The Secret ABBA Song That Predicted Their Career
Songs from ABBA’s Thank You For The Music box set and its Undeleted Medley usually slip under the radar due to the fact that they were released in 1994, but there are gems in there!
14 years after the bands break up, this box set contained various songs both heard and never heard before.
While many people focus on the 23 minute long Undeleted Medley when discussing this album, there is another song that often fails to get mentioned. Firstly, if you’ve not heard of the Undeleted Medley, I recommend checking it out, not only does it have some cool songs that don’t show up anywhere else, it also contains alternate versions of more famous ABBA tracks. With that out of the way (and you hopefully having enjoyed some new music), let's dive into the song that would predict a pivotal moment in ABBA’s career.
Dream World
In 1978, ABBA recorded a song called “Dream World” that would have ended up on Voulez-Vous if it had been released. First I will break down the song and then explain how it ties into ABBA’s career overall.
Starting the song (and ending it) are the sounds of what I will describe as a circus synthesizer playing a trill-filled melody. This is joined quickly by a distorted guitar and bass drum as the intensity grows, finally bursting into the verse.
The verse takes a step down from the intro and features background vocal bursts which make up the majority of the harmonic structure in this section. The lead vocals sit on top of this and are complemented by a vaguely brassy synth which plays between the first and second section of the verse.
This goes directly into the chorus where the vocals become more heavily layered and the harmonic background thickens with more synths and guitars. The drums pick up to accentuate the rhythm of the vocals in this section until the end. At the end, everything becomes quieter as the vocals harmonize with each other, going back and forth. As Agnetha and Frida bounce lyrics between each other, the keyboards perform arpeggios of basically a power chord which is a motif the song uses frequently.
As the harmonies resolve in the chorus, the bridge comes in and features a melody that might be familiar to most ABBA fans. This is the same melody as seen in “Does Your Mother Know,” because it was taken from this song and used after this song was scrapped. ABBA did this again with the tracks “Rubber Ball Man/Under My Sun” which was incorporated into “Under Attack” later. This section has lots of reverb and echo and is pretty bare when it comes to accompaniment. This contrasts nicely with the dense choruses that this section succeeds.
After this, another verse, chorus, and bridge follow in a very similar fashion to the first time around. But after this bridge, instead of going into a verse, it goes back into another chorus with a synth run leading up to a large vocal culmination. At the end of this chorus, the back and forth harmonies linger on the cusp of a resolution until the circus synth returns in what I consider to be the best part of the song. The guitars slide around and stab the downbeat in the background as the song fades out. And with that, the song is fully concluded in just about 3 and a half minutes.
Now, you might be asking: How did this song predict ABBA’s future? I can now explain what I meant by this (sorry if the title was a little click-baity, I genuinely believe this).
If you look at Voulez-Vous and compare it to their last 2 (and a half) albums, there is a big difference in tone and sound. While Voulez-Vous and its predecessors are more warm and happy, even when discussing harder topics, Super Trouper and The Visitors are darker and more sharp in tone and sound. The lyrics of songs like “Elaine”, “Happy New Year”, “Me And I”, “On And On And On”, “The Visitors”, “The Day Before You Came”, and “Should I Laugh Or Cry” are more melancholic or pessimistic about the world. When compared to songs like “Does Your Mother Know”, “Lovelight”, “As Good As New”, and “Angeleyes”; there is a noticeable shift. This shift was a result of stress, divorce, and uncertainty within the group that changed their sound and messaging going forward.
The song “Dream World” contains elements of this future in an era where it was not yet realized. For example, the backing vocals of the verses are a little colder and leave more open spaces in the mix which is similar to the sound of harsher songs like “Me And I” later in their career. The lyrics are also more confrontational than many of their earlier works, dealing with the realities of a relationship not fitting the “dream” that they hoped it would be. This type of writing is seen later in songs like “You Owe Me One” and “Should I Laugh Or Cry” where relationships are on the line and not working out how both partners thought they would.
Although not as fully down this line as later songs, “Dream World” gives us a glimpse of a pivotal moment in ABBA’s career and how their personal struggles would eventually lead to the bands break up three years down the line.
If you haven’t heard the song before, you should totally go listen to it, especially if you’ve explored the rest of ABBA’s catalog and are looking for something new. That’s all I’ve got to say about this song, thanks for reading!