ENCORE!??

Even if you live under a rock, the news that one of the biggest and greatest pop bands who ever existed are back! back! BACK! can't have escaped your attention. ABBA, who ruled the charts and airwaves from 1976 until their split in the early eighties, have reformed, with their first album of entirely new material since 1981s'  The Visitors, and a virtual live experience to follow (basically, they had an arena built in London last year, where a "virtual ABBA" based on motion capture tech and made to look like the band at their 1979 peak will "perform" nightly, rather than put their 70-odd year old selves through the stress of touring.) The excitement and anticipation caused their new ABBA Voyage website to crash just hours after the announcement, such is the love for the quartet and their music. Two of the new songs have been put online, and they are ok: "I Still Believe In You" is a typical ABBA power ballad, a song about themselves and the bond they all still have with one another. "Don't Shut Me Down" is a mid-tempo disco pop number, and whilst on the surface it seems to be about a woman returning to a former lover, it could just as easily be about the return of the band. They are entirely typical of the band's previous output, and thankfully they haven't tried to sound modern; there's no grime or modern r&b influences added to the mix, no hook ups with current artists. And that's to their credit (and no doubt the fans relief.) Unless you're an artist who trades in arty, experimental music or whose sound was ahead of its time, it's best not to stray too far from whatever sounds made you popular and beloved enough for people to want you to return. There is nothing worse than the sight of ageing idols trying to get "down with the kids". Even my heroes Madness have occasionally slipped up: after playing the nostalgia circuit since their return in 1992, the seven members braved the recording studio to produce their first new songs in thirteen years. The Wonderful album, whilst not quite up to the standards of their heyday did boast some fine additions to their catalogue. But the follow up album - not counting the patchy 2005 covers album The Dangermen Sessions - took a good decade*. In the interim came the 2007 single "Sorry". Written for them and given a modern dancehall feel in an attempt by their management to raise their profile and get some airplay, it made the top thirty but was swiftly disowned by band and fans alike. (The "urban" version featuring a couple of up-and-coming UK rappers was even worse. Thankfully, the 3 albums they've put out since erased most memories of that blip.) I'm glad that they took the plunge and started writing new songs though: i'd seen them live half a dozen times since the first Madstock! reunion concerts in '92 and the greatest hits nature of the setlists was beginning to feel anticlimactic, especially in an era of so much great new music.  So i guess it's important to me that reformed acts at least attempt some new material; if it doesn't  work maybe it's best that they make it short and sweet rather than flogging it to death: artists returning for yet another "final" tour is embarrassing and insulting to the fans (i'm looking at you, Genesis) and does their legacy no favours, as does replacing a deceased iconic frontman (Brian May and Roger Taylor, guilty as charged.) 

Beloved artists reforming after years or decades, the passage of time having thickened waistlines, thinned hair, added lines and even altered voice ranges, all face the same dilemma: are they happy to just play the old favourites on the nostalgia circuit to diminishing returns, or do they risk tarnishing their reputation and fans memories by releasing new material? And if they choose the latter, do they stick to their tried and trusted sound or try to modernise it and risk looking like dads at a disco (think of the album cover to The Who's 1982 album It's Hard)? And just how long do they carry on for? There is also an argument to be made that any new material a reformed act makes, no matter how good, will never truly stand up to their "classics", and this is mainly due to the amount of time involved. As much as i love a lot of Madness' new songs, the older hits and favourites always pull me back, simply because i've lived with them for far longer. They're the hits that get played on the radio, the pub jukebox, on countless compilations. Also, those new "singles" that older acts put out don't get the airplay they would have enjoyed back in the day, and the proliferation of music radio channels available, not to mention the enormous amount of new music vying for your attention, means they often get lost in the noise and don't embed themselves in your memory in quite the same way.  

All this being said, no one makes pop music like Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid. So welcome back.