The Album Jamestown NY

The Album

ABBA

Atlantic Records, 1978

http://www.abbasite.com/

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/09/1998

To the generation that has spent their youth in the nightclubs enjoying the second coming of disco, Abba's music is a never-ending fountain of joy. Just look at its use in movies like Muriel's Wedding.

And then, there are those of us who actually lived through Abba's heyday - and they're still pretty hard to swallow. Oh, time has helped to make the songs that got overplayed on the radio easier to take, and I will admit that some of the music of Abba that I've listened to in this job hasn't been too bad. But in the case of The Album, Abba's 1977 release, even the band started to take themselves too seriously.

In one sense, The Album begins to feature Abba's shifting from dance music (they were never truly "disco", though their music always was quite danceable) to more of a serious pop vein. Two words: bad move. I'll concede that "Take A Chance On Me" is still danceable, but that's about it on this one. For the remainder of the album, Abba is on a journey of self-discovery. At times, such as on "The Name Of The Game" and "Move On" (I swear I've heard that song before listening to this album), they make the journey interesting. (One memory I have of my childhood is my father recording music off the radio - one track being "The Name Of The Game" - using the family's new stereo with an 8-track built in. He still has that thing in the garage.)

Unfortunately for Abba, this is where the praise stops. The remainder of The Album just doesn't come together like some of their other works. "Eagle" and "Hole In Your Soul" are two numbers that could have been something with a little better songwriting and more focus in the music. Instead, they're not the easiest songs to get through.