Published on Jan 13, 2001
1980 marked several major changes in the world. Obviously, it
brought in a new decade, but the old decade took the disco movement
with it, kicking and screaming. (The turning point, some say, had
been an anti-disco rally at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, where a
planned demolition of disco records turned into a near riot.)
The changes in the social climate affected groups like Abba, who
had started to seriously slide into a disco mindframe. 1980’s
Super Trouper marked a return to the pop sensibilities which
had brought the group their early fame, and it produced for them a
more enjoyable album for the listener. (I’m skipping
Voulez-Vous at this time – only because I thought we had
already reviewed it. My bad.)
If people were scared that a musical shift would cause the group
to lose their ability to write catchy hits, they had nothing to
worry about.
Super Trouper kicks off with three of Abba’s hits – two of
them being strong songs themselves. The title track and “The Winner
Takes It All” mark a return to form for Abba, and are possibly some
of the best songs they came up with in their career. (I wish I
could say the same about “On And On And On,” a song which I’ve just
never been able to appreciate.)
What is noteworthy about
Super Trouper is that the strongest moments on the album,
surprisingly, aren’t found in the hit singles. Tracks like “Me And
I,” “Our Last Summer” (an interesting track seeing that the members
of Abba were less than two years away from breaking up), “Lay All
Your Love On Me” and “The Way Old Friends Do” (which was recorded
live in London) all are evidence that Abba was on a creative high,
spinning some of their best work yet.
The only minor hurdle is still somewhat interesting – “Happy New
Year,” a poignant look at leaving the ’70s and wondering what the
next 10 years would bring them. Again, the band’s imminent breakup
is haunting as you hear some of the lyrics: “Who can say / What
we’ll find / What lies waiting / Down the line / In the end of /
Eighty-nine.”
So what was eventually responsible for the creative rebirth of
Abba on
Super Trouper? Maybe we’ll never know for sure, but whatever
was happening to the band, internally or externally, they were able
to take it and put the best creative spin on it. The result was
possibly their best album.