Published on Oct 9, 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.
And if these are tough, then the “mini-musical” that rounds out
the album is downright painful to listen to. I guess that this work
helped to plant the seeds for
Chess, the play that Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
co-wrote in the ’80s. (I’d ask a trivia question here, but I’m out
of graft due to the
last trivia question.) “Thank You For The Music,” to me, is
a portrait of a group that thought what they were doing was more
important than it really was. The song comes off as presumptuous,
and makes the band seem almost snobbish. Somehow, I don’t think
that was the original intention of the piece.
The other numbers in the selection (named “The Girl With The
Golden Hair” – hey, gang, where you came from, that could have been
damn near half the country, okay?), “I Wonder (Departure)” and “I’m
A Marionette,” both seem to flounder, and I can’t see any way that
the songs connect. If these were truly from a mini-musical (or was
that phrase used just to make them seem more important?), then I
should be able to follow some type of a storyline.
Boy, you’re probably thinking, Chris is letting a lot of
aggression go against a band he hates. Actually, the older I’ve
gotten, the more I’ve appreciated some of the music that Abba
created, so it’s not like I’m pissing like a drunk alley cat over a
band that traumatized me as a young lad. (I refuse to review the
Bay City Rollers… whoops, I’ve said too much already.) But for
all the worthwhile music that Abba did create,
The Album is, so far, the worst example of excess that I’ve
heard from them.
If you’re looking for the two singles, you’d best choose one of
the many greatest hits packages that are out on the market. If you
want to discover the band behind the hits, then fasten your seat
belt on
The Album, ’cause the ride is going to be anything but
smooth.