98. Lay All Your Love On Me (Super Trouper 1980)

 


I know that to many people this low ranking for this beloved Abba track is astounding, and I find it slightly strange myself too. The fact is that ever since I peeled off the gift wrapping from Super Trouper album on Christmas Eve in 1980 this song has never made an impression on me in a way all the other tracks on that wonderful album have. I have always wondered what the other people hear in this song that I don't hear. Maybe a new concentrated listen 45 years later, as if I heard it for the first time, changes things or makes me at least understand the anomaly.



I've always heard Lay All Your Love On Me as part of Super Trouper, among a string of some of the best songs Abba ever recorded. After hearing the bouncy and inventive title track, the heartbreaking Winner Takes It All, the underrated synth gem of Me and I and the reflective pair of Happy New Year and Our Last Summer this dance track feels like an outsider, a throwback to the party atmosphere of Voulez-Vous album, and this is maybe why I have never warmed to it.

Now that I have listened to this song independently from the other tracks of the album I understand why it is so popular. The hymn-like opening and the rhythmic interplay between the drummer Ola Brunkert, bassist Rutger Gunnarsson and Benny Andersson's inventive keyboards make the song feel sharp and focused. The verse melody, intelligently sung by Agnetha Fältskog, is well crafted and completely in harmony with the tight dance rhythms. What is there not to like? I am seldom (maybe never) found on the dance floor, but I enjoy a good dance track on record if it is well arranged and recorded. And Lay All Your Love On Me is like that.

When I hear the chorus I remember what it is in this song that makes me not like it that much. The verse with its urgent melody and the unsurpassable dance beat paves the way to an explosive refrain, which never arrives. Instead we hear an almost lazy repeat of the slow hymn melody from the beginning of the song. Even the vocal harmonies sound bland and ordinary. The chorus should be the triumph of this uplifting dance track, but instead it is a letdown. To compensate this the keyboard arrangement lifts the chorus up a notch when we reach the end of the song, but to me that is not enough. I feel cheated when my expectations are built up but there is no payoff.

Since the 1980's and particularly in more recent years my attitude towards this song has mellowed a lot. Lay All Your Love On Me is an excellent dance track and a very good Abba track in its own right and much better than what the 98th position in my ranking suggests. This song will definitely make a big leap higher in my future rankings, even if it still is far from becoming one of my favorite Abba tracks.

Pay attention to:
  • The perfect rhythm track of drums, bass and keyboards
Coming up...Medley: Pick a Bale of Cotton/On Top of Old Smokey/Midnight Special


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