Ace of Base, Happy Nation
In 1993, the school I went to at the time (Thornleigh, a hideous catholic factory in Bolton) played host to a couple of French exchange students. They were Year 8, same as us, and were touted around each French class for us to practice our French on. A girl called Caroline asked them "Quelle t’on musique prefere?" (or whatever it is in French) and the two boys replied simultaneously "Ace of Base". Their French accents twisted the words we were used to hearing all over TV and radio in a way we hadn’t been expecting and we all fell about laughing.
I think this was the first time I had considered pop music being listened to by anyone who wasn’t English. I think I was aware that Ace of Base were Swedish, but as they sung in that vaguely Americanised form of English that so many singers use, it wasn’t too evident from the vocals that they were Swedish. With the memory of those French students in my head every time I heard Ace of Base, I suppose in a way this was my introduction to "World Music", in the sense that it wasn’t English or America. But then again, that does seem to be the definition of this rather patronising term, a neo-colonialism often forgotten by all those aficionados who trek to womad etc every year.

The banghra version of All that She wants adds more evidence to these feelings – the banghra-ised version includes nothing different (apart from massively-depleted lyrics) but a kind of Indian-style drone (very quiet, almost unnoticeable) behind the original song. I don’t think it would shake Bollywood, somehow.

In another nod to the pan-European state of this album, the fourth song on the CD is "The Sign", which I used to sing when I worked as karaoke-singing sushi/cocktail waitress in a Japanese restaurant in Edinburgh. It has all those great English-translation lyrics such as "under the pale moon, where I see a lot of stars", "is enough enough?" and "How could a person like me jump for you?" which although sound clunky do have a small poetry within…a bit like Take on me by A-ha which has lovely lines like "Needless to say, all odds and ends I’ll be stumbling away" – I know this isn’t "proper" English but is still an endearing and interesting turn of phrase or two and casts a new light on idioms I thought I knew.

Ace of Base did come back, I remember they had a couple of songs out when I was either at late 6th Form or early University, one was called "Always have, always will" and was much slicker than anything on happy Nation, whether that’s down to improvements in technology or the mode of the day, I don’t know. It was quite a 60s song. Also they had a really good song called "life is a flower" which I liked for a long time. Happy Nation is so much of its time, the sounds, the short refrains, every geared around dancing dancing dancing, love and sex. Every song is upbeat. There’s no journey in here. Only a very half-hearted early 90s syncopated keyboard riff on every other song. That particular rhythm (and I know you know it) relates to the Latin 8/8 beat…was the lambada and La Isla Bonita by Madonna responsible for more of the rhythms of the rave scene than we give them credit for?

Bonus tracks on this CD. The bonus track is so different from the hidden track – they are advertising their hitherto untold depths. More of the same, only different. Re-packaging of old LPs onto CDs must be the start of all this bonus track stuff. We become interested in the alternative architecture of the song, we want more, we want orange flavoured kit-kats, we don’t want wispas or caramels, we want dairy milk with bubbles or dairy milk with caramel. Dance, or fade out, but have an acceptably good time while you’re at it.