Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 10/10/2006
Although the breakup of
ABBA in the early '80s did not, in fact, mean the dissolution of the songwriting team of
Benny Andersson and
Björn Ulvaeus that had come up with all of the group's songs and made up half of its personnel, people tend to think of it that way, an impression only reinforced by the worldwide success of the stage
musical Mamma Mia! that employs
ABBA songs, since
Andersson and
Ulvaeus insisted as a condition of their involvement that the songs by performed in their
ABBA arrangements. There have been relatively few attempts to record the songs differently --
Erasure's 1992 EP
Abba-esque was one, but, more typically,
the A*Teens tried to copy the original arrangements on their album
The ABBA Generation in 2000. And there have been no attempts to consider
Andersson and
Ulvaeus as songwriters beyond
ABBA, despite their continuing partnership, which has produced two original stage
musicals and other songs, before and after
ABBA. Opera singer
Anne Sofie Von Otter changes all this with her collection of
Andersson/
Ulvaeus songs,
I Let the Music Speak, which includes only six
ABBA songs among its 12 selections (and one of them was not actually written for
ABBA, though the group recorded it). She adds in songs from the
musicals Chess and
Kristina Från Duvemåla, as well as other songs by the duo up to 2001. (One song,
"After the Rain," was written by
Andersson with
Johan Nörklit, without
Ulvaeus' involvement.) The arrangements were written by
Flesh Quartet,
Anders Eljas,
George Wadenius, and, in the case of
"I Walk with You, Mama" (a lyric written by
Ulvaeus set to
Andersson's instrumental composition
"Stockholm at Night," written for a late-'80s film),
Andersson himself with bassist
Svante Henryson.
Andersson on piano joins
Henryson for the track's instrumental accompaniment. They give the song a
classical, art-song feel, which is consistent with the other arrangements. For the
ABBA songs,
Von Otter has mostly chosen late-period
ballads like
"When All Is Said and Done" and
"The Winner Takes It All," as well as the last-ever
ABBA song,
"The Day Before You Came," and this is material that works well in a completely different context. Nor are the arrangements the same as each other, by any means.
"I Let the Music Speak," with its accordion, sounds like a sad, mid-20th century European lament.
"When All Is Said and Done" comes off as a
country-ish
folk-rock song.
"I Am Just a Girl" (the
ABBA song actually written before the group's formation for another artist) employs a banjo and a tuba in emulation of '20s
jazz.
Von Otter brings a warm sincerity (and, thankfully, no Swedish accent) to her singing of the English lyrics, while also handling the Swedish in the two songs from
Kristina Från Duvemåla well. It is a crucial element in the continuing reputations of
musical artists that their songs can be performed in different ways by musicians coming later.
Von Otter does
Andersson and
Ulvaeus a great service in demonstrating the value of their songs as songs here, not just as vehicles for the elaborate
ABBA studio recordings. And listening to such excellent compositions as
"I Walk with You, Mama" and
"Butterfly Wings," ABBA fans may appreciate that
Andersson and
Ulvaeus didn't disappear after 1982. (Although the album packaging lists only 11 songs, there is a hidden track at the end,
ABBA's
"Money, Money, Money.")
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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