Carl Magnus Palm

ABBA at 50 by Carl Magnus Palm is a delightful history of the individuals as well as the group, complete with beautiful photographs.

The thing about ABBA during their heyday is that they were at least liked by most (even if secretly) and loved by many. I was primarily an AOR listener, with R&B/Funk as my second favorite, but it was hard to resist most of ABBA's hits. Now, their songs are as important to my memories of the time as the bands I loved more at the time.

What I really took away from this book was a greater appreciation for the work that went into the songs, the musicianship and engineering as well as the songwriting. Pop music is often thought of as simple because the tunes do, indeed, seem so. The art and the skill is in making such precision seem effortless, and ABBA accomplished that very well.

In addition to revisiting the ABBA songs I also looked up and listened to many songs by artists I was barely or even unfamiliar with (mostly from their very early days before even becoming ABBA), and that was a lot of fun. This managed to be both a trip down memory lane as well as an introduction to music I missed the first time around.

This makes a great coffee table book and I can picture it generating some interesting conversations. Mainly because so many of their songs seem to bring back moments, both good and bad, in our lives. A new love or a bad break-up, they covered it all.

While ABBA fans will love this, you don't have to be a big fan to enjoy it. It covers a major group during a period of great change in music history as well as the relationships of four very real people.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)