{"id":40729,"date":"2008-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/waterloo\/"},"modified":"2008-02-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-03T00:00:00","slug":"waterloo","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/waterloo\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterloo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say what you will about ABBA putting out their best work in the eighties, because their 1974 breakthrough album Waterloo<\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:city> <\/i>is also right up there. Like the Eurythmics, ABBA managed to avoid a sophomore slump and proved that things would indeed improve the second time around. To the trained ear, it may sound a little roughshod around the edges, but that is part of Waterloo<\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s charm. Actually, most of the ballads are crystal clear, particularly \u201cHasta Manana\u201d and \u201cGonna Sing You My Love Song.\u201d The one exception to the rule is \u201cDance (While The Music Still Goes On),\u201d which is a little on the schmaltzy, Lawrence Welk side. The purpose of this song is to kiss the past ABBA goodbye, because their overall sound was about to take a drastic turn: Billboard <\/i>charts and American listeners, here they come.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The men of ABBA actually have nearly as many opportunities to sing lead as the ladies on this album. Early on, we are treated to the perfect tune for lazing on a Sunday afternoon, \u201cSitting In A Palm Tree.\u201d Then later, we have a pair of faux metal tracks that are pure, unadulterated fun.\u00a0 The first of these is \u201cKing Kong Song,\u201d which is ABBA\u2019s clever take on the preponderance of dark heavy metal music that was being released at the time. As producers, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus undoubtedly felt that classic rock groups were taking themselves far too seriously. So, with a set of nonsensical lyrics and their own silly attempt at bombast, they came up with \u201cKing Kong Song\u201d and \u201cWatch Out,\u201d which is another one of my earlier favorites, though it sounds somewhat dated now.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To balance things out, the ladies of ABBA also have a pair of frothy pop tunes that would have made great singles. The sophisticated \u201cMy Mama Said\u201d has an indefinable sexy vibe to it that causes it to be more about the atmosphere it creates than anything else. Then there\u2019s \u201cWhat About Livingstone,\u201d which I used to call \u201cThe Jump Rope Song\u201d because it has such a fun, bouncy melody and sing-along quality. Isn\u2019t fun what pop music should be all about? ABBA was always one of those groups that seemed to really get it. They understood that the best pop songs should be both catchy and<\/i> fun.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The two songs that were <\/i>chosen as singles from Waterloo<\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:city> are \u201cHoney Honey\u201d and the big burst of energy that is the title track. Their instincts to really rock it out on \u201cWaterloo<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u201d paid off for the quartet fairly handsomely, since it was the entry that helped them to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Europe<\/st1:place> and was the breakthrough in England<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> that they had been looking for. On \u201cHoney Honey,\u201d Agnetha and Frida purr their way through the song in full-on sex kitten mode and show just how far they\u2019ve come since their lackluster debut single, \u201cPeople Need Love.\u201d If you want to hear the earliest example of ABBA getting it right, then Waterloo<\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:city> <\/i>is the perfect place for you to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5870],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40729","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-abba","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40729"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}