Artist: Abba
Title: The Best of
Format: 5LP Box Set
Label: Reader's Digest
Catalogue Number: GABA-A-2-053
Year of Release: 1982
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The thing is, ABBA just aren't very good are they? I never expected to find a love for them from listening to this, but I was willing to afford them some kind of grudging respect. As it turns out, I have probably only reinforced my existing opinion - that they are band whose music is played solely at weddings and parties, due to their unobjectionable nature. They are the magnolia paint, the vanilla ice cream, the Leerdammer of the pop world.
Instruments are played competently (with the exception of the saxophone); lyrics rhyme, regardless; feedback, shouting, or surprises never darken their door. They are the safest option, and the lowest common denominator of any given crowd.
I can't recall ever seeing an ABBA album in any Top 100 Albums of All Time or similar such list (personally I think they might even struggle to feature in a Top 100 Swedish 4-piece list) and that is, simply, to return to my first point, because they aren't very good. 'Very' being the key word.
No one has fallen in or out of love because of Knowing Me Knowing You, or formed a band because of Rock N Roll Band, or started a revolution because of Waterloo. And that's probably part of the point of ABBA.
Anyway, 70 tracks later I am bored of them. I was wondering if this might be highlighting a fundamental flaw in the project, as the last band I had to listen to a lot of in one go was Alien Sex Fiend, and I ended up hating them. But then that reminded me that ASF are a truly dreadful band, whose downward career spiral is in an inversely proportional relationship with the growth Nik Fiend's crab-ladder, and that made me smile almost benevolently on ABBA, who at least had the decency to split up.
A1. Super Trouper
A2. Intermezzo No 1
A3. Me And I
A4. Rock N Roll Band
A5. Elaine
A6. Andante Andante
A7. Happy New Year
B1. Lay All Your Love On Me
B2. Crazy World
B3. The Piper
B4. The Way Old Friends Do
B5. Lovelight
B6. Our Last Summer
B7. On And On And On
And if I had to do it all again, I would my friends...
