Review of the Album "Da Capo" by Swedish Pop and Techno Band Ace of Base

Da Capo is the 2002 studio album by Swedish pop and techno band Ace of Base and it is the last album to have the original or classic lineup of Jonas Berggren, his sisters Jenny, Linn, and of course Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg. Unspeakable is the song is the song that starts off this album. The album’s title is from a musical term known as back to the beginning.

Da Capo is actually an Italian term that I came across when playing the piano in the early 2000s which was ages ago. The album was designed to adopt the band’s earlier sound.

The way that Da Capo starts is not as strong a way as The Sign or The Bridge began but it is still a respectable way to begin for one of the top selling pop music groups in the history of the genre. It was going to be very tough for Ace of Base to be able to duplicate the early success that they had with the very radio friendly song All That She Wants and the amazing cover performance of the song Don’t Turn Around.

Even so, what we have on this album are a pretty darn good set of songs that should appeal to fans of this group.

Da Capo was initially scheduled for a release date of sometime in the summer of 2000 but there were problems with the band’s record label and it was pushed back another year. There was a demand that many of the album’s songs be reworked using different producers. Whether this was said to try and make the album better is anyone’s guess. Additionally, Da Capo was planned to be released in the United States, but no release date materialized. Da Capo is the band’s poorest selling album in their history and could it be that the songs aren’t as good as on the first two or three releases?

Since this is Ace of Base, the songs are still good but they are not as good as the ones on The Sign or The Bridge. It was going to be extremely difficult for this group to be able to duplicate the strength of their first two releases. Da Capo for me was still a memorable release because of the song called What’s the Name of the Game?”

We would be doing a disservice if we did not discuss this song. The song is about trying to figure out what the game of life is as we take this journey through life. There are very good harmony vocals and there is a solid performance by Jenny Berggren, sister of Linn.

Beautiful Morning starts with some acoustic guitar as the song builds up and lyrically the song is trying to paint the picture that it is indeed a beautiful morning in spite of what is going on in the world. Unspeakable starts out with “all I want to say to you.” The song is about love and a woman trying to find her identity in the world. She wants her newfound lover to stay by her side. Remember the Words is a song that lyrically tries to tell us that in life, we are never alone.

Yes, Unspeakable and Beautiful Morning are good songs but the title track is one of the stronger songs in this album. The song’s message is to do what we can to live out our dreams because this life is ours to live. We also are able to know who our real friends are. “Da Capo” is one of those high energy songs that has the potential to raise our energetic vibrations and make us feel like we are on the right path.

Wonderful Life is lyrically just about that, that life can be wonderful if we take the steps to make it that way. It was President Abraham Lincoln that once said: “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” The strongest songs in Da Capo are several including Da Capo, Wonderful Life, and Hey Darling. This was a decent way to end things with the original lineup of members. Although Ace of Base would go on to release material without Jenny and Linn, there is a certain kind of connection and chemistry that this group couldn’t really make up for afterwards. Listening to Da Capo should be done after you listen to their first three albums first if you are just getting into this group’s music.