ROME TOTAL REALISM 7 PLUS
ROME TOTAL REALISM 7 TV

And then this atom-bomb-in-bellbottoms went off in the corner of living rooms across Europe. There was a state of emergency in Northern Island. A coal strike meant that the UK could only work three days a week. вЂњMy my!вЂќ In 1974 UK Prime Minister Edward Heath presided over raging inflation of 17.2%.

ROME TOTAL REALISM 7 TV

And feel the frostiness of the bandвЂ™s final ever TV performance on the 11th December 1982, through the fake tinsel chill of Noel EdmondsвЂ™ Late Late Breakfast Show. Under Attack was ABBAвЂ™s final single, besting the UK 32 of The Day Before You CameвЂ¦ but only just, stalling at number 26 which - frankly - just ainвЂ™t right. Like the details on the ceiling of RomeвЂ™s Sistine Chapel, theyвЂ™re impossible to see from the ground, but - as Leonardo explained to naysayers who suggested he was wasting his time - вЂGod can see themвЂ™. Or skip to this rare mix with the music and main vocal diminished, allowing the multi-part, multi-layered backing vocals to finally shine through. Breathe in the airy toms and synth layers. Listen to the bassline in the chorus as it rock-hops its way across the ever-evolving chord landscape. We say вЂsimpleвЂ™ in that it is, of course, off-the-chart ABBA-complex, with further stunning depth only revealed with careful repeated listening. ItвЂ™s a typically catchy, deceptively вЂsimpleвЂ™ Abba arrangement. (See also The Day Before You Came.)ДЄnd so it goes for Under Attack, with choppy synths underpinning slow, drawling guitar. That said, in the pursuit of a more modern sound, long-standing ABBA producer/engineer Michael Tretow had taken to gating BennyвЂ™s legato synth playing in time with the hi-hat or other percussion to produce a more mechanical, modern edge. However, throughout their entire output, ABBA never used a sequencer, and, while big fans of the drum machine and the vocoder, all their keyboard parts were played by Benny himself. ItвЂ™s easy to forget what an electronic band ABBA were, with synths driving Voulez-Vouz, being perfected through Super Trouper and giving way to prominence on The Visitors. Under AttackДЄnother latecomer, Under Attack was also birthed during the bandвЂ™s final 1982 sessions alongside the aborted and unreleased Just Like That, which shares Under AttackвЂ™s chords and verse melody (listen carefully to its unfinished, unreleased mix here). And to get a real fix on such a delicate and rarefied melody, do check out this version from BennyвЂ™s exemplary 2017 album Piano. In fact, such was the bandвЂ™s disappointment in its performance that when UK electronic band Blancmange proposed a near-identical (and near-pointless) cover version in 1984, ABBA publicly endorsed the track to the degree that they even allowed the band to hijack parts of their video, with Agnetha now appearing to share a train with BlancmangeвЂ™s Neil Arthur, rather than her nameless love interest in the original. Remarkably, it remains unclear lyrically as to whether the real-time вЂtodayвЂ™ of the song - the day after they вЂcameвЂ™ - is actually better or worse than the day beforeвЂ¦ Is this a song looking back fondly before things went wrong? Or celebrating the moment when things finally started to go right? The jury remains out.Дespite its utter brilliance - and it being a Benny favourite - the song only reached number 32 in the UK charts, which must have played a part in further sealing the bandвЂ™s reluctance to re-join the ABBA circus post Chess (see later).

It tells the story of the boring, repetitive day to day of the protagonist before the interference of a new romance.

ROME TOTAL REALISM 7 PLUS

The band had returned to the studio in May 1982 to follow up The Visitors album, but only six tracks were recorded - two new singles and their B-sides plus IвЂ™m The City (which finally surfaced on 1993вЂ™s More ABBA Gold) and the unfinished Just Like That (which morphed to become Under Attack).Дespite its cheek-to-cheek, sexy tango-vibes, TDBYC is a profoundly bleak, 100% electronic вЂsad bangerвЂ™ before such a thing ever existed, and very much a continuation of the вЂdivorce ABBAвЂ™ they coined on The Visitors.

So much so, that BOTH make our final five. ItвЂ™d be easy, therefore, to dismiss these two late additions as a cash-grab, designed to prize out a last tuppence alongside tracks already owned, were it not for the fact that both tracks are superb.

Rome total realism 7