Retro Spins: ABBA - The Visitors

I wonder if people knew at the time that they were holding in their hands the last studio album from ABBA. There's no doubt the group was one of the highest grossing bands of all time, and remained a powerhouse in the recording industry. So I'm sure, regardless of whether people knew or not, that it was shocking the band was done.

The Visitors starts with the fantastic title track, featuring lead vocals from Anni-Frid. From there, Agnetha takes lead for Head Over Heals. However, this is actually two of only three of the songs I actually know from the album, the last being track six, One of Us. It's because of this, I was excited to hear the remaining six songs.

Of them, When All Is Said And Done and Two For The Price Of One stood out as pretty good tracks. As for the rest - Well, they were ABBAish, but nothing spectacular or special.

Overall, it was an okay album, but nothing I would race to hear again. This is something I'm finding out about ABBA. For as popular as they are, it seems their hits are the hits, while the of the songs are just kind of there. Don't get me wrong, I get that not everything can be a smash, but I also know when you're a fan of a band, or singer, you feel they can do no wrong, and even the stuff people raise an eyebrow at is amazing to you. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not a super fan of ABBA.

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Retro Spins: ABBA - Voyage

 

When word spread across the internet about an upcoming new ABBA album, excitement burst from eager fans wanting to know when they would get their hands on the record, and where they could buy tickets for the tour the group would embark on to support it.

Then the pandemic hit, and everything went silent.

As 2020 slowly turned over to 2021, and people returned to normal lives, ABBA too came back to the forefront to ensure everyone they hadn't forgotten about their first studio album in forty years. It was still very much in the works, and coming soon.

Well today was that day, and so I'm diving head long into Voyage, ABBA's ninth studio album...and I'm probably not going to make any friends with this one.

The album breaks one of my biggest rules. It starts with a ballad, which also happens to be the teased single, I Still Have Faith In You. It's a decent song, but a show opener it is not. It causes the album to limp over the starting line, and this is not helped by the following track, When You Danced With Me, which is so short that it feels incomplete.

Things only get worse from there with the oddly placed Christmas song, Little Things. It derails an already faltering "Voyage", and makes one wonder just what these four masterminds of music were thinking.

While I wish I could say it gets better from there, the rest of the album goes on, seemingly trapped in the era ABBA once thrived in. I suppose it could be perceived as a good thing for familiarity, what it also shows is that the group hasn't developed at all beyond 1981's The Visitors. If anything, they seem to have forgotten how to craft hits in lieu of just writing songs. Forgettable songs at that.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this album could have met the expectation of the hype. This is The Phantom Menace all over again. Where people will have their own vision, and it's just not going to get met. With that said, I'm also not saying this is a bad album. It's just not one which deemed them coming out of retirement for. The problem becomes that this isn't the 1982 follow up to The Visitors. This is the long awaited, "ABBA is coming back," album. And to that regard, it's just not special enough.

It almost begs the question of whether or not an entire album was the right course of action. Perhaps the impact would have been greater had the group delivered their two singles, and left the rest to fans rabid imaginations of what a full album could have been like.

Overall, I'm just not impressed. This isn't the album ABBA needed to make.

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Retro Spins: ABBA - Super Trouper

I have to wonder. Do artists such as the likes of ABBA genuinely understand the cultural impact they made? Do they even care? Are they appreciate their fan base? Or do they just swim in their pile of money, uninterested as to the millions of people who put it in their pockets?

Well, I don't know the answers to any of those questions. What I do know is I'm a fan of ABBA. Not the biggest. Not the littlest. Somewhere in between-ie.

My major exposure to the group was through their 1975 Greatest Hits, 1979 Greatest Hits Volume II, their best selling album of all time, Gold (from 1992) and the follow up, More ABBA Gold (1993). However, as my CD collection began to grow, ABBA was a must have studio collection, something I eventually rectified. So, with all albums in hand, it's time to start digging deeper into them to see what they have to offer, beyond their massive successful hits.

To keep in tune with Retro Spins, I'm starting with their 1980 entry, Super Trouper. Sadly, unless I switch formats to the 1970's, which I may do very far down the road, I'll only be talking about two of their albums in this format. But, for now, back to today.

Super Trouper starts with the track of the same title and from there jumps into two other ABBA hits, The Winner Takes It All and On And On And On. From there it took me to new territory. However, out of these five "new" songs only a couple really stood out for me.

At this point, I don't even remember how Andante, Andante went. Me And I got added to my shuffle list. As did Our Last Summer. However, I don't know that these two tracks will withstand the test of time for me.

Happy New Year was honestly annoying as a song. It came off as yodeling in my ears, and overall wasn't very good. Certainly not on par with the expectation ABBA's hits set. The Piper also stood out as a weak track, which also verged more so on the irritating side than enjoyable. Fortunately, all of this was followed by Lay All Your Love On Me, one of my all time favorites from the group.

The album closes with a live track, The Way Old Friends Do. It's a decent song, but it's out of place with the studio album. It also ruins the fade out to Lay All Your Love On Me with the audience cheering.

Overall, the album is pretty good. Four hits and two "new" songs out of ten isn't a bad find. I hope the other ABBA albums turn out to be as lucrative because I'm definitely excited to hear more.

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Retro Spins: ABBA - Ring Ring

 

The year was 1973. The day, February 10th. The event, Eurovision. ABBA had been invited to represent Sweden, and after months of work between founding members Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeu and their manager, Stig Anderson, an eventual re-write in English by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody, the group recorded and submitted one of their soon to be most popular songs, Ring Ring. The soon to be international stars, with singing duo Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, ABBA were poised to be the champions.

They were not. The group came in third, officially leaving them out of the Eurovision contest. However, 1974 was just around the corner, and with it, an all new contest. This time, ABBA came back even stronger, unleashing the song, Waterloo. With it came the first place prize of the contest and a career which launched into orbit!

ABBA were formed in 1972 by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeu, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, with the name of the group being an acronym for the first name of each member. When they first began, it was well known that the quartet were actually two couples, Fältskog and Ulvaeus, and Lyngstad and Andersson. However, as their careers proceeded, and their lives became more and more public, this weight would unfortunately contribute greatly to both couples eventual divorces. If there's a bright side, this fortunately didn't impact the band as a whole, who continued to perform together through their final album in 1981. Though rumors continue to fly around that an all new album is in the works, to date, there's been no sign of this.

Despite their breakup, ABBA remains one of the most influential and successful groups of all time. Over a decade since disbanding, their 1992 Gold: Greatest Hits compilation album remains one of their highest selling releases of all time. Even today, fans long for the group to conduct a reunion tour. Something I myself would get tickets for, if it ever happened.

Today's Retro Spin takes us to the 1973 debut album, Ring Ring, an album I'm somewhat familiar with. I've definitely heard it before, but since it was so long ago, I had forgotten many of the tracks which didn't get shuffled off to the numerous greatest hits over the years. Most notable from this album are the songs Ring Ring, People Need Love, Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough) and Nina, Pretty Ballerina.

As for the rest of the album, it's okay. However, it definitely doesn't pack the punch that their hits do. What it does offer is a glimpse at the foundation that ABBA was about to build upon. They show two song writers that had a vision, and were overlaying tracks in a way that would create their own unique sound. All of this was backed with a due of female singers who contrasted each other greatly, regardless of who was singing lead, sometimes backing Björn who takes the lead on a handful of songs.

Each figure of ABBA brought with them their own talents, which felt unstoppable when combined. Hearing Ring Ring, the album, serves only to excite me all the more to jump into their second, third and beyond records.

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Retro Spins: Frida - Something's Going On

Frida
Something's Going On
1982

Call Frida a one hit wonder, and she'd probably look at you like you're mentally insane. While as a solo artist, she hit it big in 1982 with her track, There's Something Going On. However, this was by far the singer's first rodeo. Many will recognize her as Anni-Frid Lyngstad, or "the red head" from ABBA. Additionally, this also wasn't her first (or last) solo album.

The album came about in one of those "fun" music stories, often reserved for VH-1's Behind the Music or Pop Up Video. Frida heard Phil Collin's In The Air Tonight, and from there spent about eight months listening to his solo album, Face Value. During this time, Polar Studios approached the Genesis front man, and asked if he would be interested in producing the album. Collins not only agreed, but also contributed to the album by providing the percussion, backing vocals, writing credits on one track, and a duet with Frida.

The end result is a mediocre entry into 1982. Nothing to write home about, but listenable. The biggest problem with the album is the good songs render the ones which aren't as somewhat forgettable. This is not for a lack of Frida herself. You can definitely tell she's bringing her all to each song, and not just phoning it in. Part of this could have been the problem that many of the tracks sounded too similar to ABBA's style, and not the good kind of ABBA tracks either.

In the end, only two tracks made the cut for my 80's Ipod shuffle; Tell Me It's Over and I Know There's Something Going On. A few others made the cut for my 80's Itune shuffle. These included; I Got Something, To Turn the Stone and Threnody.

I expected more from it, and looking back as I write this, I probably shouldn't have. Frida, after all, was always someone who got paid to sing someone else's songs. She was a singer, not a writer. That's no different in this solo endeavor, as she once again has no writing credits. Unfortunately, she just didn't pick very good songs to sing.

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