It's magnificent - but is it pop?
Oct. 28th, 2005 12:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
freakytigger.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
poptimistsAlexis Petridis on ABBA. The stuff about wow-ABBA-had-hidden-depths has surely long since crossed the line from smart observation to bleeding obvious. We touched on ABBA the other day on my own LJ, when talking about the Spice Girls. Like them or hate them, in their day they were the dons of pop but I don't know how much someone encountering them now would 'register' their stuff as pop at all. It sometimes seems to exist in its own odd universe of dark-light entertainment and songs from imaginary musicals.
Here are some things that ARE pop (probably):
LUV - "Trojan Horse": "You walked in through the door - like a Trojan Horse!", LUV were Scando contemporaries of ABBA but they were an ABBA who never really evolved beyond the Ring Ring years, except to add bagpipes. The tunes are all great though, mind you the lyrics pose a problem. Clearly here the songwriter liked the phrase "like a Trojan Horse" so much that they just added it to every line of the verses: METAPHOR DANGER!
Stella - "Ca Plane Pour Moi": another from the land of REPLAY DANCE MANIA, this cover of Ca Plane Pour Moi takes an unusual route by rewriting the tune completely, and not I have to admit with total success. Certainly worth hearing as a curio tho!
Lynn Anderson - "Rose Garden": very well-known track I suspect, but I've been listening to it incessantly for the last couple of weeks. Brilliantly used by Kon Kan on "I Beg Your Pardon".
Loose Joints - "Tell You Today": my favourite Arthur Russell production and quite simply one of my favourite ever love songs, as one of the best parts of being in love with someone is when you're able to make them happier.
Modern Rocketry - "Homosexuality": Hi-NRG disco that does exactly what it says on the tin. "Yes Sir!".
Here are some things that ARE pop (probably):
LUV - "Trojan Horse": "You walked in through the door - like a Trojan Horse!", LUV were Scando contemporaries of ABBA but they were an ABBA who never really evolved beyond the Ring Ring years, except to add bagpipes. The tunes are all great though, mind you the lyrics pose a problem. Clearly here the songwriter liked the phrase "like a Trojan Horse" so much that they just added it to every line of the verses: METAPHOR DANGER!
Stella - "Ca Plane Pour Moi": another from the land of REPLAY DANCE MANIA, this cover of Ca Plane Pour Moi takes an unusual route by rewriting the tune completely, and not I have to admit with total success. Certainly worth hearing as a curio tho!
Lynn Anderson - "Rose Garden": very well-known track I suspect, but I've been listening to it incessantly for the last couple of weeks. Brilliantly used by Kon Kan on "I Beg Your Pardon".
Loose Joints - "Tell You Today": my favourite Arthur Russell production and quite simply one of my favourite ever love songs, as one of the best parts of being in love with someone is when you're able to make them happier.
Modern Rocketry - "Homosexuality": Hi-NRG disco that does exactly what it says on the tin. "Yes Sir!".
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Date: 2005-10-28 11:31 am (UTC)YES SAH!
Date: 2005-10-28 11:58 am (UTC)Lynn Anderson
Date: 2005-10-28 01:29 pm (UTC)maybe its just too safe?
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Date: 2005-10-28 02:32 pm (UTC)And they were my first, well, luv. I was six, and those three magnificent women with all their make-up were só impressive. Not to mention the bagpipes.
Luv' - The Greatest Lover (http://s47.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1BSB2560UV3YH26JFJJBRDF5S0)
Amazingly, my very first two cassettes (came free with the cassette player I got for my 8th birthday) were Greatest Hits comps of -wait for it- Luv' and ABBA[!]
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Date: 2005-10-28 02:38 pm (UTC)Was the apostrophe part of their name! So you had to say "Have you heard Luv' 's new album?" Fantastic grammar-baiting there.
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Date: 2005-10-28 02:43 pm (UTC)Apostrophe use in Dutch a whole different chapter, btw.
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Date: 2005-10-28 03:25 pm (UTC)surely this is a common but INCORRECT spelling and it should be sleight? worse than a wrong spelling it implies something else, as slightness is a totally different quality. so abba's music had a tiny feeble hand, not one that is deft/clever in the deception department.
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Date: 2005-10-28 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 03:41 pm (UTC)