Music Review: Ace of Base "Cruel Summer"

Ace of Base

Cruel Summer

Album: Flowers/Cruel Summer

Year: 1998

          Linn Berggren can’t stop thinking about her boyfriend  in the jittery update of “Cruel Summer.”

            Sped up synths and some random “ha ha’s” open the single, setting a mirroring tone. She sits on her bed, reading a book. She stops every so often to fan herself with it. She can barely get past a sentence anway. She moves to the floor and closes her eyes for a bit. Then, she heads to the backyard and sits on the chair. She can hear the neighbors talking. She pulls her shoulders together, pretending she is out of earshot. “That poor girl…” She heads back inside again. (“Hot summer streets and the pavements are burning/I sit around trying to smile, but the air is so heavy and dry/Strange voices are saying (Ah, what did they say?)/Things I can't understand/It's too close for comfort, this heat has got right out of hand.”)

In the chorus, the summer has been long and the boiling sun has provided little relief. Her boyfriend had told her about the emptiness he had felt. She didn’t think much about it then. However, as she stands by the wall, trying to not cry, she knows what he meant. (“It's a cruel, cruel summer (Cruel)/Leaving me here on my own/It's a cruel, cruel summer (It's a cruel)/Now you're gone/You're not the only one/It's a cruel.”)

             She puts her head on the steering wheel. She is going to be late again today for work. People cross the street, waving thanks to her and she groans. Work has become her life. She wants out of the town. (“The city is crowded/My friends are away and I'm on my own/It's too hot to handle/So I gotta get up and go/And go.”)

           The second chorus is sung. (“It's a cruel, cruel summer (Cruel)/Leaving me here on my own/It's a cruel, cruel summer (It's a cruel)/Now you're gone/You're not the only one.”)

            The first chorus is sung.

           In the bridge, on her break she bursts into tears. She slams her fist into the wall. Her boyfriend won’t be there with her in the fall like before. He’s gone. (“Now don't you leave me/Now don't you leave me/Now don't you leave me/Come on, come o/Now don't you leave me/Now don't you leave me/Now don't you leave me/Come on, come on.”)

            A third chorus is sung. (“It's a cruel, cruel summer (Cruel, cruel summer)/Leaving me here on my own (Leaving me here all alone)/It's a cruel, cruel summer/(It's a cruel, cruel summer)/Leaving me in this summer/You're not the only one (You're not the only one.”)

           The first chorus is sung again.

          In the final section, “it’s a cruel summer” is repeated four times to end the single.

        Berggrens’ bothered vocals don’t care with what’s going on. She can’t sit still or think straight at all. She longs for her boyfriend and he isn’t coming back. Unlike the original, the circumstances are not quite as dire. Here, he may have moved away.

          There are a couple changes. One of the extended choruses in the original is used as the main chorus here. A bridge is added. The anxiousness is amped up by the arrangement. It serves to make things obvious, taking the nuances  out of the original.
 

         The hysterical “Cruel Summer” needs to get over it.