Tag: A*Base

A*Base – All That She Wants

“Roughly what the song would be if Ace of Base themselves were recording it right now.”

Tim: For their second release, A*Base (or more likely their management) have chosen one of Ace of Base’s actual hits – I think they must have read my request from last time.

Tom: This is the first time, I think, that I’ve really cared about what a tribute-and-covers band is doing to the original artist’s tracks. I was too young to “get” A*Teens and ABBA: but Ace of Base was music I grew up with.

Tim: And, well…

Tim: …it’s actually really good.

Tom: It is as well. I wasn’t expecting that.

Tim: The original could roughly be described as reggae-infused pop; this could roughly be described as techno-infused pop, and I think it works really, really well.

Tom: I always thought that All That She Wants was one of the weaker Ace of Base singles, but this does a pretty good job with it nevertheless. There’s some counterpoint that wasn’t there before in the chorus, and the broken percussion works too.

Tim: It is, in fact, roughly what the song would be if Ace of Base themselves were recording it right now, and from a teen tribute act I reckon that’s entirely what we should be asking for. A great original song with a great refresh for modern audiences.

Tom: I think I’d be happier if it was some sort of official remix, with the original vocals or, better yet, the original vocalist. In a world where there are a hundred half-assed cash-in cover versions on Spotify for every popular track, this doesn’t stand out enough. It’s good, but it’s not spectacular.

Tim: And now I really, really want them to do Life is a Flower.

Tom: Now that, I’d like to hear.

A*Base – Never Gonna Say I’m Sorry

“I want to hear more from them, but not really because of this.”

Tim: Remember A*Teens? ABBA tribute band, made up of teenagers, who had a vague amount of success at the end of the nineties.

Tom: “Vague amount of success” is right, but, yes, I remember them, and I suspect a lot of other folks do.

Tim: Well, it seems it’s not just ABBA that get the A* teenage tribute treatment, because now there’s an Ace of Base on as well, and they kick off, oddly, with one of the more obscure tracks.

Tim: It’s a tricky choice for a tribute act trying to have success: do you go for like for like covers, in the knowledge that if you alter it even slightly there’ll be melodramatic fans screaming OH GOD YOU’VE RUINED MY MEMORIES!!! or do you, to quote Louis Walsh and every single other reality TV judge, ‘really make it your own’, and try to develop a sound of your own?

Tom: I’m always in favour of changing things up: there’s not much point in a like-for-like cover of a modern pop song, particularly when you don’t have a vocalist with a recognisable voice.

Tim: A*Base, it seems, have gone for a mix of the two, though strangely in a ‘worst of both worlds’ sense: changing the song (bit faster, slightly heavier beats, bringing the synths twenty years forward), but still keeping a very Ace of Base sound to it (though admittedly that middle eight exit and first half of the following chorus could safely be called their own).

Tom: Yep, I’ll admit it does sound like Ace of Base brought up to date. And I can get behind that as an idea.

Tim: It’s also peculiar to have started with this – A*Teens kicked off with Mamma Mia, probably the worst possible Pointless answer if ABBA songs ever came up, and which went top 20 in every country it was released in. The original of this, though, didn’t even crack the top 20 in Sweden, and even worse it’s a fairly repetitive and not all that interesting track.

Tom: Right! I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve never heard the original of this: it’s not even on their Greatest Hits album. Maybe it was cheaper to license?

Tim: Tactics aside, though, it works: given the source material it’s a good interpretation, what changes they have made have brought it fairly up to date, and it stands up to repeated listening, though possibly not to double digit levels. As an introductory track, then, summary: I want to hear more from them, but not really because of this. I want Life is a Flower, or All That She Wants, or even a Happy Nation, if only to see what they’d do with that.

Tom: I reckon an updated Always Have, Always Will would be interesting: given the backing for that was sampled from Motown songs, there’s a lot of interesting potential ways to bring it up to date, beyond installing a few different synth packs on the producer’s laptop.

Tim: Yes, so let’s hope the project keeps going.