Well, the year has officially come to a close, and as per usual, I like to sort of reflect on the year. I know I've been hardly active on this blog the last few years, so I don't have much to report on on blogwise, but ABBA wise it has been a pretty good year.
-ABBA Voyage turned 1! And has had over 1 million visitors! And I have not been one of them sadly, but I'm hoping that someday to get my anxious self there. The fact that the ABBA Voyage shows have been so successful has been absolutely incredible. I love knowing that Voyage has been the most perfect show for ABBA fans old and new, and has even been an excellent introduction to people who had never really listened to ABBA before.
-Frida, Benny, and Bjorn attended the 1-year celebration and I have absolutely loved watching the videos of Frida interacting with the fans after the show. She is just so lovely, kind, and sweet.
-Agnetha released a new/old album, A+, which has definitely been a highlight for me personally. I listened to that album and the new single, Where Do We Go From Here soooo much, it's no wonder Agnetha was among my top 3 artists on spotify lol. (I don't actually use spotify much at all, I prefer to listen to my music locally. Call me old fashioned but it works for me. But I do use it for listening to new releases until I get my physical copy.) I love how Agnetha loves releasing new music on her terms alone, and has gifted us with so much music over the last two decades.
-Bjorn joined Instagram, and it has been lovely seeing a glimpse into his life online. Bjorn has also been active musically, writing new songs with a couple of different artists.
-And Benny has been very musically active as well, releasing songs, sometimes together with Bjorn throughout the year.
-ABBA celebrated 50 years since the release of Ring Ring in 1973, and next year they celebrate 50 years since winning the Eurovision Song Contest! I sincerely hope there will be a lot of ABBA things happening next year. Whatever it is they have planned, I am excited.
Personally, this first half of this year sucked. My budgie Skyler, the literal love of my life, got sick 5 days into the year and then passed away in March because of a tumor in his liver. I know I did everything I could to keep his last days as comfortable as possible, but losing a loved one, especially one that I was so bonded and connected with is one of the worst pains imaginable and I would never inflict it on anyone. However, the two and a half years that Skyler and I had together were the best and I would change literally nothing of it (except for the fact that he died, because I would do anything just to have him here with me again.)
However the second half of the year was good. In May, I brought home two beautiful budgie boys, Mordecai and Darius, and they have been such a light in my life. No, my happiness is not reliant on my pets, but rather I love being able to take care of beautiful feathered friends, and having birds is the best. Mordecai and Darius have been so good, and I've loved continuing getting to know them and grow with them. They're my beautiful blueberry boys. <3
I did a little bit of sewing this year, I think I completed a total of three doll costumes. But like I said, this year was hard so I didn't really do a lot.
On the future of this blog - on my personal instagram, I had sort of challenged myself to do a drawing every day starting on January 1st, and that turned into me drawing 10 drawings a month rather than every single day. I enjoy the idea of daily posting (but also not forced or required to), so I was thinking, seeing as I talk about my love of ABBA and their songs pretty much every day in my personal life, what if I sort of brought that to this blog and did a post (almost) every day about an ABBA song, either in chronological order or whatever order I want, and just talk about my love for said particular song? I've always said that I love every single ABBA song, and it's the truth. So no guarantees, and I may miss a day, especially as there are less than 365 ABBA songs, but we'll see.
Alright, well, happy new year everyone. I hope 2024 will only bring good things and that the terrible state of the world can get better.
It has been a while since angry, ranty Becky has appeared on this blog, and well, she's back, and she's angry lol.
Okay, so recently I came across this video on instagram that was sort of supposed to be a parody lumping together all ABBA songs to make a stereotypical ABBA song, or like Every ABBA song, and it kind of made me mad for a few reasons. Number 1, there really is no way to make a stereotypical ABBA song. ABBA have so many songs over a 10 year catalog + the songs recorded for Voyage after a 40 year hiatus. Their albums showcase a variety of different styles, genres themes, songs of melancholy and songs that emanate pure joy. There are songs about breaking up, the pain of divorce, and songs about
loving one another. Songs about being a parent, and songs about pure
love. Then there are the songs that make you laugh, and songs that are
really just a joke, like Two For The Price Of One and Crazy World. Honestly, the punchline of Two For The Price Of One still cracks me up, especially because without that last line you'd be like WHAT THE HECK IS THIS SONG? THIS IS SO CREEPY!!, and then all of Crazy World is like this huge misunderstanding and how the main character sees something, completely jumps to the wrong conclusions, and then it all turns out to be a big nothing. It's FUNNY! But I digress.
There really is no way to sum up
all of ABBA's songs into one parody song. ABBA's gone through so many
different styles of songs, the only thing that remains common is the
ABBA sound, the harmonies, the layers of vocals, the magical sound of
Agnetha and Frida's combined vocals, with added backing vocals from
Bjorn and Benny. All of that makes an ABBA song, but there is no one
single topic that all ABBA songs cover. Now I've always been one to
point out common themes and phrases that show up throughout their entire
discography. That's literally what my YouTube channel is about, yet
these are things like using the word "blue" to as a feeling, or using "Aha" a lot, or making up characters in their songs.
Really, if you want to be making a stereotypical ABBA song, you should
take notes by watching my videos haha, but honestly, there is no way to
make a stereotypical ABBA song. It's nearly impossible to replicate
their sound, or fit all their different genres into one song. Like, not
every ABBA song is going to sound like Dancing Queen or other popular
hits from ABBA Gold. And even on ABBA Gold, do any of their songs sound
similar? Does Fernando really sound like Dancing Queen, or Thank You
For The Music like Take A Chance On Me? No! And that's because no ABBA
song sounds the same.
What mostly really bothers me about this video is the fixation on adult & minor relationships in ABBA songs. This video makes the assumption that ABBA's songs are in a way glorifying a relationship with someone 17 and younger being with an adult. First of all, there are only two ABBA songs that mention ages, those being Man In The Middle and Dancing Queen. I don't personally understand what being "only 17" means, like is it's trying to show how young the character of the dancing queen is, how mature she is for her age, how she's done so much in her life while only be 17, idk. But the song doesn't in anyway say that she is actively like flirting with people older than her. In fact the other people at the club she's dancing at, the king she's looking for, could also be 17! You see what I'm getting at?
And then in Man In The Middle, the song I don't think in anyway is trying to say that the Man who is in the middle is doing a good thing. The song mentions who the guy is 50 and the girl is only 17, but when you listen to and most importantly READ the lyrics, you can see how the Man is not a good man. I've seen quite a few reviews where people really dislike Man In The Middle, specifically because of the line about the man being 50 and the girl 17, and yeah, I think we can all agree that's creepy. But the song is trying to say how this man is not a good guy. Especially in the third verse, where it says:
But you see that man made a big mistake
even though he’s got all his servants and a mansion beside a lake
and the money too, all that he can spend
he can buy the most, nearly anything but he can’t buy an honest friend
And then the whole chorus:
’Cause he’s the man in the middle
never second fiddle
just like a spider in a cobweb
hard as a hammer
not the kind of boss
you double-cross
’cause he’s the man in the middle
knows the way to diddle
he’s never bothered by his conscience
deals with the devil ’cause he wants to be
man in the middle, the middle, the middle
in the middle
In my personal opinion, this song is not in any way glorifying this behavior. It's specifically talking about a BAD man who does BAD actions. But he doesn't care because he IS BAD. Do I need to make it any clearer? Of course you can dislike any song you want, but I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a bad character. Okay?
Now, there is also the song Does Your Mother Know, which in all honestly, is a super weird song. I will give you that. The song certainly gives me a bit of an ick, as the man in the song is clearly an adult and singing about flirting with a child. HOWEVER, when you actually listen to the words of the song, you'll see how it's actually about a man turning down the advances being made at him by a child because SHE IS ONLY A CHILD. And he's actually asking her if her mother knows what she's doing? At a time when there were so many rock stars in the 70s and 80s, and even earlier, who were ALLEGEDLY known to have relations with minors, which is really really REALLY bad and also ILLEGAL I should mention, can we just appreciate a song that is actually discouraging this behavior? Yes I think the wording could have been done better, even flirting with a minor is not right, but the song is AT LEAST trying to discourage such wrong behaviors, especially where it is the adult's job in that situation to be the responsible one and make sure no ILLEGAL actions are being done, and actively discourage the kid from pursuing such wrong things. But the responsibility ultimately falls on the adult. Which the main character of Does Your Mother Know is trying to do.
So all the more so, there are no ABBA songs that promote relationships between minors and adults. Okay?
Also, very important to note, almost all of ABBA's songs are not about
actual situations in their members' lives. Unlike singers of today who
like to write deeply personal songs about their own personal lives
((which is not a bad thing)), ABBA's songs are not like that. It would be
dumb to think that ABBA in 1975 would have experienced a rough divorce
like in Hey Hey Helen or be jealous of their partner for choosing their
love for violin over interacting with them like in Dum Dum Diddle,
etc. There may be a fe2 of songs INSPIRED (emphasis on the word inspired) by real life events, like
The Winner Takes It All, When All Is Said And Done, and Slipping
Through My Fingers, but that is just taking inspiration and is not
actually telling the story of the ABBA members personal lives.
Now, just last night I think it was, Saturday Night Live did an ABBA parody. As you can probably tell by this whole ranty post, I really do not like parodies. I don't like Mamma Mia, I don't like tribute bands (unless they can to it properly, but I've already ranted about that on my blog in the past), and that's just me. If you like those things, good for you.
So clearly, I'm not the target audience for this parody. Especially as they got the costumes so inaccurate, like I know EXACTLY which outfits they're parodying, but if they went as far as they did to research costumes, and attempt to recreate them and even give them and decent wigs, can you at least try to make them more accurate? Plus they're saying this FICTIONAL album came out in 1978. Why then did they make them look like ABBA from 1974??? WHYYY?????
But the thing I'm most upset by is the FIXATION on characters in ABBA songs being aged 17. I literally just went over the number of ABBA songs that mention ages, that being TWO. TWO SONGS out of a good 9 albums worth of songs. If there were more songs that mention ages in songs, don't you think I'd have done a compilation on it by now?
If the SNL skit had actually been more properly researched, maybe just maybe I could accept it and possibly enjoy it . Like I'm glad that ABBA are still getting recognition and are popular enough to even merit a skit being about them, but if you can't be bothered to get your FREAKING FACTS STRAIGHT and make sure there's an actual TRUE basis to your statements, I'm sorry but maybe don't try it at all. You just end up making yourself look stupid.
Also, I know I'm being nitpicky, but there couldn't have been an Xmas version of Chiquitita released in 1978, as it came out in 1979.
If you enjoy these parodies, no judgement to you of course. And no hate from me to the creators of these ill-researched parodies that were based on a completely false foundation. I just hope they'll do better if they really feel the need to be a next time. Let's pray there won't be lol.
Today our Princess Frida celebrates her 78th birthday! I hope she has an absolutely wonderful day celebrating with her family and friends. We love you Frida! đź’•
It was 10 years ago today that I received Agnetha's autograph, signed on a postcard of her newest album, in the mail. My younger self was absolutely ecstatic, not believing my eyes that I was holding her autograph in my hands! Hands down one of the best days of my life.
So how fitting is it that my copy of her newest album, A+, arrived in the mail today. The album took a bit of a while to ship, leaving me to wonder if I ever was going to get it haha, but thank goodness it arrived today, and on all days to arrive, it was just super fitting. :')
I also got a T-shirt. I do love me some merch. :'D
Look, I made a new set of costumes for my dolls! :D As usual, a more detailed post is up on my sewing blog, but here they are for you to see. :) These outfits were frustrating, complicated, and difficult in some ways to make, mostly because of all the glue I used, lol, but I think they turned out pretty decent.
Today, Agnetha's new album of reworked tracks from A, originally released 10 years ago in 2013, released! This project has been met with a lot of feedback from fans, both negative and positive, and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts as well. I should mention, as an obsessed ABBA fan, I tend to immediately love anything the ABBA members do or release (with the exception of Mamma Mia! the Movie/Musical, hehehehehehhe), but I listened to this album with as much of an open mind as possible.
I think the hardest part for me was trying to forget about the original versions of the tracks when listening to A+. I love A with my whole heart, as I've mentioned in my previous post, the album is very special to me and I love that album so much. So trying to forget about the music style of those tracks while listening to A+ is an extremely difficult feat. On my first listen, I found myself leaning more towards disliking some of the creative decisions in some of the tracks, mainly I Should Have Followed You Home (A+) and When You Really Loved Someone (A+), however after listening to the album a few more times, specifically with headphones on, it becomes a whole new experience.
The album sounds very digital to me, if that makes sense. Like the instruments all sound computerized and synthesized, which in my opinion, makes it sound a little flat. However, I've found that in general, this album is very laid back and chill when compared to A, and when listening with headphones, I've learned to appreciate the more modern chopped vocal style and auto-tuned vocals. On the topic of auto-tune, I understand that it was added on to a lot of the vocals as a style choice, not necessarily because they're trying to perfect her vocals, and perhaps they went a little heavy on the auto-tune, specifically on Perfume In The Breeze (A+), but it's not the worst. The sped up tempo of the vocals on I Was A Flower (A+) is quite noticeable to me, but I actually really enjoy this version.
For me, the real highlight on the album is Back On Your Radio (A+). From my understanding, it was the first track they reworked, and they did a FANTASTIC job. Also Janne Schaffer's added guitar to Past Forever (A+) is AMAZING. I enjoy the added saxophone on Bubble (A+) and whistling on I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed (A+). And of course, I absolutely LOVE Where Do We Go From Here. I've listened to that song almost every day since it came out, and Agnetha's harmonies and voice are so beautiful on that track. I also like that on a lot of the tracks, Agnetha's vocals are very prominent and clear, very front and center.
All in all, the album feels modern and very digital, and I think it's good. It took some getting used to, and trying to ignore the A versions that I know and love from my mind while listening was tricky, but ultimately, I like this album. Thank you Agnetha and Jorgen for this new album, and I can't wait for my CD and T-shirt to arrive from the webstore. :')
Back in 2013, I was entering my third year of being an obsessed ABBA fan. I had experienced a lot of shame and negativity from people who were disappointed at me for my obsession, but I had never let it stop me. I was probably in my ABBA peak at that time, drawing ABBA constantly, making animations to their songs, LEARNING TO MAKE THEIR CLOTHES FOR MY ABBA DOLLS, like, I was obsessed! (Still am, of course haha).
I had never once thought that any of the ABBA members would release new music in my lifetime. Okay, Frida released a song now and then, Benny was active with his band, and Agnetha had released a whole album in 2004, but I was 3 then lol and by the time I had discovered ABBA, things were fairly quiet.
So when A was announced, a whole new album from Agnetha Fältskog, I was HYPED! i was so excited the moment the album was announced, and then when it came out, I listened to it so much, often on repeat. All the promotion for the album, interviews and even a performance at BBC's Children in Need! I was so happy.
A holds a special place in my heart, and now with the album celebrating 10 years with a new, reimagined version, whatever that means, I am feeling that same thrill that 12-year-old me had. I'm just so excited.
I like the new song a lot. It's very upbeat and happy sounding, it feels very modern. Agnetha's voice is amazing. Regardless of how I feel about auto-tuning in songs, I fully accept that it's a tool that every artist uses nowadays to aim for the most perfect and crisp vocal out there. So if there is auto-tune on this track, I do not care. The fact that she's releasing new music makes me happy and I feel honored to have been able to experience new music from ABBA and Agnetha these last couple of years. :')
(Also I meant to post something about when this song was first announced last week and my thoughts, but I have been SUFFERING from getting my wisdom teeth removed and had just vomitted a ton when I first saw the announcement.... Yeah... it's been tough. I seem to be on the tail end of things though, so hopefully no more of this PAIN soon enough. :) )
Apologies for being so MIA. The last few
months since my beautiful bird Skyler passed away have been pretty
hard, but I'm starting to feel better. I have sorta been active on my
YouTube Channel, and if you've seen my videos there you'll know that I
recently adopted two beautiful budgie boys, Mordecai and Darius.
They're super cute and definitely bring a lot of joy to my life.
Back
in December, I had ordered some stuff from the ABBA the Museum webstore
as kind of an early birthday present to myself and had intended on
posting about the few things I got, but then Skyler had gotten sick and I
just never got around to it...
Now, just a couple of weeks
ago I enjoyed some more retail therapy by ordering some stuff from the
ABBA voyage web store, and now that everything's here, I figured it's
time to finally get around to posting my collection update. :)
I've also gotten a few other ABBA items not from the official stores, but from Amazon and ebay and the like, so yeah, here are some of my newest items:
To
start, here we have the beautiful, new 1-year anniversary ABBA Voyage
Programme, aka the main reason for my purchase at the voyage store. I
mostly wanted this book because I want HQ pictures of their outfits so I
can recreate them, and this book definitely gives that! So many
stunning photos of the avatars, sometimes it's hard to believe that they
aren't even real!!
Okay, I've been wanting this book for over 10 years, back when it was only available from the International ABBA Fan club, and I remember when ABBA the Museum first announced they were selling it with new illustrations, I wanted it so badly. I now have it. :)
Because I want to turn my entire bedroom wall into an ABBA shrine, I decided to get these postcards from the Museum store, and yes now my room is covered in even more ABBA pictures. :D
I had pre-ordered this book by Carl Magnus Palm as soon as it had been available. I liked it, it does a pretty nice job of talking about ABBA's legacy. Idk I felt like there was a bit of an anti-Stikkan Anderson view to the book?? Other than that, I enjoyed it.
I also got this very nice and well written Agnetha biography by Daniel Ward. I think he did a fabulous job compiling snippets of interviews, and I really felt like I got to know a bit of what the Real Agnetha Faltskog is like, understanding her personality and learning a lot more about her. I'd give it an 8/10. :)
And I got Agnetha's sort-of autobiography, by her and Brita Ahman. I like how a lot of it is Agnetha yelling at the press, lol. It's not the most informative book, she's chosen to not spill any juicy details in her life (which I like btw - I believe that she should have a right as to what she wants publicized about her and what not), but it's pretty good.
I got this beanie from ABBA the Museum's store. It's nice, though it kind of keeps on falling off my head despite the fact that I have a really small head. xD
Knowing Me Knowing You keyrings from the ABBA voyage store. I like them, I got them to share with my sister, though I honestly can't tell if this is to be used as a frienship keyring or a breakup keyring. xD
ABBA Gold on Gold Vinyl, in honor of ABBA's 30th anniversary! I didn't need to get this, but I have an obsession with collecting vinyls, so I had to. :)
And last but definitely not least, this ABBA Voyage t-shirt. :) It's super comfortable and soft, and it's nice having yet another way of showing off my love for this band that I've dedicated over half my life to. :)
So yeah, that's pretty much everything. But before I go, please enjoy this picture of my budgies because I love them so much. :'D (Darius is on the left, Mordecai on the right.)
Guess who made a new ABBA costume for my dolls. :3 I made Agnetha's outfit a few years ago, but gave it a quick update, but made Frida's outfit completely new today. As always, more details on my sewing blog.
49 years ago today, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with their epic performance of Waterloo, skyrocketing them into worldwide fame and success, and the rest of course is history! :D
Wishing our Queen of Hearts, Miss. Agnetha Faltskog, the happiest 73rd birthday! I hope she has an absolutely incredible day celebrating with her family and friends. We love you Agnetha!
I recently finished my latest batch of doll costumes, this time of ABBA's 1976 flapper-style outfits. For a more detailed post, feel free to check out my sewing blog. :3
For a little update from me, unfortunately my dear budgie, Skyler passed away on March 1st. He had a mass in his liver, and the last two months he was very sick. He was my everything, we did almost everything together, we got to witness ABBA's comeback together, he'd sit on my shoulder while I sewed and drew, though he wasn't a big fan of when I was working on my book a year ago. He didn't like that I was putting all my attention to my drawing tablet instead of him, haha.
He was a really sweet bird, the best little guy a girl like me could ask for. I miss him so much, but I'm just so grateful for the time that we had together. I love you Skyler.
