Prologue: My Article // My Aphasia Training
This article is created because I need to create texts – I urge to Create. I also should – need – to work on the languages that I lost hard on 2021-02-16.
I love playing with words. Not just the normal common words, never the easy boring words. I love to find the unknow words, new words, only my words – using common words with a new meaning. My playing, may make my texts in understandable, and maybe, hopefully, give new ahaa’s out there. Even if I fail, I still like it.
After this ‘small issue’ that hit me hard; I lost what I love. I try to find it again. Be patient… There is no option, no alternative. I will use the words.
I like music. I like understanding the thoughts, ideas, and meanings of the creators. Music is love, happiness, despair, and all other feelings. So I need to understand the music, not only the words used by the singers.
There are a lot of songs that are plain and simple dull, boring, unintellectual music. Too bad, I don’t care about those, I don’t need to ‘understand the Meanings’ (if there even is one). I ignore them. Bye-bye, see you never.
Smart creators in music, coding, carpentry, gardens, etc. – I envy you! I aim to be one of those. Some intelligent creators in the music area, for example are R. Scheja and F. FitsPatrick. They have a very clear posture; they are cool, they own the world, they are the world, and they will do whatever they want to. They rock.
One morning, during breakfast at our vacation in Cyprus, I was browsing through DN. I saw headlines – there are wars; there are guns and shots at home in Sweden; there are kidnaps, refugees, starving, forest fires, cancer, floods, plagues… I saw all these big black headers, but the only article I really clicked on was about a new EP release from Rebecca & Fiona. That’s what I want to read. And that’s the embryo of this article.
The embryo started to grow as another “training” or rather “rehab”. I have to keep training. Well actually, I want to work out, both physically at the gym and mentally, learning how to handle my Aphasia. Docs have said that I’ll never get rid of this tiny issue I have. I will have Aphasia until my last breath. What I’m training about is to handle it, embrace it, use it in the best way I can achieve it.
Greatest Tits
Rebecca & Fiona released a new EP on 2023-06-28: Greatest Tits.
Why did they do it, releasing only new covers? They are wonderful at creating new songs, but from the Dagens Nyheter (DN), they just said
We did it to show the world how awesome producers we are.
I don’t disagree…
And why did they give the name “Greatest Tits”? Their reason is
Who the hell doesn’t love tits?
Four songs spanning over three decades; this is a collection, and the name is obvious in our world.
EP release
Four global hits interested Rebecca Scheja and Fiona FitsPatrick while working in this new EP:
- ABBA – Take A Chance
- Adolphson & Falk – Stockholmsserenad
- Dr. Alban – Sing Hallelujah
- Lili & Susie – Oh Mama
These are all world-known, at least in Sweden… We all know these songs, but honestly, they are quite worn out for the last 20 years…
These ladies make these songs a bit updated, more fresh, heavier base-beat, some reggae-feeling here and there – this is just 2023.
Take A Chance
The first song in the EP is from ABBA. We, from Sweden, have or had Avicii, Ace Of Base, The Cardigans, Roxette, The Hives, Max Martin, Europe, Robyn, and so on so on so on… But nothing will ever be as much known as ABBA. Period. Why is that? Forty years after their time, it’s still in the ads outside bars here on my vacation place, and still often on the radio everywhere in the world, and with a gazillion average or worse copies of ABBA. The first one was Baccara, back in ’70s/’80s. Copies or covers can’t reach ABBA’s level.
For me, the cover of Take A Chance, just like the original version, is any random pop song. This is the first song on the EP, so it should be awesome-times-square.
It has a definite 2023 signature; it is new. I’ve noticed that I write ‘fresh’ here and there about this EP. About this song too… The intro gives us a fresh feeling. I get more and more interested in this EP… I’m listening on!
In the intro – the heart is starting to bump; I just want the intro to end, to please please do explode in sounds…
I don’t know how they do it; it is so easy to see this is clearly a mashup between 1977 and 2023. Two different years 46 apart, at the same time. How can they make it so clear??
Rebecca and Fiona delivered.
I can listen to it during the explosion, from 0:55 again again again. At one minute and thirteen seconds, it feels like when I was watching Coldplay on Friends, Stockholm, Sweden, and we got all the colors, all happiness, everyone jumping, loving, including feelings. That’s what I got here at 1:13. Go listen at 1:13.
But after that, nothing else happens… You can stop it at 1:30. This song is quite boring – after the intro + 10 seconds. I was expecting a huge mega-hit. Sorry to say, but it’s not. Moving on to next song, nothing more to say.
Stockholmsserenad
The song starts with some words backward… No idea what they say, unfortunately. I should have this EP as a vinyl record; then, I can run it backward. Hm. I’m a bit curious now…
Adolphson & Falk is a huge music group in Sweden. Well, at least at Christmas times… They had a lot of hits in the 80s, very synth style, soft, and back laid, but unknown if you were not a synth fan type of person. Except during Christmas, then we all love their hit as a top-one-song in 1982, and it still stays in the top three in Christmas times. That’s huge. The song? “Mer jul” (“More Christmas”).
Their second big hit was “Blinkar blå” (Blinking Blue). The message is
We don’t know anything about anything, but we look at the control panel, when we see the signal is blinking in blue; then All Is Well, be calm.
Their third largest hit is “Stockholmsserenad” (“Stockholm’s Serenade”). It is a bit of back-seat-relax-soft with a big feeling of “this is important.” I still haven’t gotten under their skin, though, so I accept that I don’t know what they really mean. But it makes me feel. Promise.
This cover wants to keep their feeling – A&F are positive at representing the feeling they want – and I guess they delivered. I recognize Tomas A and Anders F in this version. I feel their semi-happy, semi-sad, and full-accept. I totally accept Rebecca’s and Fiona’s work.
Honestly, I don’t know who is singing, Tomas or Anders. Or both? Anyway, ‘they’ are singing already during the intro. I miss something, though… what I want to hear.
I want, I wish, I hope that this cover will get distortion guitars… Do it already in the intro, and add it here and there, from the intro to the outro. That mix would take it up a few knots. A good way t show it even better how important the message truly is.
Distortion guitars would also be a flirt to metal fans. Adding that would probably be a song too similar to a soft-rock tune from Linkin Park. So maybe it is good to skip that idea, though. But I like it anyway. Actually, there are a lot of flirts to fans of Noice, Freestyle, and maybe even Gyllene Tider. Plus points for that!
Sing Hallelujah
At the start of Sing Hallelujah, I probably had no idea what the song was going to be. A beat, some song, nice-ish.
Then, at 0:59, came the chorus we just can’t miss…
“It’s hallelujah… 🎶”
It hits me; it hits you; it hits everyone. Boom. Welcome back, Dr Alban.
At 1:15, the heavy beat with a double (or quadruple?) tempo is now introduced. Boom-Boom.
The Dr. was obviously a doctor, a dentist doctor. Then he left his lovely Nigeria, relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, and shifted his career a bit… If he couldn’t get it to the fancy clubs at Stureplan, he wanted to get in, and he made it… He had a new career, and he got in – by going on the stage.
So he stopped working as a dentist for real and started to sing and semi-produce, and he became a fresh new air in Stockholm, and then more. Booming on the stage, on the radio, on tv, everywhere.
To me, he had an awesome spring. That one album. Did I say boom? After that? Well, he continued… I quite recently as him on tv – again.
Sing Hallelujah can’t be forgotten. And it shouldn’t. It’s a very simple tune, but it’s clearly a winning concept. I need to smile when I hear it; I want to dance; I want to flirt, and might want to make out. What about you? Same thing, I guess.
Dr. Alban’s sound use the same type as E-Type etc. – more a creator, producer, and entertainer, than a singer. So he half-talk and half-sing this original version. I assume this cover is sung by Rebecca and Fiona – whether Dr. Alban has created new half-talks or sampled from the 1990s.
So this megahit plus R & F’s smart production – it has to be a winner. One day after since release, it has streamed more than half a million times – only on Spotify. You may hear it more than once…
Oh Mama
In Oh Mama, it starts with a clear reference to I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston. Their reference is only a few seconds with the classic synth style from 1987, mixed with a based 2023’s-beat added. Sampling with a subtle hint of the lovely Whitney and a fresh, tough beat. I completely love Rebecca & Fiona / Lili & Susie, after 5 secs.
Then, just after the first seconds, they add calypso steel drums. A whiff of reggae. Now I’m totally floored.
From now on, it’s up up UP. The Päivärintas sing like two persons in one – or the way around. Their sign, just like in the 80s/90s, they sing quite subtly, but at the chorus – at the end of the crescendo – they scream more than sing. Obviously, I love that too.
In the outro, the steel drums take over again. But the outro doesn’t really exist. No bombastic end that we expect in this genre. From my subjective, like this whole article, the non-existing outro is a good statement; it is not over. We will continue. You should continue. Go on, give forward.
After the intro, it just gets heavier beats, the original songs by sisters Lili and Susie Päivärinta. But there is something more there… Some undertone that is hard to put your fingers on it… Maybe the screaming is a hint?
Melancholic
It came to me – it is a great, refreshed tune but with a melancholic sound. Why is that? Why did they introduce a feeling of not just fun; happy; Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance With Somebody feeling? Why? Why aren’t we just simply happy?
Cool music, known text, known melody, knowing the singers – makes them next level. We don’t only sing & play, enjoy & dance, hippety & hoppety – we feel more. At least I feel more; when listening to these.
Purpose
We have more responsibility. More than what? More than we know… Keep fantastic music to be produced, continue having fun, dance, make more kids – enjoy every day.
But we have a responsibility to survive. Us as you and I, our friends, and those not know, and those not met. The whole species… Including other species too… These sisters are big supports for animal rights. Related to the feeling I get from this sing?
That is why I get a bit melancholic, even when I’m writing this article, sitting like hundreds, thousands of other vacationers in Cyprus. It is wonderful, truly, to have a week down here. What can I be melancholic about?
Well, nothing, only the universe we are currently in.
Consent / Cooperation
Only by looking at the Spotify snippets above, I assume (hope!) that all original creators consents this volume. Regarding ABBA, I guess they only consent to it. ABBA retired ages ago. There is no ABBA, we have to live with the memories we have. (Except for a happening with avatar ABBAs. To me, that’s just weird. It’s a big parenthesis.)
Tomas A and Anders F love and live by music; I’m pretty sure they wanted to give their thoughts to this production.
Alban Uzoma Nwapa is not really a singer… maybe a producer might be a writer. But if he has the chance to be on stage – he always wants to cooperate. He’s there, I’m sure.
Lili and Susie might be active in cooperation. It really doesn’t matter; the Päivärinta sisters are at least there in the spirits. I know it.
Listening to these songs back and forth, I can’t really say whether there are any new recordings of the original singers or only sampled. Ok, ABBA is not helping them, and I guess they don’t can use their royalty of the actual singing. So Rebecca and/or Fiona are singing Take A Chance.
Summary
What happens with these four songs? I bet my right hand (well, it’s kinda useless anyway) that all of these will be heard at discos, clubs, and after-beachs. Every day this summer, at least.