I was trading CDs on lala this morning (have you ever done that?—it's cool) because, even though I mostly stream everything through Rhapsody, I need physical CDs for my car.While trying to remember older albums to put on my "Want List," I was reminded of A*Teens—a Swedish pop group that rose to prominence by releasing an album of ABBA covers. The two guys and two girls aspired to be ABBA for a new generation, and the gimmick worked—the aptly titled ABBA Generation sold 3 million copies worldwide. Personally, I didn't dig their debut album because I thought their singing and the production sounded too much like ABBA. It was better just to listen to the originals, unless cover versions offered up a dramatic reinterpretation (Pierce Brosnan notwithstanding).
But when A*Teens eventually branched out and started doing original teen pop, that's when I took notice. Their sophomore effort, Teen Spirit, is one of my favorite albums, and it continued to win them legions of fans, particularly in Europe and Asia. I mean, they became the faces of Coca-Cola in Japan, showing up on 15 million soda cans in 2001!
The best track off that album is "Upside Down," which has a pretty cool music video. They dance like a boy band!—how could I not love them?! (Is it me, or are those girls writhing around on that bed inappropriately? Pervy! I mean, they are barely legal—in Sweden! In the U.S., they would be jail bait! [The band members were 17 and 16 at the time; my, my, how they grow up so fast these days.]):
[*Thusly titled because selected songs are so catchy that they will get stuck in your head all week, which is, frankly, demonic.]
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