Switched on Pop - Why ABBA songs just hit different

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

Swedish supergroup ABBA is releasing their first album in forty years, making this the perfect time for Nate and Charlie to investigate what makes their music so beloved and reviled in equal measure. For every ABBA stan, there’s a hater lurking, like legendary pop critic Robert Christgau, who once said of the group: “We have met the enemy, and they are them.” That suspicion was earned through ABBA’s musical catchiness and lyrical earnestness, but regardless of how you feel about their music, their compositional acumen cannot be denied. The longevity of their songs is testament to that musical brilliance. So after breaking down the vocal contrast, musical maximalism, and studio wizardry used to concoct world-beating hits like “Super Trouper,” “Mamma Mia,” and “Dancing Queen,” Nate and Charlie turn their ears to the band’s latest singles, “Don’t Shut Me Down” and “I Still Have Faith in You,” to determine whether the newest releases represent a return to classic form or a departure into new sonic realms. Songs Discussed ABBA - Super Trouper, Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Don’t Shut Me Down, I Still Have Faith in You Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Charlie, this is a very exciting week in the pop world because in just a few days, one of the biggest pop acts of all time is about to release their first new album in 40 years.

Is it the Beatles? It is not the Beatles, my friend. It is the Swedish supergroup. Abba. Abba. Abba. Abba. Abba.

Abba. Ah, ba. Yes. Okay. You have passed the first test on the road to Abba Enlightenment. It is not Abba. That's how the Americans say it. And on the continent, they're totally embarrassed.

So we're going to try Abba. Abba. Aba. And it turns out that's not the only thing I didn't know about this band. This is like a group that is seemingly ubiquitous. I'm familiar with pretty much all of their hit songs. And yet, I don't think I've ever really appreciated them. In fact, I myself have been an Abba hater.

And I'm not alone. Like the eminent Rolling Stone critic Robert Criscault once wrote of Abba, We have met the enemy and they are them. Ooh, harsh. So why does this group provoke such intense reactions? Why don't we listen to the chorus of a hit song like Super Trooper and think about what about these sounds might really get under people's skin? So...

Is your blood boiling, Charlie? No, but I understand what could rankle people. Like, we've got cheesy 80s since. Uh-huh. What seems to me to be totally absurd lyrics. And if they're performing this live, like ridiculous, spandex, sequined costumes. That's good. You know, I will say it might be a plus or a minus for certain people.

There's a lot of harmonic intricacy, like cool vocal harmonies and chords sort of happening in between what feels like somewhere between a disco and poker upbeat kind of groove. Yeah, I think you know there's a lot about this band that doesn't jive with the kind of authenticity police that patrolled rocks borders for so long. Like you say, it's cheesy. It's kind of in your face. It's maximalist. it's harmonically complex. And I think for a long time, these were the exact features

that whenever I heard an Abba song come on the radio, I would just roll my eyes and be like, I can't wait till this is over with. But after immersing myself in their catalog, I have come away with the opposite impression. This is one of the most soulful, visionary, influential pop acts of all time.

Cool. I'm really excited to hear what you've discovered and perhaps break down a transatlantic snobbery, if you will. That's exactly the goal, Charlie. And I think to start, we have to get to know who are the people behind Abba, right? Let's turn this kind of faceless pop juggernaut into individuals, four of them, to be exact. The first letters of each of their names make up the four letters of the word Abba.

An acronym band. Yes, we've got Agnita. She's the blonde and the high singer in the group. She's like this really powerful high soprano. And we've got our B. We've got Bjorn. He's the guitar player and the primary co-writer of the band's songs, along with the other B, Benny. He's the pianist and other co-writer.

And then the final A, the brunette, Anafreed. She's the alto singer, the low singer in the group. When you put these four people, these four letters together, there's this kind of magical, musical alchemy. So I think this is the first key ingredient of an ABBA hit is the vocal interplay between the two A's in this band, Agnita and Anafreed, this high vocal and this low vocal coming together in this incredible synthesis. Like, take that song we were just listening to, Super Trooper. Let's listen to an a cappella version of this song. So we can really appreciate these two distinct vocals. And when I play this, you're going to hear two very different kind of styles.

There's Frida's low, sultry vocal. And then right on top of it, in this close counterpoint is Agnita's high, powerful soprano. All I do is sit and sleep and sing. Wishing every show was the last show. So imagine I was glad to hear you coming. Suddenly I feel alright. And suddenly it's going to be so different when I'm on the stage tonight. That's awesome.

Wow. I like the way that it really starts low and powerful and then builds in this great crescendo on that final note right there. There's this great crescendo at the same time as their voices come together in unison. And then you hear simultaneously the low voice and the high voice, which have been kind of like playing back and forth. And all of a sudden they're together. And then they crescendo, they climax in unison into that spectacular chorus.

So whenever you're listening to an Abba song, I think it's worth trying to really focus on those vocals. Like is the song being sung by? Frida in her kind of low alto voice or Agnita and her high, powerful soprano, how are they interacting? Are they singing in unison? Like, that interplay is a huge part of the Abba sound. And fairly unusual in popular music to have two leads trading off coming together. Like, very common that people stack their own vocal on top of each other to build huge harmonies. But there's a unique kind of interplay that's very band-oriented way of making music that is not that common anymore. I agree. And it's like a cool contrast that is reflective of, I think, a deeper current in this band. And what I mean by that is when Abba was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Benny Anderson described Sweden as the melancholy belt. Oh. He said it's sometimes mistaken for the vodka belt, but it's actually the melancholy belt, someplace where there's six months of snow and the sun disappeared. completely. Yeah.

And he says they channeled that feeling into Abba's music. There's this contrast of dark and light. Which is interesting because you think of it as this band that's just like, oh, everything's like super positive and happy. But there's actually some real currents of darkness here. Like take the beginning of Super Trooper, which we've been listening to. Yeah. Super Trooper beams are going to blind me.

but I'll go somewhere in the crowd. That's interesting. The opening vocal is, if anything, it reminds me, it's like fairly, like, chant-like. Yes. In a big Gregorian hall, it has a sort of dark religiosity to it, followed by a chord progression that comes in

that's very reminiscent of, like, WAM's Last Christmas, which we talked about on the show last holiday season, and the chord progression, which is very common pop core progression, has a real mix of major and minor feelings so that, yeah, there is as much joy as there is melancholy in the underlying sound production and vocal styles. Right. It's almost like there's two versions of this chorus. There's that almost chant like Gregorian chorus that we just heard. And then there's the chorus you get about a minute in, which is pretty much less ambiguous. It's pretty much like, okay, this is a happy. This is Sweden and summer.

Right. We went from snow in the beginning to literally the sun coming out here in the second chorus. Spring is blossoming. Sweden is having its return into the summer months. And at this point, Charlie, I have to tell you what the title of this song means. Because like you, I always found it kind of inscrutable. What is a super trooper? A very mediocre B comedy.

film that's the movie super troopers about vermont uh highway patrolman yeah it's like a stoner comedy yeah yeah yeah yeah that's unfortunately the association that i always have for me it was always like a super true it's like someone who's like kind of indefaggotable who's who's who's gonna be resilient like i i guess that's kind of what i thought if i pause to think about it at all yeah yeah yeah turns out it is none of those things a super trooper is a brand of spotlight a spotlight a spotlight a spotlight light, like a bright light that you would own if you live in a rural area and you need to see what's happening out in the terrifying woods. No, no, a spotlight that you would use in a theater to project onto the stage and highlight someone. I can't tell if you just said that facetiously or

if you genuinely went there with my mind. No, no, this is about like super trooper. The light is going to find you shining like the sun. Like you're on stage and suddenly the spotlight finds you and it's this brand of spotlight called the Super Trooper, and all of a sudden you're the star of the show. So the vocals, which are winding around each other, merge together in unison, like the light shining down. Yeah.

As the music all turns to brightness. That's fun. If I give you nothing else from this conversation, you'll think of Super Trooper in a new way. I appreciate that. Okay, this is a good introduction to the band's kind of signature sound. We've got these high and low contrasting. vocals. We've got this darkness and lightness that might be a core part of the Swedish

psyche. Let's listen to another classic Abba song and encounter another one of the key ingredients of this mix. It's something I might call musical maximalism. And you hear it in the chorus of Mamma Mia. Yeah, it's not so much a band as it is like an orchestra. Like in one ear, you've got a marimba, in another year you've got the piano, and then in the middle, the strings start to pop up underneath where the voices are jumping around in these wild, syncopated rhythms. It feels like something you'd see maybe at Symphony Hall, not at, like, Madison Square Garden, just in its orchestration.

Totally, totally. This is this orchestral, symphonic, maximal sound. And then just when they've established all the, textures you described, the marimbo, which is such a fun instrument to encounter in the chorus of a pop hit, the strings, the multiple pianos, then you get like some characteristic rock sound, like a distorted electric guitar just comes raging in and it's almost like, yeah, get out of here. Like, let's rock it. Yeah. So it's this blend of all these sounds and timbers that you almost wouldn't expect to go together, and yet somehow it all works. So I feel like this is a big part of

the Abba musical philosophy. It's like, why just have one sound when you could have 30? And that applies to the songwriting as well, because one of the things we already established about Abba is like, like it or not, these songs are catchy, right? Oh yeah, they are total earworm. It's like, I know prior to today, truly nothing about Abba, but the melodies are stuck in my head. Totally. And I think there's a reason for that, because not only are they going to throw every instrument at you, they're also going to expose you to some of the key hooks over and over again. I think Mamma Mia is a cool example. Because in this chorus, we've got the lyrics, Mamma Mia, here I go again. And then we have this, like, wonderful kind of exclamation, my, my.

You know, it's like, it's one of those, it's one of those Avaisms that's so kind of funny, but also like just becomes this earworm that you can't escape. Other people pick it up too. It makes me think of like Trice of Ones, my, my, my. Yeah. Oh, my, my, my. Even BTS use it in their song, Boy with Love. Charles, I love that. It's like that phrase is sort of buried itself into our collective musical conscious.

And I think that's because Abba is. is like constantly reinforcing it in the chorus, right? So we start the chorus. Okay, so there's our first my-mi. We're going to count. We're going to count these. Okay, so there's my-mi-one of the chorus. Keep going.

Okay, there's our second my-mi. A lot of different chord gives a little new color. And now we're going to get our kind of like rock and roll invasion. It shifts from being the afterthought to being the primary thought. Yes, exactly. They've tweeted a little bit, and now it's why, why, but it's still that same rhythm. It's the same sound. They're just like hitting you over the head one more time with that hook.

Got a burrow in the ear. And it's kind of surprised because you think like, oh, the chorus has moved to a new place, but they're like, I bet we can get one more of those eye eyes in there. And sure enough, they just like weave it in subtly. So by the time you're finished listening to this chorus, its hooks have been ingrained into your whole being. It's also self-referential. It's like, Mamma Mia, now I really know. Like, we're telling you, you now know the thing that we're telling you know because you've heard it three times.

You're totally right. And that gives us a chance to step back because this song is catchy, like we've said. It's hooky. It's got this wonderfully surprising instrumentation that's all over the place. But it also comes back to that same kind of darkness and light. Like, you might not think of this as a dark song because it's so poppy and peppy. Yeah. But actually, think about what are these lyrics saying. It's like, I can't quit you. I keep coming back to you. No matter how hard I try, I can't escape you. This is an unhealthy relationship. It really is. There's there's a darkness lurking behind those bright hooks and catchy chords. No doubt.

So there's our second ingredient, musical maximalism. And also in continuation of these contrasts of dark and light, let's listen to one more Abba hit. and hear one more ingredient behind their musical success. Let's call this one Studio Wizardry. Ooh, that's my stuff. And let's hear it in one of the world-conquering Abba songs, Dancing Queen. Whoa, I mean, there's the wild synth lead line that feels like it's eight things stacked on top of each other. and it's not quite studio wizardry, but that piano, the da-dun, da-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dun. It reminds me of almost like a Beethoven concerto moment and indicates that maybe back to your point on maximalism, like, these folks really studied music and know their stuff.

Oh, yeah, this is maximalist, and it's also a very carefully recorded and produced track. You can get an insight into how carefully produced and recorded these tracks were when you watch a documentary that was made for the re-release of the Abba Gold album called The History of Abba. It features an interview with their engineer Michael B. Traytow, and he actually plays each of the component pieces of Dancing Queen. You always start with the drums, and then there's a track with percussion on it. a bass track. They're always mixing this order. And then there's guitar and another guitar. Piano's.

So not only do these tracks have like every instrument under the sun, but every single one of those instruments is double-tracked. You're hearing multiples of each of them. So it's like take a symphony orchestra and multiply it by two or three. And then you've got the musical maximalism and the studio wizardry going into a single Abbott song. It's what makes it sound so big. Exactly.

This is a massive sound. But at its core, it's also got a pretty powerful groove, which is something I never, I think, totally appreciated. And I've heard the song, I don't know, a thousand million times, until I listen to the isolated bass and drums that are the engine of this track. You think you're just getting a four on the floor kind of thing, but all of the extra percussion and the way that the bass dances around that four on the floor rhythm, it really works.

It's funky. It's got an edge that I never really detected in this song before. Like when you take that out of context, that could be the backing track for a 90s hip hop track. Yeah, I feel like you take that thing, pitch it down a little bit, slow it down. No doubt. That's a total groove. Okay. there's one more piece of studio wizardry I want to consider here.

And that's something called very speed tracking. Are you familiar with this, Chuck? Oh, yes. I know this because John Lennon used it on his vocals. It was a way of double tracking sounds with sophisticated tape wizardry that makes them sound thicker and better, something like that. That's exactly right. So there's this very speed technology.

in like varying the speed of a sound. And what Abba would do is they would record a section of music, say the vocal on dancing queen, having the time of your life. And then they would take that and they would pitch it down a major third using this varus speed technology. Having the time of your life. Now, when you record the vocal at that lower speed and that kind of lower pitch, pitch, then you can speed it back up, and now you have the original sound, but you have two

different versions of it. One is the original recording, and one is the one that you made at a lower pitch and a lower speed and then sped back up. So it's the same voice twice, but one of them has this kind of different sound to it. So when they come together, it almost sounds like they're these two vocalists, but they're the same person. It's this very uncanny effect. Having the time of your life. That's so funny, especially that you made the hip-hop reference before, because it's kind of the inverse of how so many great hip-hop beats are made. Typically, you take a groove, you slow it down.

Most things just sound better when you slow it down and you lower the pitch. But I guess there's some magic as well when you record lower and raise the pitch. Something also happens in that weird Verisbead world that creates that abelushness. When you listen to the chorus of dancing queen, you're hearing all of these ingredients. You're hearing the vocal contrast between these two female singers. You're hearing the musical maximalism of the symphonic sound. And you're hearing the studio wizardry, the multiple overdubs and the verispeed tracking that makes you hear not only multiple vocalists, but every possible version of that singer.

They are pulling out all the stops. Okay, so there's a little introduction to some of the key aspects of the classic Abba sound. Yeah. And after we take a little break, I want to listen to two of the singles that Aba has released in advance of this forthcoming album. And I want to ask a question, is this representing something new for the band, or is this a continuation of their classic legacy? Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions.

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And I think the big question is, how is this new music, going to continue Abba's considerable legacy. I guess the question is, is the music going to live in the past, or is it ready for the future? Let's find out by listening to I still have faith in you. This is like the kind of ballad that they've just released. Charlie, you just had a crash course in the sound of Abba. Are you hearing any of those classic signature ingredients here? Yes, absolutely. We have the two vocalists. with counter-puntal melodies moving back and forth. Starting with that low, I mean, I think this is maybe the lowest she's ever saying, Frida, which is kind of cool.

It's like her voice has mellowed with age. But it sounds great. It sounds great. And then on top of that, we get Agnita's high soprano, just like classic Abba. Okay. Yep. This is a super maximalist piece. Just arrangement of orchestration.

Yeah. It feels like there are endless number. of tracks and instruments in short periods of time. And certainly the studio wizardry, I feel like they're leaning on some of those really high production values of like a really beautiful 80s studio, big reverbs, the tom-tom-tom fills go around your head.

It's got it all. And above all else, it has a lot of sentimentalism, which I feel like is, the thing that pop listeners love and so many critics hate. And I understand why they're continuing that tradition. Like, it is their thing that they're really good at. Do I have it in me?

I believe it is in there. For I know I hear a pretty sweet song in the memories we share. First of all, Charlie, high marks. You did, you passed the ABA fluency test with flying colors. Thank you. And I can help you out with the studio wizardry too because maybe the recording here

doesn't have any studio tricks that jump out. But they're going to be touring this album in a very different way. They're actually going to have holograms of themselves playing at venues around the world. That's a really convenient way of not having to get on a plane. While the actual members of Abba sit

in their presumably opulent homes back in Sweden. and, you know, eat fish sticks on the couch or whatever. So they're still pushing the bar, technically, I would say. Yeah, yeah. In addition to this sentimental ballad, Abba has also released more of kind of a classic driving disco tune called Don't Shut Me Down. Let's check this one out. And Charlie, I pose the same question. Is that classic Abba formula here, or are we hearing something new?

It sounds like Dancing Queen took a 23-in-me test and found out that there was a long loss sibling that has been discovered. So much similarity in a way that feels like it's feeding the fans, right? It's like if you're going to release two new songs four decades later, then you want to appeal to the thing that people know. And yeah, you have those. You have all of it, right? It's like the big over-the-top production. You have the vocals. you have the studio wizardry and even just the arrangement,

the sort of disco-y synth-basiness plus the piano lines and strings. I hear what you're saying. This feels like Abba Redux. Not in a bad way. I think this is really fun. I love the synthesizer line that takes us out of the chorus. It's like really, really kind of unique. Actually, can we play that one more time?

Of course. Wow, it's very brassy, which is extremely the 80s, but I thought it was a saxophone the first time I heard it. Maybe it is. Okay, maybe it is a processed saxophone now that I'm listening to it with you. Yeah, that's almost has these effects that make it sound almost like a synthesizer. Whatever is happening, the fact that we're questioning it suggests that, okay, there's some interesting stuff happening in the background.

You know, I think these are really fun tracks, and I'm pretty impressed that they're able to drop this kind of quality of music after a multi almost a half century hiatus but i do think there's one ingredient that we talked about that is missing and that's that kind of melancholic undertone right that kind of that kind of characteristically swedish snowbound sunless sadness that seeps into even the brightest of aba tracks and i feel like i want a little bit more of that so i'm really keen to hear the rest of the album and see if they explore some of those more lacrimose kind of undertones in the other releases.

The other thing that I want to consider, which I posed, is, is this looking backward or is it looking forward? And obviously, again, if you're trying to appease a fan base that's been around for a long time, there's going to be a lot of sticking in your lane, which they should because they kind of do the ABBA thing. No one else is doing it. Simultaneously, if we sort of think about Is it looking forward,

it seems as if the disco revival that probably started with Daft Punk's random access memories has continued for nearly a decade and is still very much alive, whether it's in the music of Dua Lippa or Doja Cat Wasiza or Kylie Minogue. Callie Manogue, definitely.

Jesse Ware. Yeah. It's like, it's happening still. And so maybe it's actually the perfect time for them to be releasing a new album. I love that because I think, you know, love them or hate them, what you're saying is a reminder that Aba is an undeniable part of the fabric of contemporary pop music. And since that is the case, I think it's worth bringing, you know, a kind of appreciative ear

to the next time you hear an Abba song on the radio at a dance party in the inevitable Mamma Mia 3 film that will come out sometime in the next decade. These songs are beloved by so many and criticized by so many, but regardless of how you feel about them, there is so much brilliant musical composition going into each one of them. And for me, whenever I hear one of these songs now,

I'm going to be thinking about like, ooh, where's that musical maximalism? Where's that vocal contrast? Where's that studio wizardry? And whether I'm in, enjoying it or not, I think I'm going to be thinking to myself, this is expert pop music. I'm going to embrace the sentimentalism. I'm here for it. Switch on Pop is produced by Nate Sloan and me, Charlie Harding. We're edited by Jolie

Myers, engineered by Brandon McFarland, social media by Abby Barr, our executive producers are Nash-Carwa and Honor Rosen, a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network and a production of Ultra. You can find more episodes of Switched on Pop wherever you get podcasts and at our website Switchedonpop.com. Hit us up on the Twitter and the Instagram at Switched on Pop and tell us what's your favorite Abba song. Is it a big hit? Is it a deep cut? We are dying to know.

We'll be back again next Tuesday with a look at the state of pop music. What's happening? What have we missed? Where is it going? We'll see you next Tuesday and until then. Thanks for listening. Euphoria of Calvin Klein. The new collection Elixir. Intense, Solar, Magnetic, Vol. Pulsan in the banner,

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