It shouldn't work like this. You shouldn't be able to go away for 40 years and then come back with a record as strong as anything you released in your prime.
Much has been written about why the Abba revival works, yet I still feel unqualified to comment. When I was a teenager, first getting into record buying, Abba were already a thing of the past, and were seen by many as uncool relics of the 70s. And yet, Elvis Costello, one of the first artists I truly became obsessed with as a collector, admitted to stealing their pop hooks for his biggest hit, Oliver's Army. 40 years later, on the verge of the Abba reunion, the Manic Street Preachers (never afraid to pilfer a good hook themselves) released what may yet come to be seen as their Abba tribute album.
Is it just nostalgia, in a world dying to relive the pleasures of simpler times? Comfort food for the old folk, battered by a year of misery? Maybe. But this album could so easily have been a let down. And yet... it's not. The tunes are as good as they ever were, and the lyrics retain those quirky autobiographical details that always separated this band from other pop hit-makers.
40 years ago, they sang...
I was sick and tired of everything
When I called you last night from Glasgow
This year, they returned with...
I can remember when you left Kilkenny
And you told me: I'll return next year
Whereas Super Trouper chronicled a band sick of fame, ready for break up, When You Danced With Me shows us a group who've been away long enough to miss the good times, and forgive the bad. They still have faith in each other, so we should still have faith in them. Even those of us who once thought ourselves too cool for Abba. Now we can see the error of our ways...
Yep, it's good, isn't it, and better than it has any right to be after so long away.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly good after all these years but it is ABBA. Maybe comforting because of the times.
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