Life is tricky to navigate – that’s hardly a newflash. But as we grind our way through the ups and downs of life, we often have to remind ourselves of the good and the wonderful, or if they are in short supply, that it’s okay to embrace life’s lows because Continue Reading
ABBA
Songs, songs and more songs #69: Nina Nesbitt, Seraphina Simone, Ashe, Cate Canning, Imagine Dragons + latest ABBA lyric video
Wearing your heart on your sleeve sounds like a noble and brave thing to do, a repudiation of hiding yourself away from the world and saying “Here I am. This is me and I’m proud of who I am.” It might be scary to do, but these five artists have Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more ABBA songs: Voyage and before … Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) & While You Danced With Me + more
The release of ABBA’s Voyage album late last year, after a 39-year drought of new full-length releases from the much-loved iconic Swedish pop group – we did get “I Am the City” in the early Nineties on More ABBA Gold and a scattering of part releases in a medley on Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more Christmas songs: ABBA, Michael Bublé, Meghan Trainor, Gary Barlow Manchester Orchestra+ The Muppets get Animal-istically festive
Christmas music is wonderful. Granted it may wear thin when you’re in retail and listening to the same tracks day after tinsel-saturated day, but for a great many of us, music adds some extra whimsically charming, emotionally uplifting specialness to a season already brimming with a magical sense of hope Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #59: Child of the Parish, Little Boots, Annie, Akurei, Glass Animals + thoughts on #ABBA “Voyage”
COVID has done a number on us. We know it, our friends and family know it, and while I could be ascribing more sentience that is deserved, the virus knows it too. As we climb our way tentatively out of the hole the pandemic has dug for us, and start Continue Reading
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