Good lord but the current pandemic-addled state of the world is anxiety inducing isn’t it? As you survey a world where normal is no more, and is constantly abruptly and messily changing, it’s hard to imagine how you could possibly ever sit back, relax and watch life go by. And Continue Reading
Music
ABBA: An exploration of old fandom and new music
ABBA had previously been voted the band the British public would most like to see reunited. Alamy Shanika Ranasinghe, Royal Holloway University of London It may have been almost 40 years since their last single, but ABBA are now back in the charts with two new songs – “I Still Continue Reading
#ABBA Voyage #4 – Songs, songs and more songs: ABBA and five songs of energetic defiance
This post was originally published on 6 May, 2020. There is a popular perception of ABBA out in the general public of a Swedish group who were perpetually upbeat and sunny and whose music, composed of rich melodies and luscious harmonies, courtesy of the combined superlative vocal talents of Agnetha Continue Reading
ABBA Voyage #3 – Our Last Summer: The emotionally-evocative geography of ABBA’s songs
This post was first published on 25 November, 2018. ABBA is the great musical love of my life. Every single last one of their songs summon up some kind of powerful memory, including as a man in his ’50s a joyous/melancholic recalling of past memories, a theme that is common Continue Reading
ABBA Voyage: After 39 years, everyone’s favourite musical Swedes make sweet new music again
It’s a strange but wonderful thing indeed to find yourself taken back to the emotions and sensibilities of your youth. It can happen through all kinds of things – smells, old movies or TV shows and classic books but the medium which most quickly and completely transports me back to Continue Reading
Countdown to ABBA Voyage #2 – Ring Ring to The Visitors: My top 50 ABBA songs
With ABBA set to release (hopefully) their first new music in 39 years, with the announcement scheduled via a worldwide event commencing at 5.45pm UK time today (2.45am Australia – and yes, I’ll be up!), and the excitement for this longtime fan at fever pitch, it seems like a good Continue Reading
Countdown to ABBA Voyage #1 – Yes, I am the City: My 5 big ABBA moments
With ABBA set to release (hopefully) their first new music in 39 years, with the announcement scheduled via a worldwide event commencing at 5.45pm UK time today (2.45am Australia – and yes, I’ll be up!), and the excitement for this longtime fan at fever pitch, it seems like a good Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #54: Magdalena Bay, Lump, Matilda Mann, Madison Olds, Sycco
Do not speak ill of pop my friends. There are those who look down upon it because of its derivation from the word “popular” with some erroneously assuming that if something is well liked by many, it mustn’t be any good. That’s rubbish, of course, because often something is popular Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #53: Yves Tumor, Jelani Aryeh, Ethan Fields, Maddie Ross, TIMMS + #Eurovision update!
Life comes in all kinds of weird emotional shapes and sizes. There’s the moments of exquisite sorrow and heartbreak which bend you so far out of shape you wonder if you’ll ever bounce back to who you were ever again. Then there, thankfully for who can take that much pretzeling Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #52: Priya Ragu, Poté, Mr Jukes + Barney Artist , Malia J, Circe
The days they are lockdowned. Well, not for everyone in the strict sense of the word but with COVID refusing to go away, many people continue to find their lives constrained by a pandemic that has robbed us of so much capacity to go and do and feel what we Continue Reading