Here comes the Swedish pop behemoth that is ABBA. I think this is their only album in the list, and I don’t know why this one rather than others [Edit: No, there is another (thanks, Yoda)]. Yes, it has the hits singles Dancing Queen, Money Money Money and Knowing Me Knowing You (which is impossible for those of a certain vintage to hear and not perform the “Ah-ha”s in the style of Alan Partridge), but then their other non-greatest hits albums are also chock full of hit singles. For me, I think ABBA: The Album is more artistic and less overt pop, and thus better as "an album", but there we go.
Pop is what ABBA do, and they do it well enough that songs for a musical genre that’s supposed to be brief and disposable are still going fifty years later. Part of that lasting appeal comes from the distinctive vocals of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, both pitched relatively high. Sometimes they sing harmonies, other times they both sing the same melody but create a Karen Carpenter richness to the sound. The other is that the male half of ABBA, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, are very good at writing a catchy hook. Usually they include a few – at the intro, in the chorus, and in the pre-chorus. Sometimes the intro is repeated as another hook, sometimes not. Sometimes it is instrumental, often one or other of Fältskog and Lyngstad sing it. They also manage to create a recognisable sound without re-using too many elements. You can spot pretty much any ABBA song from a brief fragment, but are also unlikely to confuse it for any other ABBA song.
I must admit I have a bit of a hatred for Dancing Queen. For one thing, the slow tempo and melody makes it very much not a dance track, despite the attempts of clubs and wedding DJs everywhere to try to make it one, for another I once had a psycho neighbour who used to play it at full volume in the small hours of the morning, so it gives me a moment of PTSD panic as I associate it with sleep deprivation. Not ABBA’s fault if their music gets misused.
The non-hit tracks on the album are okay, but you can see why they haven’t lasted as well as the singles. My Love, My Life is a nice heartfelt slow ballad, but Dum Dum Diddle is a bit more throwaway, as is Why Did It Have To Be Me which (despite what I said above) feels like a retread of I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do (think that’s all the I Do’s), a bit of a Cockney piano style number. The last track is an instrumental, Arrival. I thought, that’s interesting, Mike Oldfield did a track called Arrival. And, yes, he in fact covered this. So closely, you may as well listen to the ABBA original. Despite sounding Scottish to my ears, it’s apparently based on Swedish folk music. There's a Viking heritage to parts of Scotland, so maybe the connection runs back 1500 years.
This is one of those albums that I enjoyed despite myself; I think such is the canny musicality of Andersson and Ulvaeus. Probably not one I’d hurry back to, partly because you hear the better tracks on the radio all the time.
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