The Sign, Pam

It's the early '90s. Ace of Base's "The Sign" is my jam. It's my first real favorite song. I say real because up until this point, I'm sure all of my favorites were from Disney movies. I own The Sign CD. I'm a fourth grader. I have a short attention span. I listen to The Sign, skipping through to listen to all of my favorite songs. I don't listen to the majority of the other songs on The Sign. Is it because as a fourth grader I can listen to the same three songs on repeat incessantly and not get tired of them, or is it because the rest of the album is a little repetitive and uninteresting? Sean experienced a similar listening pattern with The Sign—maybe his parents were onto something? This is a good question, though. 

As an adult I still find myself not wanting to bother with listening to albums all the way through, especially if I'm really into a single or two that are featured on the album. But I've realized that if the album is worth listening to, I usually won't fall back on this flawed habit of mine. I won't have to force myself to listen to the whole album, I'll want to. 

Today, I listen to songs like "All That She Wants," "Don't Turn Around," and "The Sign," and they're still great. And what I'm feeling about this album now is not that it's necessarily repetitive or bad, but that the radio hits are just misleading. Aside from those three big pop songs, the rest of the music trends a lot more in the direction of techno and club music. I mean, Ace of Base are essentially like a younger, more club version of ABBA, right? And fourth grade Pam was just not ready for this type of music I suppose. Currently, it's still not exactly drawing me in, but I'm giving more of a fair shake than I did in '93. 

I'm still a little confused by the role of the male members of Ace of Base. Are they playing instruments? On The Sign, they’ve kind of assumed the role of speak-singing every once in awhile, similar to the Ken part in Aqua's "Barbie Girl"... man, the '90s. 

Anyway, I will always love "The Sign," as a song. And "Don't Turn Around" and "All That She Wants." And it's the fault of these giants that the rest of the music on The Sign (the album) will always be overshadowed for me.