Retro Roundup now takes a take a look at the albums of the Swedish phenomenon Abba, who at first — not less than within the U.S. — was scoffed at by critics, however when their first period got here to an finish, these critics noticed the sunshine.
However first, a really temporary replace on my continued listening to Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Actuality Audio through Amazon Music by way of suitable Sony headphones.
On the Dolby Atmos facet, I listened to Jimi Hendrix’s Electrical Ladylandan album that already produced encompass sound results because of the manner it was blended. The unique intention was to allow listening in early encompass sound, however a special combine got here out, and it nonetheless sounded nice on Dolby professional Logic II programs. However for the Dolby Atmos model, the remixers went even wilder, guitars and different sound results are travelling far and wide. I by no means heard a extra lively headphone encompass combine.
On the 360 Actuality Audio facet, I listened to the Guess Who’s American Lady album, which was launched in quadraphonic sound on RCA Victor within the Seventies. This additionally includes a great headphone encompass combine. It is much less wild than Electrical Ladylandhowever very lively and with a special sort of combine for every monitor. Very extremely really helpful.
And now to Abba:
Ring Ring: Abba’s 1973 debut album was, shockingly, not obtainable in North America till the compact disc period within the Nineteen Nineties. The primary style we in Canada and the U.S. had of those songs was the inclusion of a few of them on the group’s 1976 Biggest Hits assortment, so to us they have been bonuses. The album units a template of kinds for Abba albums — no filler in any respect, but in addition a mixture of the chic and the foolish, with the previous being the galloping Wall of Sound-like title monitor (which had lyrical songwriting assist from Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody) and Abba’s debut single, Individuals Want Love. This latter music really straddles the road between chic and foolish — the music and singing are nice, however the message of cohesion is a bit heavy handed, and that is doubly the case for the very preachy He Is Your Brother. The album can be inconsistent music and soundwise, as solely a number of the songs have been engineered by Michael Tretow, who was behind the board all through Abba’s golden period. Going by way of the album, Ring Ring and One other City, One other Practice are enjoyable pop; Disillusion is a solo highlight for Agnetha Faltskog and doesn’t sound like Abba in any respect — it is nonetheless a great music, and was the one one written by her (together with then-husband Bjorn Ulvaeus, who seemingly provided the English lyrics as he was more adept within the language) for the group. Individuals Want Love, as talked about, is nice musically and heavy-handed message sensible, however was influenced by different peace and love songs of the time. I Noticed It within the Mirror can be very un-Abba sounding and has a weirdly dragging tempo, which says to me the group was experimenting with their sound to see what caught. Nina, Fairly Ballerina is gloriously foolish however nice sing-along pop. Love Is not Straightforward (However It Certain Is Onerous Sufficient) is considerably robust sounding pop and has an ideal hook. Me and Bobby and Bobby’s Brother is an ungainly Euro model of early Nineteen Sixties pop. He Is Your Brotheras talked about, may be very heavy-handed and cringey lyrically, however nonetheless nice musically. She’s My Type of Ladywhich was not even on the unique Swedish model of the album, sounds actually misplaced — it was recorded in 1969, nicely earlier than Abba started, for a Swedish pornographic film, solely options Bjorn and Benny Andersson and isn’t even in stereo. (I count on, at some point, a stereo model can be created by way of demixing expertise.) I Am Simply A Lady is frothy retro pop, with the vocals blended throughout audio system to create a dreamy sound. Rock n’ Roll Band is the primary awkward try by Abba to be hip, when it comes to sending the message, “Hey. we’re able to arduous rock too!” On this regard, their makes an attempt would enhance barely on subsequent albums, and would solely be (nonetheless imperfectly) nicely executed in 1979. Extra particulars then.
Subsequent time: Waterloothe Abba album and Biggest Hits.
