Listening Project Chapter 5
We continue the project with ABBA, an artist near and dear to my heart.
Like everyone, I knew ABBA for “Dancing Queen” since I was a kid. I had also heard “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” several times and liked it. But I never explored further until one random day in 2022, as I was working the early morning shipment shift at Banana Republic and the default Spotify playlist we had going played “Lay All Your Love On Me”. Once I got off work I HAD to hear that song again, and began exploring ABBA’s library.
It turns out that “Lay All Your Love On Me” is one of the tracks on what instantly became one of my all-time favorite albums, Super Trouper. I absolutely adore that album and listen to it often. At the time I also listened to every album before it, comprising all of ABBA’s mega hits. I found other songs to fall in love with, including three from “Voulez-Vous” and three others (including “Dancing Queen”, of course).
But I stopped there, figuring I’d listen to the few albums after Super Trouper at some point. Well, with my listening project in full swing, “at some point” has come and gone and…I have to be honest, nothing in “The Visitors” or “Voyage” was worth saving to me. There were a couple of decent songs (“Head Over Heels”, “No Doubt About It”) but I wasn’t a fan of anything else.
A shame, but I have all I need with Super Trouper and all my other cherished ABBA songs.
After this short jaunt was complete I turned my attention to an artist brand new to me: Sophie Ellis-Bextor, an English pop artist. She was the lead vocalist for indie pop band Theaudience (whose music is majorly not my vibe) in the late-’90s before going solo.
Sophie’s music is all very well-made and refined with catchy vocals - the perfect pop formula. As with most pop music there was a lot that I didn’t care for, but I found quite a few songs that I really enjoy. She started out strong with the first track on her debut album “Read My Lips”, “Murder On The Dancefloor”. This song is ultra-catchy, has a great vibe, and sounds like it should be on GTA V’s Non-Stop Pop FM radio.
Chances are I’m going to keep a song around if I find myself randomly singing it, and since I went through Sophie’s library I’ve noticed that happening with “Murder On The Dancefloor” and “Me And My Imagination”, my two favorite songs from this library. Those two songs along would make this listen worth it, but there’s plenty of other songs to love. “Heartbreak - Make Me A Dancer”, “Love Is Here”, “Bittersweet”…as I write this I’ve been going back through all of my favorites and playing them on repeat.
If you like modern dance-y pop, I can heartily recommend giving Sophie’s entire library a listen.