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The Album
ABBA
Atlantic Records, 1978
http://www.abbasite.com/
REVIEW BY: Michael R. Smith
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/18/2007
As a companion piece to the new DVD release of
ABBA: The Movie, ABBA: The Album is a good album made even better. It boasts a pair of terrific Top 20 singles, several immaculately produced ballads and even a mini-musical tacked on to close things out on a theatrical note.
This was the first hint of all things Broadway that were still to come for the men of ABBA, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. Before the stage productions of Chess and Mamma Mia!, there was something called “The Girl With The Golden Hair,” which was featured as the centerpiece of ABBA’s documented tour of Australia in 1977.
As with all movie musicals, it is better to see them to get the full impact. Listening to the songs is only half of the total experience. “The Girl With The Golden Hair” is certainly no exception, especially considering that only three of the four songs are featured on The Album. The one song missing, “Get On The Carousel,” was never even recorded by the Swedish group, making it one of the rarest unreleased ABBA songs. Its lack of inclusion on record is a huge error on ABBA’s part, since it is an exciting, upbeat song that helped to punch things up quite considerably for the concert audience at the time.
Alas, we have to get by with the left-over trio of “Thank You For The Music,” “I Wonder” and “I’m A Marionette,” none of which has much staying power. The best thing I can say about “Thank You For The Music” is that it has become something of an ABBA theme song over the years since they disbanded back in 1982. Taken together, all three songs helped to set a dramatic, heavier tone to the album, making it perhaps the most substantial album ABBA had released in the 1970s. Choosing the song “Eagle” to open the album certainly is a statement in itself, as if ABBA was trying desperately to say “Hello, America, we have arrived.”
The ABBA of old can also be found on The Album with the one-two punch of “Take A Chance On Me” and “Hole In Your Soul.” They represent the lighter, catchier side of ABBA, so much so that they could fit in nicely on any given episode of Sesame Street. I mean that as a compliment, by the way. Just to clarify, young kids will tend to love those two songs probably more than adults -- though that’s strictly a hunch.
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