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.
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.
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.
I'll always remember September 2nd, 2021 as one of the most exciting days of my life thus far. Waking up with anticipation of the live stream event that ABBA were hosting, not just on their YouTube channel but in various locations around the world. There was so much curiosity, so many unknowns, yet we all had a suspicion that ABBA's long awaited "two new songs" were finally here.
I remember exactly where I was on that day. I had set up the live stream to play on the TV and was seated on the couch for almost an hour before the event even started in fear that I would somehow accidentally miss it. Skyler was seated on his favorite perch, chattering away, and when the live stream started, there was a lot about the various worldwide fan events, lots of people celebrating ABBA, talking about ABBA, dancing to ABBA.
For a moment I was not sure what this event was for, but then, I Still Have Faith Have You started to play. Hearing Frida's voice, followed by Agnetha joining in harmony. The music video featuring unseen footage of the ABBA members, seeing them goofing around and not just as the professional people they always presented themselves as. Then the ABBA-tars in all their glory, and Bjorn and Benny adding some backing vocals. The layers upon layers of harmonies just like in the old days in the chorus. It was amazing. Though I remember Skyler thought otherwise, haha. He immediately flew out of his cage screeching because he didn't like the music at all. (He did eventually warm up to it hahaha, but unless it was a new Roxette song, he was skeptical of EVERYTHING!)
It was all I could have dreamed of, yet Bjorn and Benny suddenly appeared in London, and Benny said in the most nonchalant way, "We have made a new album with ABBA." I remember immediately being like "What?! What did he just say?!?!?!?" I couldn't believe my eyes and ears, but then they presented us with some behind the scenes footage of ABBA working on the motion capture for ABBA Voyage as well as the four of them in the studio, recording new songs. It was so heartwarming, seeing my four favorite people in the recording studio, creating magic together again. It wasn't until two months later that we even got to hear the remaining 8 tracks on the Voyage album, but I knew they would be amazing.
I remember the moment Benny said that the album was available to pre-order, I jumped onto the website and it wasn't even up yet! It said it needed a password to enter the shop, and I had no idea what to do. I just kept on reloading and reloading the tab until it let me in, and even then, there were no images on all the listings but I just bought whatever I could justify spending on. I gave ABBA a lot of money that day, but I didn't care.
Then, before the live stream ended, we got to hear the Agnetha-led Don't Shut Me Down, and what a treat it was to hear an uptempo ABBA song and know that they still had it in them to create a classic ABBA track.
Although their voices had significantly aged, something I definitely noticed, there was no doubt that it was ABBA, and hearing them and seeing the four of them together felt so comforting. Not only had ABBA given us the long promised two songs, they had prepared 8 more, one of them being one of my absolute favorite ABBA Undeleted songs revisited with a modern sound.
It was just such a wonderful day, and I'll always be grateful that I got to witness ABBA's comeback, and even more that I got to experience it with my best bird boy, my beloved Skyler Bird. :')
.tiff)
