Album of the week, week 40: Ace Of Base - Happy Nation

Tracklist
1. Voulez-Vous Danser (3:22) (EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED)
2. All That She Wants (3:33) (EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED)
3. Mûnchhausen (Just Chaos) (3:27)
4. Happy Nation (4:14)
5. Waiting For Magic (5:21)
6. Fashion Party (4:14)
7. Wheel Of Fortune (3:54)
8. Dancer In A Daydream (3:40)
9. My Mind (Mindless Mix) (4:10)
10. W.O.F. (Original Club Mix) (4:01)
11. Dimension Of Depth (1:46)
12. Young And Proud (3:56)
13. A.T.S.W. (Banghra Version) (4:14)

I LOOOVE the 90s right now! I wasn't born to see the glorious, or so I've heard, days of the 80s but I'm absolutely sure that the 90s kicked ass! I found this CD in my dad's record collection. It doesn't say much about him, since his interest in music is fairly limited. Anyway, there it lay and I got the urge to check out the Swedish group I knew had been so popular when I was a child.

And the two first tracks swiped me off my feet. I instantly researched it and learned that it had once been the highest selling debut album of all time. Which was quite astonishing but I clearly heard why it once had been so extremely hyped and popular. Happy Nation as a whole is today only enjoyable as a music-historical document, a receipt, on how Swedish pop music is created and why it has been renowned throughout the world ever since. Who would get the idea to throw in an "Original Club Mix" of the same track that is three tracks away on an album. Or to put a "Banghra Version) of the lead single as the last track? Only Swedes can do such a thing with their free-spirited approach to music, huh? Not to mention that three of the tracks are exactly 4:14 long...

Nevermind, the important thing is that the two first tracks are awesome and that they, as two prominent gems from the 90s' ABBA, should lead the 90s recap revolution when it begins in 2k10. Voulez-Vous Danser is waaay too good to not be a single. It is probably the most enjoyable dancepop/housepop track of the 90s with the best intriguingly stylistic and accurate melodies the 90s had to offer. The same goes for All That She Wants, which I of course immediately recognized when I heard it, just that it's a reggaepop track instead. The music is of high class 90s polished production, the bass is deep, subtle, simple and effective and Jenny and Malin had the most coolest teflon-treated voices that was around in 1993.

Ace Of Base was a huge success in 1993 and, with Voulez-Vous Danser and All That She Wants, they survive the harsh manners of time with such elegance that all I want to do is sing "Du gamla du fria" and parade the blogosphere with the tunes booming through the speakers.

The 90s are here, y'all. You can't stop it. The next phase of the retrospective post-millenium years is here. The 90s never died...

Ace Of Base - Voulez-Vous Danser (ysi) (EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED)

Ace Of Base - All That She Wants (ysi) (EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED)