ABBA - ABBA (1975)


 

I didn't come to really like ABBA until late in life,  and not until long after I had moved to Europe, where they are still quite popular among people my age and older. 

Which makes sense: if there is any ban who really captures European culture of the late 20th century and into the early 21st, it's ABBA. This is something I think a lot of people overlook, how redolent the music is of modern Europe: its discos and balls and social scene, it's romantic mores and ideals. 

ABBA, of course, is not a typical band, not a rock band at all. As a group, they follow rather a Beach Boys model: one dominated by the producer/songwriter's vision (in this case, the brilliant Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus) rather than the limitations and abilities of the band. In fact, while Benny plays the keyboards and Björn plays rhythm guitar, the lead guitar, drums and bass is usually outsourced to outside musicians. As such, unbound by the natural limitations of rock, ABBA was able to transcend their limitations and make records that were just as grand and ambitious as the great sixties records by Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, both of whom large as influences on ABBA.

ABBA, by ABBA, was the group's third album and their second after their breakthrough hit "Waterloo." While nothing new is really attempted here that they hadn't done on their previous two albums, the majjor differences is the overall quality is high. I feel like every single song on this is a potential hit --and that almost happened, as seven of the album's eleven songs were released as single and most of them did indeed chart somewhere in the world. 

Americans will probably recognize "Mamma Mia", a brilliantly put together masterpiece of melody within melody within melody,  but it's the grand, heartbreaking "S.O.S." that takes my breath away.   A stunning statement of emotional bereavement, a plea for connection so warm and soft and human that it transcend the cold, almost sterile perfection of the arrangement. 

Otherwise, the album dips into a number of pop styles -- reggae, goofy glam rock-ish fun, and a couple of amazing ballads. 

Overall, I imagine that it's the album that really announced that ABBA was going to be a force to be reckoned with, and it makes me nostalgic for a simpler, less technology-filled, more innocent time when I was, in fact, just a kid.


My CD, which was issued in the late eighties contains several songs from before the album as bonus tracks, mainly singles from earlier albums.  I generally skip those, as they have them elsewhere, but it's probably the best version to buy if you are into CDS (subsequent remasters are generally badly done in my opinion.)


4.7/5


Spotify Link: 

https://open.spotify.com/album/1kM6xcSYO5ASJaWgygznL7?si=s5VJPHjLRt6Bvk1e3MZosg

Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monte

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.

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