The final day of ABBA week is upon us. Today we explore numbers 5 through 1 of the 25 greatest ABBA songs of all time. All five songs included today explore heavy themes and are emotional songs that make you think.
5. Super Trouper - 1980
The music industry is no stranger to a break up album. Perhaps the greatest break up album of all time is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. However, Super Trouper gives Rumours a run for its money.
The success of Rumours comes from the fact that it really shouldn't be so great. The band was dysfunctional. There was prolific drug use and the romantic relationship between Stevie and Lindsey had descended into extreme volatility.
However, they were able to keep it together and write some of the most emotionally vulnerable music that people have ever heard. That's why Super Trouper is actually more similar to Rumours than we think.
ABBA were known as the sweet band comprised of married couples. Everybody loved their Swedish naivety and innocence. Yet, all of sudden each marriage disintegrated and ended in divorce.
Suddenly critics and fans were left wondering if ABBA could ever be the same again. ABBA, would in fact, never be the same again and this wasn't a bad thing. In fact, a lot of their best music came after the relationships broke down.
Super Trouper is a testament to this. After the breakups, this band who was renowned for their pop music simply shouldn't of worked. However, because ABBA changed their sound and adapted to the situation, the music was better than ever before.
In Super Trouper, Frida, who is famously not a fan of travelling, sings of feeling sick and tired of putting on a constant performance. In the face of their personal sadness this songs seems like a peak behind the curtain into the mindset of this great group.
At once heartbreaking and catchy, Super Trouper has the ability to make you feel joy and a deep despair. This is in part due to the boys' ability to pair melancholy lyrics with an upbeat musical composition.
The vocal harmonies of Frida and Agnetha at the top of the track serve as a way to show listeners that despite everything, these two will always have each other's backs. There is an undeniable sense of solidarity as Agnetha plays back up to Frida.
Best lyric: "All I do is eat and sleep and sing, wishing every show was the last show..."
4. One of Us - 1981
Right off the bat listeners know that One of Us isn't going to be your average ABBA song. The way in which the music comes in is even different. It's not trying to distract you from Agnetha's pained and yet still beautiful vocal cries, but instead it amplifies it.
It's reported the Agnetha supplied Benny and Bjorn with the idea, chorus and some verses to this song. While not confirmed, this would be huge considering the fact that Benny and Bjorn are the famous lyricists in ABBA.
This song is complex and moving. If Super Trouper is Frida's story, then One of Us is Agnetha's. The lyrics are pleading and sad and it never fails to make you think about the complexity of being in a band with your former spouse.
What makes this song so sad is that, despite everything, Agnetha still sings of wanting to go back in time and never leave at all. There are even references to playing second fiddle and making threats before the start of the show.
It all serves to make you wonder if this really happened before one of ABBA's famed concerts. Besides the lure of curiosity, this is just simply a great song from start to finish. It's also a vocal highpoint for Agnetha.
We thought we knew ABBA, but maybe we never knew them at all. They played a great game when you think about it. Fans felt close to them because of their deeply human lyrics, but did we really know all that much about them?
Best lyric: "I saw myself as a concealed attraction, I felt you kept me away from the heat and the action..."
3. Fernando - 1976
Fernando is one of ABBA's biggest and most successful ballads and it's not hard to see why. During their reign, ABBA were accused of using the same formula to create stand out pop songs. The same couldn't be said for Fernando.
This ballad is unlike any other ABBA song. Fernando held its number one position on the Australian charts for a record 14 weeks. In amongst songs like Dancing Queen and Tiger there is an undeniable level of complexity to Fernando.
It's deep and mature and incredibly risky. ABBA were known for their upbeat and grooving tracks and to head down a different path at the height of their success was a gamble. However, it was a gamble that paid off.
This is largely thanks to the incomparable talent of Frida and Agnetha. They can truly sing any genre. Both the girls possess the ability to reach for the high notes and nail them. But there is something to be said of an outstanding vocal performance that mostly stays in the lower register.
Best lyric: "If I had to do the same again, I would, my friend, Fernando..."
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You - 1977
ABBA are so talented they can write a killer break up song without having broken up! I mean that was to come three short years later, but you get my point. This song is killer. It doesn't hold back, both musically and lyrically.
This song starts out slow, low and therefore contemplative. The lyrics speak of walking through an empty house with tear filled eyes. The tone and backing music fits this perfectly. However, as the song progresses the tone changes.
This song depicts the stages of breaking up perfectly. In the beginning, the song is leading us through the phase of wanting the other person back. In the middle, the lyrics reflect on memories- both good and bad. However, near the end of the song something snaps.
Thus ushering us in to the final stage of breaking up- acceptance. For about 30 seconds the music gradually lessens in volume, to the point where there is almost silence. Then, Agnetha and Frida come in slightly louder than before.
In perfect harmony they sing 'knowing me, knowing you, there is nothing we can do.' Ending this song on the fact that every relationship has its glory days and sometimes it must end, leaving those involved with nothing but the memory of simply knowing each other.
Best lyric: "Knowing me, knowing you, it's the best I can do..."
1. The Winner Takes It All - 1980
The Winner Takes It All is 4 minutes and 55 seconds of musical perfection. This song is so deeply moving that on occasion, it has been known to bring a single tear to my eyes. Okay, if I'm really being honest it's more like a thousand tears.
I mean, what a song. It's so emotionally heavy and yet beautiful. Only the best musicians could accomplish such a juxtaposition. This song is so mature and deep that it's hard to believe the same group could sing a song like Dum Dum Diddle.
I think that's also what makes ABBA so great. They never rested on their laurels. They were always experimenting and pushing their music forward. Full credit to them because when you excel at one thing, why would you want to change!
ABBA, are known to use the motif of a game in order to describe love and relationships. This notion is never more evident than in The Winner Takes It All as Agnetha sings 'the game is on again.'
This song is the breakup song to end all break up songs. It's emotional to listen to because Bjorn wrote this for his ex wife to sing! How awkward and yet dramatic. It's impossible to listen to this song and not think that it's about the breakdown of their marriage.
ABBA are great storytellers and The Winner Takes It All really brings this notion home. As I've said before, it easy to create upbeat pop smashes. But it's ten times harder to take the world by storm when you're singing about something as heavy as a break up.
Yet ABBA managed to do just that. This song made a lot of people take this little band from Sweden seriously. This song is a triumph and a song that Agnetha calls the best ABBA track. I mean - '...tell me does she kiss, like I used to kiss you?' - what.a.line!
You can feel the emotion behind this song. Every piano key that's pushed is done so with intent. The use of the guitar heightens the mood. The backing vocal shows the gravitas of the song. While the main vocal takes you on a roller coaster of emotions that could break even the coldest of souls.
ABBA had long played with the idea that love is but a game. In The Winner Takes It All, they show yet again that love is just that. A game with winners and losers. A game that takes twists and turns. A game that you can't not play.
A game that in fact, could well describe the career of this great supergroup. Because the name of their game - their music - was something we could never stop playing, no matter the twists and turns that it took over the years.
Best lyric: "I don't want to talk / about the things we've gone through / though it's hurting me, now it's history / I've played all my cards / and that's what you've done too / nothing more to say / no more ace to play..."
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