The Morning News

Listening • Knowing Me, Knowing You

I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but ABBA will never tour again. Mamma Mia!, the musical and upcoming film that samples heavily from their back catalog, will keep them happy for the next few years—we can only assume. If there were any life left in “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” Flemish rocker Arno Hintjens sucks out the rest of it. This vampire of European pop music makes me fear for the likes of Daft Punk, Alphabeat, and fellow Europeans likely to have bad cover versions shot across their bows. But this isn’t just bad; there is real merit here. Hintjens resurrects the track for a few moments during which you can ask whether this could ever have been the original. As a footnote to convince skeptics, I will mention that he played a homosexual lifeguard, satirizing Hasselhoff, in a film about sex and camping, taglined “Revolution, football, beer, and frites”. It’s all so wonderfully European, and the delivery is so drawn out; I can imagine hearing it sung in the corner of a French restaurant, after hours, and enjoying it far too much. —Mike Smith, Jul. 9, 2008

» Listen to “Knowing Me, Knowing You” at I Predict a Riot

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: ABBA, Arno Hintjens, Covers, Mamma Mia!

» Advertise on TMN via the Deck

Partnership

Find more books at The Staff Recommends

« Older

Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey

Digest

Newer »

When We Embraced