Greetings to all the readers. The second installment of my favourite albums is here. Although I would like to mention a few external factors here. I am extremely hard pressed for time as my end-semester examinations are underway and as I found out to my dismay today( today being the first day), there is absolutely no scope of cheating!! Curses! If that weren't enough I have a pressing engagement in which I am supposed to record and mail a song to a friend. So this shall be shorter and definitely sweeter than the other posts that shall follow in this segment! Sweeter?? Well today I shall chronicle a pop band. Ace of Base!!
This is another album that I heard in my infancy as a musician and a person. Having heard "The Bridge" in the same month as "Appetite for Destruction", the two very contrasting styles was quite the spectrum for me then. What stands out that this album was heard during a very distressing time for the world in general, and to a lesser extent, me. I heard this album during the time of the death of Princess Diana. I still remember reading the newspapers for every article about her life and death while this album was playing on the discman. The haunting quality of some of the songs made it a very profound experience. It's like tripping, only a very miniature version.
Before I jump into the evaluation of the album I would like to take some time to talk about the band. Ace of Base are natives of Sweden and comprise of four members. Sisters Jenny and Malin "Linn" Berggren, brother Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg. Often compared to Swedish powerhouse ABBA, Ace of Base personify a lot of the good and bad qualities to be found in popular music culture today. They have excellent vocals, catchy tunes, well produced, and the songs were the right songs at the right time in the music scene. The album preceding "The Bridge", called "The Sign" was listed in the TOP 100 bestselling albums of all time by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA). It doesn't take a genius to figure it out, this band had their moment under the sun. The factors that probably contribute Ace of Base to being a very minor act now are that they were pushed for media airplay by managers who only wanted record sales, not quality or longevity. Once their sound was decided upon, the managers never let them explore new territory, so once the music audience were tired of their brand of pop, they were pushed to the sidelines. This might have even contributed to Linn being gradually more disillusioned which ultimately resulted in her departure from the band. However I can only guess that, what is sure is that Jenny's voice does not have the same quality as Linn's whose powerful vocals were one of the features of the band's sound.
Onto the album then, "The Bridge" is different from the band's traditional sound. Ace of Base made their reputation mixing their unique mix of reggae, electronica, europop and funk that catapulted them to the top of charts in various countries. This album however has songs that are more ballad and chorus oriented in their nature than their earlier offerings. Linn's vocals are outstanding as always and she is definitely one of my favourite female singers(that is a very short list). The orchestration and song arrangements are slightly different than what one might expect but the songs are definitely listener friendly. The album starts with "Beautiful Life", and with most songs on this album there is a beautiful pull in the songs that captivates the listener. Although I have grown out of Ace of Base I was listening to these songs last night and I still found them cool, unlike most other pop songs that I hear. My personal favourite on the album however was and is the acoustic mix of the song "Lucky Love". This single was also the highest selling single of this album. Now my reason for liking the acoustic mix is the absolutely lovely guitar rhythm that accompanies the track. I mean when I heard this all I wanted to do was to play my guitar in that particular rhythm, and that helped me a lot in my fledgling stage as a guitar player. Although I must say that I would be hard pressed to play that guitar part even now, 12 years later, there is just such a beautiful feel in the chord structure. Even though the progression is simple there is an ebb and flow in the rhythm that makes this song enchanting.
Short post has turned into medium length post! Anyway, if you ever get the chance, please do hear the album. Also check out other Ace of Base songs like "Happy Nation", "All That She Wants" and "The Sign". If not anything else, you shall find that a lot of bollywood songs have been made off them!! Cheers!
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