Renowned illustrator in Sweden who created the artwork for ABBA - The album
The Album (Deluxe Edition) (CD/DVD)
- CD$26.99ALBUM (W/DVD) (BONUS TRACKS) (DLX)11/20/2007
Videos from The Album (Deluxe Edition) (CD/DVD)
All Music Guide Review
ABBA's fifth album was a marked step forward for the group, having evolved out of Europop music into a world-class rock act over their previous two albums, they now proceeded to absorb and assimilate some of the influences around them, particularly the laid-back California sound of Fleetwood Mac (curiously, like ABBA, then a band with two couples at its center), as well as some of the attributes of progressive rock. That they did this without compromising their essential virtues as a pop ensemble makes this album seem even more extraordinary, though at the time nobody bothered to analyze it -- The Album was simply an incredibly popular release, yielding two British number one singles in "The Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me" (which made the Top Five in America, their second-best showing after "Dancing Queen"), and achieving the quartet's highest-ever showing on the U.S. LP charts, reaching the Top 20 and selling a million copies in six months. The opening number, "Eagle," dominated by synthesizers and soaring larger-than-life vocal flourishes, is followed by the more lyrical "Take a Chance on Me," with its luminous a cappella opening. The whole album is like that, effortlessly straddling hard rock, pop/rock, dance-rock, and progressive rock -- though the hits tend to stand out in highest relief, there are superb album tracks here, including the driving, lushly harmonized "Move On" and "Hole in Your Soul," which provides guitarist Lasse Wellander with a beautiful showcase for his lead electric playing. The second side of the album is dominated by material from a "mini-musical" called +Girl with the Golden Hair that Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote for the concerts on their just-ended tour intended to be used in a dramatically coherent storytelling context. Two of its songs, "Thank You for the Music" and "I Wonder (Devotion)," are less exciting than the straight rock material found elsewhere on the album, though the former became a popular concert number for the quartet, while the latter is the kind of lushly melodic, moodily reflective song that could easily have graced a Barbra Streisand album of the era. The closer, "I'm a Marionette," however, is a startlingly bold attempt to recast the influence of Kurt Weill in a hard rock mode, ending The Album on a high note, musically and artistically. [Universal's 2007 CD/DVD edition included five bonus live, alternate and Spansish version tracks. It also adds a DVD made up of an impressive selection of television appearances and behind the scenes footage of the band.] ~ Bruce Eder & William Ruhlmann & Tim Sendra, Rovi
Chronicles
Videos from Chronicles
All Music Guide Review
Finding a Chronicles edition that makes a lick of sense is as difficult as finding diamonds in a pile of zirconium. Thankfully, this is not the case here, as we find three of ABBA's most important albums packaged together. ABBA didn't have the success that the other two records (Arrival and The Album) had, but it's still a pleasant listen and a hints at the direction in which the group would soon betraveling. With Arrival, the group is at the top of their game, with their most successful tune, "Dancing Queen," leading the pack, and "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Money Money Money" driving the punches home even further. By the time The Album was released, the quartet were international superstars and Europop legends. With bonus tracks and detailed liner notes, this is a nice addition for any fans looking to get the most from ABBA's most important works in one complete package. ~ Rob Theakston
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The Complete Studio Recordings
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Videos from The Complete Studio Recordings
All Music Guide Review
There's obviously going to be a certain amount of redundancy built into the purchase (or acquisition by gift) of an item like this -- anyone for whom it would possibly be appropriate as a possession is virtually certain to already own something close to 90 percent of what's here in some form or other. That said, this 11-disc (nine-CD/two-DVD) set is handsome enough, and such is the fandom of ABBA that the marketplace can easily absorb yet another compilation of their work. This release, reportedly limited to 25,000 copies worldwide, is appearing post-+Mama Mia, after all, where the group has a showcase on Broadway (which reportedly, as of late 2005, has advance ticket sales stretching out years ahead) for their music, variously expanding and reinvigorating that fan base by the thousands in person on a daily basis. And there are aspects of its contents that make this box special and unique, though whether these are all positive is open to debate, depending upon how sensitive, sophisticated, or obsessive a listener one happens to be.
The discs are designed to look like black vinyl (similar to what was done with the CDs in ABKCO's Rolling Stones CD singles boxes), and the eight original albums are packaged in mini-LP sleeves re-creating the art and design of the quartet's original releases; one also gets two books that encompass, respectively, the song lyrics and a lavishly illustrated time line for group's history and work. Each of the albums represented here has been augmented with the presences of relevant bonus tracks -- usually alternate mixes or alternate language versions (favoring Swedish or Spanish); the ninth disc is the rarities volume, which includes such tracks as an alternate version of "Lovelight" and a previously unheard alternate mix of "Waterloo" (mastered from a vinyl source), and an extended version of "On and On and On" (in mono -- all that was available). Speaking of availability, the DVD inclusion of the live performances off the Dick Cavett Show is limited to five songs, the rest having never officially been preserved in the Swedish television archives (although they were on a videocassette issued in Japan sometime in the 1980s). The DVDs encompass a documentary as well as the core of their video collection, but the 1979 ABBA Live is not included in this set, and there are a few odd tracks that aren't here, ranging from some odd version of "Dancing Queen" with the extra verse, and a version of "Under Attack" that only appeared on an American cassette, to an oft-discussed but never quite finished single "Just Like That," which is to ABBA approximately what the extended version of "Bluebird" was to Buffalo Springfield. It is fortunate that the rarities, even when they aren't variants of international hits, are as eminently listenable as the group's main catalog, and their presence greatly expands choices that one has for listening, even on a casual basis.
The mastering will be a separate issue to some listeners. Rather than draw upon the digital masters done for the 2001 reissues of the ABBA catalog, the producers appear to have gone back to the original analog tapes for a fresh pass, which at times yields impressive results -- the sound here is often downright glowing, but so was the sound on the last round of reissues -- but it also means that they've done their own fixes of the various anomalies that existed in the original tapes, independent of the work that was previously done so successful on The Definitive Collection. In many instances, only noise-freaks and those with producer's ears will notice the differences, but it's to be left to the individual listener to decide for themselves whether the new masters work 100 percent or not. Some people may possibly prefer the seemingly greater fidelity to the original analog tapes. In terms of overall design, on the plus side the producers have made this set a little more convenient to organize for actual listening
The discs are designed to look like black vinyl (similar to what was done with the CDs in ABKCO's Rolling Stones CD singles boxes), and the eight original albums are packaged in mini-LP sleeves re-creating the art and design of the quartet's original releases; one also gets two books that encompass, respectively, the song lyrics and a lavishly illustrated time line for group's history and work. Each of the albums represented here has been augmented with the presences of relevant bonus tracks -- usually alternate mixes or alternate language versions (favoring Swedish or Spanish); the ninth disc is the rarities volume, which includes such tracks as an alternate version of "Lovelight" and a previously unheard alternate mix of "Waterloo" (mastered from a vinyl source), and an extended version of "On and On and On" (in mono -- all that was available). Speaking of availability, the DVD inclusion of the live performances off the Dick Cavett Show is limited to five songs, the rest having never officially been preserved in the Swedish television archives (although they were on a videocassette issued in Japan sometime in the 1980s). The DVDs encompass a documentary as well as the core of their video collection, but the 1979 ABBA Live is not included in this set, and there are a few odd tracks that aren't here, ranging from some odd version of "Dancing Queen" with the extra verse, and a version of "Under Attack" that only appeared on an American cassette, to an oft-discussed but never quite finished single "Just Like That," which is to ABBA approximately what the extended version of "Bluebird" was to Buffalo Springfield. It is fortunate that the rarities, even when they aren't variants of international hits, are as eminently listenable as the group's main catalog, and their presence greatly expands choices that one has for listening, even on a casual basis.
The mastering will be a separate issue to some listeners. Rather than draw upon the digital masters done for the 2001 reissues of the ABBA catalog, the producers appear to have gone back to the original analog tapes for a fresh pass, which at times yields impressive results -- the sound here is often downright glowing, but so was the sound on the last round of reissues -- but it also means that they've done their own fixes of the various anomalies that existed in the original tapes, independent of the work that was previously done so successful on The Definitive Collection. In many instances, only noise-freaks and those with producer's ears will notice the differences, but it's to be left to the individual listener to decide for themselves whether the new masters work 100 percent or not. Some people may possibly prefer the seemingly greater fidelity to the original analog tapes. In terms of overall design, on the plus side the producers have made this set a little more convenient to organize for actual listening
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