ABBA single by single thread

Some of us REALLY like it, some of us don't, but I totally respect the all the opinions of the contributors! Many of you brought up some things I was thinking about in relation to this song. The fact that we are still talking about the last song that ABBA had recorded before their 30+ year hiatus is fascinating. The song even has it's own thread here on the forum!

It wasn't commercial, it wasn't a hit. But it provokes strong feelings from many of us, maybe just an ode to the admiration we have for ABBA as a group, despite their misgivings? Whether it's a good song or a bad song, whether someone else has covered it better, it lives on! It will be interesting to hear if the new material will have any connection to the last recording sessions from 1982, or if it will be a hybrid of older and newer, or a step in the direction they might have gone had they continued to record. I think I know what to expect, but I hope they surprise us......... in a good way!

 

you must mean the post+Abba solo albums, or in Frida's case, the nearly post Abba.

or are you referring to the earlier swedish language albums?

 

You’re right. I should have specified as there is a huge difference. I did buy a pre-ABBA Frida album that was issued last year from RSD and didn’t care for it. I was referring to Frida’s Somethings Goin’ On and Agnetha’s Wrap Your Arms Around Me. Both superb imo. I had not played either in years and when they were both reissued I bought them again (and both easily beat the sound quality of the originals) plus Frida’s Shine. While Frida’s is a victim of the gated drum sounds her producer Phil Collins invented, a good song is a good song and it’s still a fine album and should have done much better. I think the cover didn’t help. Agnetha’s could come out today and would probably still sound fine for that market. It’s full of wonderful songs if you enjoy her. It’s far closer to the ABBA sound...Frida clearly was wanting a far different approach. Both albums still sound great...highly recommended for people reading these posts.

 

I’m curious, as this is about my least favorite ABBA song and it seems people that like it do so passionately. Is it the story she is telling that people connect to so much? Because to me the music is so uninspiring and un-ABBA. What’s interesting is that coming from someone that owns their entire catalogue, and enjoys 98% of all their songs, even the older one’s the boys sing on, except for Under Attack (which I do like a lot and others don’t seem to as much) I didn’t care for anything from the last wave of one off’s (Cassandra, better than TDBYC for sure imo, Should I Laugh, another that seems too lazy for an ABBA composition). Given you guys enjoyed them, and that I really do love their work, I wonder why I can’t get into them?!

You guys may think this is crazy, but I do really feel these songs suggest these guys were tired and as they were putting songs together for The Visitors follow up, realized the songs were just not up to their standards. I don’t care how talented a band is, they all run out of ideas at some point. I really think they had, and just imo, for me these songs prove it. We’ll never know of course, but I think it’s possible. So many of their songs were genious....you can’t do that forever. We are huge fans so we will be far more forgiving, but I just don’t think any of those last songs would have charted.

 

Has someone posted the Blancmange version of "The Day Before you Came" yet? Criminally stalled at #22ish on the UK chart back in '85 if I recall. I would argue their version is equally as brilliant.

 

TDBYC.... The most atypical of all ABBA songs. There's truly no other ABBA track that even remotely resembles this one, so no wonder it polarizes some folks. I personally love it but I have to be in the right mood to listen. That said, if I was compiling an objective list of the 10 best ABBA songs, TDBYC would need to be in the mix, because it's so unique and its fans are SO passionate. Good on B&B for absolutely shattering the formula in their last time at bat!

Can't remember where I heard this interpretation, and it's (probably) not what B&B intended, but it works for the song and actually gives it a far darker edge. (Whether that's a positive or not is up to you.) The narrator (Agnetha) is singing the entire song from the afterlife.... The mundane details of the song are describing her last day on Earth.... And the "you" in the title is Death itself.

 

What????

 

wow this thread is up to 71 pages!!!

Frida's somethings going on is my favorite, the drum sound is a bit much here and there, but overall its an excellent album

NONE of Agnethas 80s albums were to my liking.

I'm weird, I adore her kooky early swedish and german stuff.

oh well, we cant all like the same things!

 

That's just goofy.

One interpretation that does make sense though - and the video backs this one up - is that she had a mundane and loveless life, met a lover who brought her great joy, and now he's gone away (or died) and she's lamenting that her life is going back to the way it was "the day before you came."

 

"The Day Before You Came" got no airplay in my area when it was released in late 1982. As a result, I didn't hear it until 2002 when I picked The Definitive Collection DVD. The flipside, "Cassandra", was issued as a promotional single in 1984 in conjunction with the compilation ABBA The Love Songs. The song was in moderate rotation that summer on one of the local stations. At the time, I thought it was a brand new recording. It was only later that I found out that it was recorded before the band had parted ways.

 

Under Attack (1982)


B-side: You Owe Me One
Released: December 3, 1982 (UK), February 21, 1983 (Worldwide)
Charts: #26 (United Kingdom), #96 (Australia)

 

Agnetha looks terrifying on that cover...

 

It's a terrible cover. Not only Agnetha but all of them look horrible.

 

ABBA performed 'Under Attack' (with a cold ending) on the UK's 'Late, Late Breakfast Show' in December 1982. It was their last ever public performance as a group.

 

The ending of the music video where they walk away out of the warehouse is really poignant as it was their way of saying goodbye.

 

It's also my avatar pic, if you haven't noticed.

 

"Under Attack"

Poor Agnetha ended up living the song.

 

It's not a bad song, and I enjoy it a lot, but it's pretty far from the days of the classic singles like Mamma Mia and Knowing Me Knowing You. I think it's understandable why they decided to split after releasing this.

I really like the B-side.

 

I totally agree.

It's one long shot that lasts a whole minute and to me it basically represents the end of ABBA (until now that is ).

 

That isn't really Frida and Agentha, surely.

 

As with the last single I thought this was a poor song when it was released, but it has aged well to my ears.
More importantly Agnetha's dreadful perm has gone, in fact both Agnetha and Frida look great in the video and TV clip, certainly better and younger than they did in The Visitors era a couple of years before.
Unfortunately both of the men still have beards.

I have always had a theory about beards. Once pop stars go into beard territory it is the beginning of the end, there is no going back, and Abba proved me right. When male Pop stars sign their record contract there should be a second contract forbidding them from ever growing a beard until the contract is fulfilled.

 

I like "Under Attack" but but like the previous single, it probably wouldn't have fit in with where American Top 40 radio was in 1983. MTV was beginning to exert an influence on where Top 40 radio was heading and ABBA was now viewed by many as a 70s relic. In hindsight, they bowed out at the right time.

 

Benny has always had a beard but he had it before he got famous. Has anyone seen him without it?

 

Actually terrifies me.

 

I don't think this has been posted yet.