‘OK, that’s that. It’s over now,’ Björn Ulvaeus thought after Abba broke up in 1982. ‘But,’ as Chal Ravens writes in the latest LRB, ‘Björn’s zeitgeist detector was, as usual, on the blink.’ By the late 1990s, Abba ‘were basically tap water’. In the latest episode of the LRB podcast, Chal joins Thomas Jones to discuss the foursome’s rise to global domination ... Show More
Today
Travel with Close Readings: ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino’s novella Invisible Cities is a hypnagogic reimagining of Marco Polo’s time in the court of Kublai Khan. Polo describes 55 impossible places – cities made of plumbing, free-floating, overwhelmed by rubbish, buried underground – that reveal something true about every ... Show More
1h 36m
Aug 23
Travel with Close Readings: ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ by Henry James
In The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James borrows from Eliot, Austen, folktales and potboilers, but ‘the thing that he took from nowhere was Isabel Archer’. James transformed the 19th-century novel through his evocation of Isabel, a woman who wants and suffers in a profoundly new (a ... Show More
1h 10m
Nov 2021
Why ABBA songs just hit different
Swedish supergroup ABBA is releasing their first album in forty years, making this the perfect time for Nate and Charlie to investigate what makes their music so beloved and reviled in equal measure. For every ABBA stan, there’s a hater lurking, like legendary pop critic Robert C ... Show More
34m 50s
Jul 2021
How music streaming transformed songwriting | Björn Ulvaeus
Money, money, money ... in the music business, there seems to be little left for the songwriters that fuel it. ABBA co-founder Björn Ulvaeus calls for the industry to support its most valuable asset, breaking down how the streaming revolution impacts creator royalties, careers an ... Show More
18m 32s
Aug 2024
Break Down Bonus: Identifying grooming behaviors by our elders, romantic partners, and friends w/ Sally Baker
Submit a break up story/couple: https://forms.gle/ATdabGFwyy7tEx3W8-Follow the podcast!-Abby's IG: https://www.instagram.com/theabbymurphy/-Abby's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theabbymurphy/-The Break Up Break Down on IG: https://www.instagram.com/breakupbreakdownpodcast/-Subm ... Show More
22m 35s