Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida - Ring Ring Sync Listen (1 Viewer)

Pingu

Noot noot
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
Messages
12,983
Another one tonight! I hope you’ll join for what is absolutely a defining album in the group’s history.

Tonight's sync listen (or out-of-sync listen if you're @Jark) is...

RING RING!
Ring Ring cover.jpg


Yes it's finally time. We’re listening to ABBA’s debut album tonight, although they weren’t even really ABBA at this point. The four members were still juggling their own careers and were very much tentatively experimenting with the idea of being a pop group at this point.

It certainly shows in the music, with only the title track really giving much of a hint towards what they would become, with the rest of it demonstrating the group at a very embryonic stage: The Bjorn/Benny division of songwriting labour wasn’t well-defined yet, they didn’t have their regular sound engineer who helped craft “the ABBA sound” yet bar a handful of tracks, the vocals are distributed evenly between the boys and the girls, and they weren’t even called ABBA until months after the album’s release.

I’ve been looking forward to this one – it’s ABBA, but it isn’t ABBA, and although it’s patchy (and pre-warning, boy is it patchy), I’ve always found this album a charming little curio in their back catalogue.

I hope you’ll join me in revisiting it, or visiting for the first time. We’re doing the original 12-track album and the two English-language B-sides, Merry-Go-Round and Santa Rose.

Playlist below, hit play at 7!

 
Last edited:
OK I'll have to rush home from the office in a mo to get back, so I'll update the first post and reveal the album now - I'm so good to you.
 
For what it’s worth, personally I think it’s a better album than Waterloo.
 
For what it’s worth, personally I think it’s a better album than Waterloo.
Sometimes I do. There's not much in it either way.

Kind of how I feel about VV and The Visitors, but very much at the other end of the spectrum :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: VoR
I hope you’re all ready for at least one of the following things:
  • Sad bangers!
  • Disco stompers!
  • Sexist lyrics!
 
Listening on Spotify so APOLS if I'm out of time
 
I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine that they would have won Eurovision with this one too if they'd had the chance.
 
As much as I like Ring Ring, I don't think it would have beaten Tu Te Reconnaîtras or Eres Tú had it made the final.
 
I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine that they would have won Eurovision with this one too if they'd had the chance.
I reckon so, it's got that "English-y sounding hook" that so many songs went for at that time.

(Or was it a year they could sing English and therefore that point is moot?)

Anywa,y I assume that's what they were going for. And I like it. Quite 60s.
 
Last edited:
Just another town, another train
Waiting in the morning rain
Lord give my restless soul a little patience
Just another town, another train
Nothing lost and nothing gained
Guess I will spend my life in railway stations

screenshot-www.youtube.com%2B2015-03-30%2B04-37-45.png
 
The Swedish version of Disillusion although the English version is the original.

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom