The Story of Abba: Melancholy Undercover
Gradvall forgoes the standard band-bio form and opts instead for a rangy study of the group’s origins and legacy. It is a wise choice ... His method is digressive and episodic ... Interposed with bits of chatty musical sociology, all given a pleasant breeziness in Sarah Clyne Sundberg’s translation .... The best chapter in The Story of ABBA contextualizes [the band's] choice...to sing in english .... As Gradvall shows at length, music and happenstance worked together to make ABBA a global phenomenon ... In Gradvall’s telling, we can see it as proof that ABBA has managed to construct a pop-music perpetual-motion machine. One suspects that it will continue to broadcast its delicious, ambivalent songs in one form or another, for as long as there are human ears to listen.
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As one of Sweden’s most respected music journalists, Jan Gradvall has been given the impossible task of unlocking this intangible subject; his authorized account acts as a survey of their extended appeal, influences and cultural background, rather than providing a conventional narrative journey ... It is perhaps this closeness to the source that restricts his literary approach; in many chapters there is an abundance of explanation and fact, such as a history of the 'raggare' youth cult or the influence of ABBA’s songs in Vietnam, which detract from the band’s core story, their internal dynamics and emotions and frustrations that were surely present in the studio or on tour. The most compelling chapters are about the tragic personal history of Frida Lyngstad ... This informative and well-researched collection of extended digressions is a must-have for any serious fan, but it lacks the formal inventiveness required for a true essential of the music-writing canon.
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Occasionally, these digressions feel a touch surplus to requirements—you do find yourself wondering if you need to know quite so much about the Swedish herring industry—but more often, they’re fascinating, not least the depiction of the Swedish pop culture from which Abba sprang ... It’s worth noting that Gradvall, a well-known Swedish critic, has got more out of them than most British journalists ever did, not least, one suspects, because he’s interviewed them in their native language ... That said, you are occasionally aware that this is an artist-approved work. There’s a lot about Abba’s notoriously painstaking process in the studio, but not a great deal of critical scrutiny aimed at their output ... But these are minor criticisms ... The context this book provides makes Abba’s success seem even more extraordinary. Moreover, it’s hard to imagine even the most obsessive fan leaving Melancholy Undercover without discovering something new, even if it is about Himmler or herring.
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