ABBA
Summer Night City

THE REVIEW

The sessions of "Voulez-Vous", at their highly coveted Polar Studios, were very prolific for the Swedish group. The album indeed contains a remarkable series of very homogeneous tracks that show the personal reinterpretation by the Andersson-Ulvaeus duo of funky and disco sounds, mixed and blended very well and intelligently with pop on a solid classical European background. During the album's production, the group focuses on a series of tracks that would become classics and formidable hits, "Chiquitita" and "I Have A Dream" for example, but also lesser-known gems like the incredible "Lovelight".

"Summer Night City" is one of the first songs put into production by the four in the last months of '78, a complex and not too easy genesis. Initially, it was opened by a broad stroke of the synth that announced the musical theme of the track; this introduction was maintained for the live performance along with the initial three-voice singing. The studio version, on the other hand, immediately presents the powerful pulsating rhythm base. The song stands out for both the decidedly sustained rhythm and the singing of Agnetha and Frida, which wraps like a spiral around the main melodic line, a truly interesting construction because it leaves no respite and naturally pushes toward the most unbridled dance. 

The track was not included in the '79 album but was performed live on the North American tour, along with another piece quickly recorded in August '79, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", for a very physical and exhilarating show also documented on film.