by the emotions of their broken marriage, but she's the loser because still hurting from it.  And she can't say anything about how much she misses him because it's all over.  The relationship is dead.  They've shaken hands, signed the divorce documents, they're officially over.  And he's happy, but she's ruined.

One thing that I always see pointed out is how EVIL BJORN WAS FOR MAKING HIS EX SING A SONG ABOUT THEIR DIVORCE, but again, this song is not about THEIR divorce, and as we know, they would often decide which lady they thought would sing the song best, and ultimately the decision was for Agnetha to be the one to sing the lead.  (Also I think originally Bjorn may have thought about singing the lead vocals on this song as well, and we actually have a snippet of Bjorn's demo vocals floating around online every once in a while.)

Agnetha's always been so good at story telling in the songs, and capturing the emotions of whatever character Bjorn (and Benny too) had come up with, and she managed to capture the pain and hurt of the woman in this song so well, it's hard to imagine that this fictional but painful story of divorce is not her own personal story.  The pain in her voice is almost tangible, and there is no doubt that this is one of her best vocal performances ever.   Especially the way she sings the final two "the winner takes it alllll"s at the end of the song.

And then of course we have the choir vocals from Frida, Benny, and Bjorn (and Agnetha's in there as well), with simple "aaah-aaah-aaah-aaahs" in the verses and even more so in the choruses, and then in full force in the outro.  

The minimal instruments in the song, with mostly the piano at the forefront, adds to the emotions of the song as well.  Just everything, from the vocals to the arrangement is just perfect in this song, and no one could have done it better.  There is no better version of this song than ABBA's. 

ABBA have a lot of masterpieces, and although I consider all of ABBA's songs as masterpieces, this one is definitely close to the top of the list.

Now of course ABBA filmed a music video for this song, and not only is Agnetha really good at capturing the raw emotions of their songs, she's also really good at acting as well.  Perhaps this was what inspired her to take on an acting role in 1982.  She put on a really good sad face in the music video, which of course leads people to really think Agnetha was miserable while filming the video.  however recently ish, ABBA released on instagram some BTS of the music video, where you can see Agnetha burst into a fit of giggles while filming the music video, which just proves that it's all an acting performance, and a really convincing one at that!  ABBA also performed this song on two TV shows in 1980, and the song also appears in ABBA Voyage as the final song of the show.