I have to wonder. Do artists such as the likes of ABBA genuinely understand the cultural impact they made? Do they even care? Are they appreciate their fan base? Or do they just swim in their pile of money, uninterested as to the millions of people who put it in their pockets?
Well, I don't know the answers to any of those questions. What I do know is I'm a fan of ABBA. Not the biggest. Not the littlest. Somewhere in between-ie.
My major exposure to the group was through their 1975 Greatest Hits, 1979 Greatest Hits Volume II, their best selling album of all time, Gold (from 1992) and the follow up, More ABBA Gold (1993). However, as my CD collection began to grow, ABBA was a must have studio collection, something I eventually rectified. So, with all albums in hand, it's time to start digging deeper into them to see what they have to offer, beyond their massive successful hits.
To keep in tune with Retro Spins, I'm starting with their 1980 entry, Super Trouper. Sadly, unless I switch formats to the 1970's, which I may do very far down the road, I'll only be talking about two of their albums in this format. But, for now, back to today.Super Trouper starts with the track of the same title and from there jumps into two other ABBA hits, The Winner Takes It All and On And On And On. From there it took me to new territory. However, out of these five "new" songs only a couple really stood out for me.
At this point, I don't even remember how Andante, Andante went. Me And I got added to my shuffle list. As did Our Last Summer. However, I don't know that these two tracks will withstand the test of time for me.
Happy New Year was honestly annoying as a song. It came off as yodeling in my ears, and overall wasn't very good. Certainly not on par with the expectation ABBA's hits set. The Piper also stood out as a weak track, which also verged more so on the irritating side than enjoyable. Fortunately, all of this was followed by Lay All Your Love On Me, one of my all time favorites from the group.
The album closes with a live track, The Way Old Friends Do. It's a decent song, but it's out of place with the studio album. It also ruins the fade out to Lay All Your Love On Me with the audience cheering.
Overall, the album is pretty good. Four hits and two "new" songs out of ten isn't a bad find. I hope the other ABBA albums turn out to be as lucrative because I'm definitely excited to hear more.
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