This article was published in the Swedish paper EXPRESSEN on the 8th of June 1981. This is the first time the album ‘Opus 10’ was mentioned.
ABBA IS SINGING THEIR 10th LP
ABBA is unique. In nearly 11 years have Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Annifrid been working together. During that time they have married, divorced and had some children- not all of them together, but as couples - done a world success and become the owner of bicycle factories, art collections, Stockholm’s badhus and a couple of other real estate companies. Everything has happen, everything has changed only one thing remains - their songs. It’s the number of years that makes this group unique.
Other pop groups split up
after a while, with the exception of Rolling Stones, but not ABBA.
Now they are in the Studio again, this young people on their way to the
middle age(that’s 34 years now) and work on the new album. It will
be the 10th since the start 1973. The Studio is placed in the old
cinema Riverside at Klara Sjö in the old Sport Palace. It’s
ingeniously planned. The entrance is full of gold records from all
over the world. Even some art are on the walls. On the second
floor, on the balcony, there seems to be a recording session going on.
But in this studio with blue and yellow walls the members of ABBA is sitting
in a chaos of microphones, flexes, grand pianos, organs and acoustic guitars
and making a new album. Benny has red trousers, Angetha’s a flowered
dress. Five songs are finished and recorded but we are not allowed
to hear any, since everything should explode at the same time. Profile
on the record. To early to say.
NOT FUNNY
We are allowed to take the
pictures, but everything is in a hurry. The boys are to continue
with the mixing, the girls are on their way to a möhippa (girl’s
party given for a bride-to-be shortly before her wedding). Outside
a pop magazine from Switzerland is waiting with golden hammers and golden
Christmas men and other strange pop mag stuff. The members of ABBA
do what they should but you could easily see that they don’t like it,
especially Benny and Frida. Publicity can be hard. Nine albums so
far, the tenth on its way. This is the cart of themselves:
1) Super Trouper
2) Greatest Hits I
3) Arrival
4) Greatest Hits II
The last record has been the most successful so far. Could it be
five millions. Görel at Polar can’t confirm since no one knows,
the record is still selling. Will ‘Opus 10’ beat them all? Björn
Ulveaus says: - Hard to tell. Of course we want to make a
record as good as the last one. If not better.
LYRICS WITH MEANING
Ulveaus is happy for the
‘Super Trouper’ and that some critics has discovered the lyrics.
- We wanted to prove that we could make good lyrics (even if it’s difficult
to understand why a pop song should be profound) Very difficult
to understand for this reporter. How would ‘Anna du kan väl
stanna’ (Anna can’t you stay with me) have sounded with a meaningful lyric.
We asked Ulveaus to describe the songs they are recording this day.
After some hesitation he says: - An angel is passing through my
room. Type? - Ballad. Where did you write it. Home,
in the studio. on the famous island in the Stockholm archipelago?
- I believe it’s made here in the studio. We started to write songs
in March and have made half of an album so far. We have had some
breaks and now it’s summertime so the rest has to wait for the August
- September. We have many songs unwritten. It’s nice not to
be in a hurry. We don’t have to release the album any special season
or holiday. - But we are working hard. Inspiration? Yes, if
we work hard first.
Inspiration comes out of hard work, not the other way around. When
is it best, when half of the work is done? - When we have made the
hook line, the hook that will make the public sing along. The melody
and the words that will make everything fly.
NO SPLIT RIGHT NOW
‘ABBA splits’ was the say
on the newspaper placard on our way to the Studio. ABBA will split
up some day, anything else would be against nature and all art crafts
laws, but at the moment there will be no split up, not this summer or
autumn, ABBA is now working in the Studio with a record in the old Sport
Palace in Stockholm. Their private lives may be as they are, but
here in the Studio the magic comes alive when Benny starts to play a song
from the album before the last one and everyone starts to sing along.
When we are leaving we can see Björn and Benny in the mixing room.
Benny is hanging over the panel and Bjorn is lying in a chair. Both
are looking as if they weren’t there, both are listening. An angel
is passing through the room.
Translated by Håkan Borg - Sweden
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