Don't go wasting all your ballots/Lay all your votes on me -- ILM Artist Poll #20 -- ABBA (voting thread)

You Owe Me One is my deep cut of choice. It was put on tape for the 9th album that never came and ended up the b-side of "Under Attack". One of the final things they ever recorded as a band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQy8D8APo9E

The deepest I'll probably go are "King Kong Song" and "When I Kissed The Teacher" - - - I'm kind of an ABBA dilettante but I think I probably still have twenty beloved cuts.

btw if anyone does NOT know "When I Kissed The Teacher," put it on repeat STAT, it is top three easily

yeah an amazing bit of work that, although it's never been the same for me since i realised that it sounds like she's saying 'When I Kissed The T-Shirt'.

/i'd like to encourage people to vote for stuff aside from the big hits because they have such a strong back catalog and the results might be more interesting that way. here is "should i laugh or cry?"/

"Should I Laugh or Cry" will be in my Top 20, no worries there, however their hits are so damned good it's hard to vote for anything else. I like all of their hit singles, except "I Have a Dream", which is shite

My deep cut of choice is "Just Like That" -- never finished and turned into some song on Chess I believe. But the snippet on the "Undeleted" medley (and heard on various YouTubes) is absolutely one of my favorite things by them.

i really love the gemini version of "just like that", which (iirc?) is a good deal sadder-sounding than ABBA's (warning tho: xxxtreme 80s production)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUHKNKbVqE

oh I am so doing this! "Waterloo" and "Fernando" are two of the best songs of the 70s afaic, and I have wanted an excuse to explore deeper for a minute. I am going to spend all week digging deep into their albums on Spotify!

Anyone else going to vote for this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2APDCyVZ2zA

Has to be one of the strangest songs they did but I've always loved it.

omg those shirts
LOVE

oh btw i just realized i'm going to be out of town this weekend until monday night so i think we can extend the voting to the night of monday, may 28 instead?

keep ballots coming guys!! i only have a smattering so far

probably should have done "best 3 ABBA outfits" instead of "best 3 albums"...

oh btw i just realized i'm going to be out of town this weekend until monday night so i think we can extend the voting to the night of monday, may 28 instead?

^yay!

yeah i am gonna need some time too
but i feel the need to honor my early childhood favorite band
monday it is

yeah I have to do some spotifying and press my satin jumpsuit

3 tracks into Ring Ring and i realise this is gonna be impossible

― Vermicious Knid A (Noodle Vague), Friday, May 18, 2012 7:29 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

3rd track of Ring Ring:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sktO-fEKfo4

OMG

this IS going to be impossible isnt it?

YOW-ZA!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92L6balksi8

wow the Waterloo album is amazing!

I am listening to the albums in chronological order on Spotify, and I am also doing a sort of 'liveblog'/write-up of them. If you want/don't mind, donna rouge, I can post them here...

Did this poll include their best albums? You should post them in the results poll if so.

Results thread that is.

well i'm doing it song-by-song

go nuts, LLB

also interested parties might wanna check out this week's onion av club xword

Right, my ballot is in. Some of the songs I left off, I should be ashamed of myself, oy!

Alright, I'm p ignorant about ABBA though (can't tell Agnetha's and Anni-Frida's voices apart tbrr)--before Tuesday, I probably had heard only five ABBA songs in my life, so hopefully this won't come off as totally stupid.

First Album: Ring Ring--the album they released even before they stumbled upon the name ABBA; I think original printings refer to it as Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid

Ring Ring - wikipedia says that this song was rejected by Melodifestivalen to compete in the 1973 Eurovision contest. It sounds very modern; the mechanized c&w bounce seems to turn into a punk/indie trope later on (Suicide's "Johnny", Dead Skeletons' "Psychodead", even to some extent Bowie's "Move On") I love how the bridge is only drums and vocals (have not yet learned how to tell the two women apart yet)--very "Hey Mickey!"--and I love how the chorus takes an out-of-nowhere left turn into the "I sit all alone impatiently" part without flagging momentum a bit, and I love how the honky-tonk guitar flourishes manage to call to mind my favorite Roxy Music song "If There is Something." This is going to be great!

Another Town, Another Train - Man, they loved to roll out the piccolo carpet. "Guess I will spend my life in railway stations" is a line that cuts deep.

Disillusion - "I know it doesn't matter just how hard I try..." Oh, man. After the chorus, Agnetha (who receives a co-songwriting credit, the only she'll get in ABBA) goes through another half-verse before taking another round at the chorus, and that seems to be a motif with this album: trying to gauge how to make the most of a hook, or the peak of a song. Trying to master the way a song can push and pull at the listener without lapsing into formula. I think I might love this song. (Note: I would go on to listen to this song about fourteen or fifteen more times that day)

People Need Love - Everybody sings! But seriously: this song reminds me a wee bit of the refrain for "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock'n'Roll" (though not nearly as dinky as all that), but it definitely has that '70s garish showbiz maximalism about it, a whiff of the sitcom variety-show spectacle to it. Not that it comes as a surprise. Best part of this was definitely the girls' mentalist yodelling that accompanied the song's fade-out. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, this song was the first hit for the quartet, recorded with the four of them almost as a lark, and it was this success that made them decide to record an album as a group.

I Saw It in the Mirror - I have found that I am decidedly less invested in songs where the guys take lead vocals. I do, however, think this is solid. The slow-burn funk arrangements lend the sad-sack lyrics and melody some class, but obviously its at the end of the verses--when the women pop out of nowhere to do a call-and-response out of "when this boy cries"--that really rewards the decision not to fast-forward through this track. No chorus here, though it's not really missed; just a lush breakdown with the women actual taking (their rightful place) front-and-center for the only time in this song...

Nina, Pretty Ballerina - This is aite. The arrangement is interesting: the unassuming, almost hidden, staccato rockabilly-style guitar part helps to ground it, while the sixteenth notes played on the piano during the chorus helps to add that sort of precious, music-box quality that I tend to associate with ABBA. And what are those little sharp sounds at the end of each verse? Is that a synthesizer sound, a la "Ring My Bell", or is it just some small exhortation uttered/sang by one of the women? Also: lots of sound effects. Lots of stuff going on in here for what would just seem ike a light pop throwaway. Lyrics establish a popular motif: they sketch out the titular character, an ordinary-looking woman whom everyone thinks is a bore, but who on Friday night transforms into 'the queen of the dancing floor.' You don't say.

Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure is Hard Enough) - Lots of stuff going on here as well. To be honest, this sounds like a Waterloo precursor to me. Those descending female verses (sorry I'm still not quite good at distinguishing between Agnetha and Anni-Frida) that storm into the song with attending electric guitars, threatening its bouncy good nature, are the first glimmers of the glam rock sensibility that would help ABBA win the Eurovision contest next year. The chorus reinforces and accentuates the boogie, absorbing the momentary sturm und drang, and you can already see Bjorn & Benny putting the pieces together, figuring out how forward-charging protopunk can be both contrasted and at the same time curbed by a good old-fashioned R&B dance beat.

Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother - Song comes in strong with a jaunty, dynamic chorus sung by everyone, which for some reason causes me to believe that this is going to be another "guys' song" but apparently this is (I think...?) Anni-Frida singing about a woman remembering her childhood friends, both boys. Some interesting thing going on w/r/t gender here: in the male-augmented chorus, the narrator's childhood is sketched out as more tomboyish ("Wildest kids you could see...climbing the apple tree") but the verses paint her as more feminine (she doesn't like it when Bobby and his brother want to play football). Though actually, she sings the 'apple tree' line by herself, so maybe I am way off here.

He is Your Brother - Opens with some great guitar, and the chorus has some embryonic hints of "S.O.S." along with that pre-Waterloo bounce, slowed down as if to see if it would make it more forceful. This aspect of the song almost reminds me of Badfinger's "Come and Get It" or something.

She's My Kind of Girl - A song with loads of history: written in '69 for the Swedish softcore movie The Seduction of Inga (which was re-released on DVD somewhat recently on the retro wing of the production company which gave us The Erotic Witch Project and Spider-babe), the song was released as a Bjorn & Benny single in 1970 and that version hit to #1 in Japan in 1972. As for The song? To be honest, it sounds even earlier than that. The chorus has a Hollies feel to it; if it wasn't for the prominent rhythm section, it would not sound out of place on a Nuggets-type compilation. Its incongruity with the rest of the album almost makes it seem like a stand-out.

I Am Just a Girl - Gwen Stefani, call your lawyers. Nah, just kidding. That's a recycled Mission of Burma/Eddie Vedder joke anyways. This song has me torn. It's a great slice of lush, floaty cloud-pop, frothy and effortless and unencumbered like I want School of Seven Bells to be, but at the same time the whole 'girl gets self worth from her man' theme is wearying. Maybe I should give it a pass--you know, 1973 and all--but this song is kind of like the antithesis of "Disillusion", for my money the best song on here. And while it is a does offer a great catchy/ethereal hybrid, I feel like considering the subtext--the men wrote these songs and then got their wives to sing them--it's really hard to make something like this wash. (apparently this is dleone's choice for most disturbing ABBA song; maybe I should replace 'unencumbered' with 'lobotomized')

Rock and Roll Band - This, on the other hand, might be my favorite of the "guys' songs" (which I guess are pretty much peculiar to this album only...?), and it might have my favorite guitar solos of the album. It is a bit more upbeat than other songs, not really girded by the chunky bounce of many of the other songs. It does have a more straightforward rock vibe, but at the same time it has a sort of twinge of melancholy to it. This is a good album closer.

Merry-Go-Round - Hey, how about some bonus tracks? This one starts out with a folkie Renaissance-Faire vibe to the verses before falling into that familiar bounce (tired of me typing that word yet?) though this time it has a bit of that aforementioned c&w vibe, like in "Ring Ring"

Santa Rosa - This is great; surprisingly, too since there's no sign of the women unfortunately, but Bjorn & Benny offer up some clavicle-soaked California-style bubblegum. I really like the psych-flavored pastiches sprinkled throughout the early stuff.

"Love Isn't Easy" is a massive tune for me, is it a deep cut? i never know anymore but dammit it bangs and bangs.

i sincerely want to vote for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM9ueSWj3ig

but i won't. ignore the idiot who labelled it "ABBA SPOOF" this is a beautiful tribute

i mean, that IS a spoof, but an extremely faithful one

like even down to the awkward english idioms

yeah i guess i feel "spoof" is kinda faint praise, the chorus is properly gorgeous

Love Isn't Easy" is a massive tune for me, is it a deep cut? i never know anymore but dammit it bangs and bangs.

― Cyders from Mars (Noodle Vague), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:26 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for real! probably my second favorite song off Ring Ring

y'all have convinced me that listening to the "full album" youtube is inadequate and i need to go out and see if i can find a copy of Ring Ring and/or Waterloo, today!

Dr Casino, both are on Spotify fyi

dude listen to Waterloo right now!

i listened to both the other day! they were good! I WNAT LPS

good point tbh

I've never been keen on the Waterloo or Ring Ring albums, apart from the singles from them. The ABBA story begins proper for me with the ABBA album (which is definitely my favourite record of theirs). From then up until The Visitors, I'd only really call the Voulez-Vous album a slight dip.

Meh. I don't agree. Waterloo and the selftitled albums are p much my favorite. Waterloo has the title track, "My Mama Said" (which is likely top 5 for me) and "Watch Out" at the very least. Plus I love the Wall-of-Sound production. Selftitled is almost as good. The later albums I've had a harder time getting into so far.

Tbh I'm starting to wonder if maybe I'm the wrong person to do this write-up, since the stuff that I think lots of fans like leave me cold. But I mostly want this to drum up interest for this poll, and being completely RONG might work in that capacity.

Actually, third album is probably my favorite too.

They didn't have 'em and I just shuffled on to the grocery store. :(

"My Mama Said" is def up there for me.

Don't not do the write-up bc it will be contrarian. Lord knows the world doesn't need another "SOS" testimonial. Keep going.

Voted.

Voted!

Voted!

keep em comin folks! i won't really be around this weekend to encourage more votes but i'll peek in whenever i get a chance!

I'm still gonna do these. I just started a new job (p much out of nowhere) yesterday so I've fallen behind a little. Anyways:

Second Album: Waterloo. ABBA breaks through to England and the US.

Waterloo - I remember the first time I heard this song: it was a very brief snippet of the first verse, being sung, karaoke-style, by Toni Colette and Rachel Griffiths in the Muriel's Wedding trailer, in some other Miramax movie that I watched as a teenager. It made me sit up and take notice. I didn't even know what song it was for another four or five years at least. When I finally found out, and finally heard the rest of the song, I was a bit dismayed to hear that perfect lightning bolt of a verse suddenly transform into cheeky 50's style R'n'B in the chorus. I had once entertained the thought of a possible cover for the imaginary band in my head, but that dream was dead. Even now I haven't completely reconciled myself to the disappointment, but I still consider it one of the best songs of the '70s: how many songs out there have perfect lightning-bolt verses? They really are silver streaks of protopunk perfection, as if the New York Dolls really had spontaneously transformed into women whilst simultaneously channelling Ludwig von Beethoven. And the chorus really is a lesson, not just in counterpoint, but how to let momentum dissipate without any loss of force, to manage that dispersal of forward motion be a ratcheting up of intensity, how abrupt changes in direction can operate functionally as massive hooks themselves.

Sitting in the Palmtree - Nicely demure pop song after the immense title track, this has a major Caribbean flavor. Calypso? Reggae? To be frank, I think that Toots and the Maytals do a better job at ABBA-style soft rock ("Beautiful Woman") than ABBA does with lilting island lovers rock or whatever you want to call it. But I still like this lots: that staccato guitar, the way I barely notice that the second verse takes a shortcut through the chorus, the bell-like "bom bom" back-up vocals by the women in the verses. Nothing incredibly new here, but everything is assured and deployed with maximum effectiveness.

King Kong Song - Okay, this sound like Sabbath, or at least Tony Iommi laying down guitars on a Bowie or Elton John song. This is incredible. The vocals are mixed low so that the thud-rock never stops battering in you the face. Wow! lots of screaming going on here. This sounds almost unhinged! Raaaaad as fuuuuuuck! (Ha ha, apparently this song's original name was "Mr. Sex")

Hasta Manana - A lush country ballad. Production-wise, this seems to reverse the last track, where the female vocals are mixed way up front and center and lots of the instrumentation (esp the lead guitar) are barely there, and coated in reverb besides. Though it should be pointed out, there is a very audible (and awesome) burbling bass doing gymanstics just under the vocal melody. Seems like ABBA is being much bolder with the production this time around; this album sounds very Spector-esque (which, I'm pretty sure is intentional). Which is a very good thing by me. Now I'm not going to go and dismissing anything as sounding like Linda Ronstadt after going ga-ga for "Disillusion", (though I guess they were consciously imitating Connie Francis on this one) but suffice to say, this is not my favorite of their ballads. But fantastic bass and outstanding use of the Wall-of-Sound go a long way.

My Mama Said - Yowza! Disco attack! And I was just frothing over awesome bass in the last track, and the bassist almost sounds as if s/he's doing victory laps in the fills. This song reminds me of Las Grecas, which by my standards is A++++++++++++. Man, I am loving this album.

Dance (When the Music Still Goes On) - This is really cool too, though after some of the wicked curve balls this album has thrown at me, it seems a bit more like standard-issue ABBA. It seems almost like a halfway point between "Be My Baby" and stuff like Roxette or maybe Nena. The opening especially has a strong '80s Europop flavor.

Honey, Honey - The second single from this album. This is cool, but this could have totally fit in with Ring Ring if not for the Wall of Sound. Though it would probably be one of the better songs. Love the icy synthesizer solo, if nothing else.

Watch Out - Another YOWZA! track. This album is amazing! This song sounds like it was a formative influence on some of Ted Nugent's solo stuff. And that chorus: it's fucking irresistible. You better WATCH OOOOUUUUUUTTT! And that divebombing synth sound at the end. Holy shit!

What About Livingstone - Even dinkier than Honey Honey. I like this song, and it doesn't detract from this album any, but obviously they could've left the kiddie-pop out of the album without any damage. When I think that the only other song from this album to appear on either of the Gold albums was "Honey Honey", then I feel like there is a sort of misunderstanding about their music, a tendency to still play it safe rather than to their myriad strengths. This song has a fun, bouncy bass part played by fun, bouncy synthesizers, and a funy singalong chorus, but it's safe, and grates slightly in the context of one amazing discovery after another. Of course, if this song is pro- imperialism, then that is at least a somewhat perverse subject for kiddie-pop...
(Note: after reading the lyrics (and jettisoning the questionable chrus), this song seems more like a kiddiepop retelling of Wings in Honneamise which raises it in my esteem quite a bit)

Gonna Sing You My Love - This is an alright ballad, albeit a bit nondescript. My favorite part is the intro, where twinned echoey guitar and synthesizer gives the opening melodic line a cool effect. The chorus is okay, too. I am really happy that the band has discovered synthesizers; their icy tones actually do elevate some of the more conventional material here, including this, which seems very much more wintry than it would without them.

Suzy-Hang-Around - And here is a song that would be jangle-rock REO Speedwagon if the main instrument was Rickenbacker instead of harpsichord (or is that clavicle?). I like this song, and it does a good job of closing proceedings, but it doesn't blow me away. Just as well. I've been blown away by this album enough already. One of the best of 1974 imho.

These writeups are incredible. Thanks! But any musings I might've had seem kind of superfluous now.

(There isn't much I want to say about those two anyway, except to praise the amazing, overdriven, sustained guitar sound on Waterloo, and which keeps recurring through their catalogue)

Good stuff -- tho I have to disagree about "What About Livingstone," which on the virtue of its arrangement alone made my ballot.

And I too think that the self-titled album is superior to Arrival.

Rock Me RULES

Haha, so I'm not the first person to notice that the real hook in this is that little 'Ah-hah!' that comes at the end of the 'knowing me, knowing you' phrase. It's pretty brilliant. a little twist of sexiness in what is essentially a break-up song.

Were I to ever be asked why I like ABBA, I'd point to this moment.

ok, voting is CLOSED! i will try to tabulate results tonight and hopefully roll out the results starting on thursday

Hooray!

Thanks Donna! v excited

Any chance you could confirm receipt of ballots? Silence makes me nervous.

i just sent an e-mail confirmation to everyone who sent in a ballot, let me know if you didn't receive one

(matthewjweiner the e-mail i sent you bounced back but i got a ballot from you)

How many ballots?

(matthewjweiner the e-mail i sent you bounced back but i got a ballot from you)

Sorry, sent it from my Evernote account. Thanks!

all told, 19 ballots (inc. mine)

First one of these I've voted in where I've felt that there were just massive number ones that were not going to make it to number one on my ballot. Three of them.

Really sad that there were only 19 ballots.

more than i was expecting tbh! i feel like there'd have been a lot more if we'd done this in like, 2005

That's okay. It will just be an exclusive party.

Yeah, this being the first time I managed to get a vote in I'm amazed how few there are.

Sorry I didn't get my ballot in -- work has been ba-na-na-na-na-nas and I just didn't have it in me.
Seriously, I should have tried but I didn't. I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't.

we still love you, we do we do we do we do

^^^^

i wanted to vote but such a tight deadline, couldn't do it

Ah, I just realized I've got "Chiquitita" too low. :/

Really sad that there were only 19 ballots.

Post your would-be ballots, sd and la lech. That way, when stuff that's on it comes in way too low, we can point our fingers at you. ;)

^^yes!

just tabulated the tracks results, excited to roll these out! (looking more like i'll be starting on friday, i hope - i may do the albums that day and then start rolling the tracks out on mon?)

blargh, in the end i would have voted but this is a really busy time of year for me. This new world of a ballot poll every couple weeks makes it hard to do the groundwork for a ballot I gotta say - - - but then, as always, I can't wait for the results as I suspect they will congeal into a very good Spotify playlist that'll help get me up to speed on this group! Bravo to donna rouge!