ABBA: The Album - ABBA (1977)

 


ABBA: The Album sees  Benny 'n' Björn in their most ambitious mode: nearly every song is a grandly dramatic big production piece. 

For the most part they hit their mark, and most of the songs are actually deceptively deep, from the grand cinemascape of "The Eagle" to the playful enticement of  "Take a Chance on Me", to the longing "The Name of the Game" and the sweet mid-century European ball-room strains of "Thank You for The Music". 

A lot of the sillier, pop-for-pop's sake seemed to be jetisoned on this album  and are replaced with  these grand symphonic production pieces, though we get a bit of the old school Abba on the delightfully silly "Hole In Your Soul".  

Slight quibbles: A lighter  production touch might have made the country-ish "One Man One Woman" come off better, and the last trio of songs, culled from the band's touring musical of the earlier in the year lays on the theatricality show-tune thing a bit too heavily for my tastes, but the core of the album rests in the songs I've mentioned, and the way that Anna-Frid and Agnetha's beautifully nuanced voices capture the yearning vulnerability and the hopeful, youthful optimism and naïveté that lies at the heart of B&B's perfectly produced songs. 

Not a perfect album, but very, very very close.

4.5/5

Spotify Link:

I have an original West German CD that sounds great. Some later remasters have some good bonus tracks but generally I prefer the sound of this one: full, expansive, crankable, with a lot of depth.
 

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 Monae

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) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.


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