94. Angeleyes (Voulez-Vous 1979)

 

Voulez-Vous is a difficult Abba album for me. It was a huge success, of course, and five songs from it were released as equally successful singles. However, to me, the five songs that were not released as singles are all better than the five songs that were. In general the songs selected to promote the album don't make anything move inside me. They are professionally crafted, arguably catchy and radio-friendly songs, but the others were more interesting and appealing. 

Angeleyes is the weakest of the bunch. It reached number 3 in the UK charts, so at least the British record-buying public disagreed with me. I haven't listened to this song a lot so it is interesting to see if a new listen with an open mind will change my mind.

The song starts promisingly. The layered "a-ha-ha" vocals and the intricate instrumentation behind it create an interesting wall of sound that is characteristic to Abba recordings of that era. However, the promise turns into confusion when the verse starts. The combined lead vocals by Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are usually gold, of course, but this time they are joined by Björn Ulvaeus singing an octave (or is it even two octaves?) lower. Like in Rock Me (that I reviewed earlier), the combination of these three lead vocals creates a sound that I don't like. It sounds like it is not them at all but an outside vocalist, an uninvited guest, crashing into their party. The verses do not sound good and the warm, melodic, almost heavenly vocal sound, unique to Abba, is gone.

The chorus with the female vocals dominating saves what there is to save, but to me the song is ruined by the verses. And it is not as if the chorus is exceptionally good either, even though it is produced in the impeccable Abba way. To me Angeleyes is a generic Abba song with questionable choices made in the vocal arrangement department, which in almost all the other cases is top notch. Angeleyes was one of the first songs recorded in the custom built new Polar Studios, so they were maybe still getting accustomed to the new location and the new equipment (as this is not the only song on Voulez-Vous with vocal problems).

I want to point out that I do like Björn's voice. He is a good singer, but on Abba records he is better as a solo lead or in the background vocals, not as an equal part of a three‑voice lead. Fortunately the combination of voices works much better in Summer Night City, which appears way later on this blog.

So no redemption for Angeleyes, which appealed to me even less than I had hoped. When I do the re-ranking of Abba songs, it will fall lower.

Pay attention to:
  • interesting details in the arrangement of the intro and the interlude
Coming up... I Have a Dream

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

107. What About Livingstone (Waterloo 1974)

Image
For the longest time (approximately 45 years) I have thought that this song is sung by Agnetha Fältskog . When I listened to this song again now trying to analyse and pick all the finest details of this song I realized that this is actually Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad singing in unison. This revelation overshadowed almost every other aspect I was expecting to hear from this song.  The vocals of What About Livingstone are one of the purest examples of Lyngstad's and Fältskog's singing voices blending together to create a so called "third voice". You can't really tell one voice from another. To prove this it took me, an avid Abba fan, over 40 years to realize this in this song. On the other hand this is not a surprise. I liked this song when I bought the Waterloo album sometime in 1980 or 1981, but soon after that it fell to the small pit of Abba songs that I don't particularly enjoy. The tune is catchy, no surprise there, but overly bright and perky ton...
Read more

110. Little Things (Voyage 2021, single 2022)

Image
. The fourth single from Abba 's 2021 comeback album Voyage has been a difficult pill for me to swallow. I have really tried to like this song but in the recent ranking of my favourite Abba songs it fell to last place (110th out of 110 songs). Taking the time to stop and really listen to the song made me find things in it to enjoy, but unfortunately it does not change the fact that I cannot think it as a bona fide Abba song As a melody this is very much from Benny Andersson 's songbook of the 21st century. Simple, not overstated but with quirky changes and turns in the melody. As an instrumental it would work well as included on Benny Anderssons Orkester album or second volume of his Piano album. I also love how the delicate piano lines are merged in places with the synthesizer and acoustic guitar.   As wonderful as Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are as singers, the problem for me in this song are the vocals. Their tender take on the song sounds as if they are hol...
Read more

Revisiting Abba as if for the first time

I became an Abba fan some time in 1979 when I heard Arrival and Abba the Album on a cassette tape. The final blow was to see the music video of Gimme Gimme Gimme on television and to see the group apparently (pretending, as I found out later) recording their new song in the studio. Between 1979-1982 I experienced the sensation of hearing each Abba album and each Abba song for the first time. During the 46 year that followed I listened to all the Abba songs tens of times, maybe hundreds of times, but the feeling of hearing an Abba song for the first time was obviously never felt again, not even in 2021 when the new 10 Abba songs were revealed.  Recently I have come across several videos of people, usually American, hearing Abba songs for the first time. It has been a revelation to see the reactions of heavy fans, proggers or classical musicians discover the songs I knew through and through for the first time with mostly awe and surprise.  This has given me new approach to these...
Read more