Customer Reviews

The Album

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4 star:		(4)
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Emotive is not a word normally associated with (early) ABBA. Most people remember them for the singles. Yet even here, the single, "Eagle" is flowing, emotive & inspiring. Yet it's on the album tracks that you can hear the full depth of Benny & Bjorn's skill. "Move On" & "One Man . . ." really do bare listening to. "I'm A Marionette" is almost barbed in it's lyrical content. Wonderful stuff. From beginning to end a must listen, esp for people who know only the "pop" side of the group. Very much recommended listening.

i was walking through the streets of a small dutch town (either venlo or eindhoven) at the height of my obsession with this group, full of their music and images of the girls, next to my parents looking for something for my birthday, blissfully unaware that this was out.

Arrival had blown me away and the emotional response was just beginning to dwindle. so imagine hoe i felt as i walked past a record shop with the whole window deicated to this release; choc full of pos. in an instant i knew thats wanted i wanted (fuuny too, i was 13 on friday 13th jan 1978).

forget the (with hindsight) lame (but at the time awesome) film, this stand alone album is the groups finest. i cherish it to this day and it would still make my top 10.

its still full of brilliant pop hooks and great arrangements, but the plastic fun of earlier stuff is now tinged with an emotional maturity born of mega global sucess and strained personal relationships.

the 2 hit singles ( "Take A Chance On Me" & "The Name of the Game") are as good as any of their other hits, but its the album tracks that really make it a cut above their other work.

We have the theatrical 3 track mini-musical "The Girl with the Golden Hair", the bitter, petulant "I'm A Marionette", the moving yodel-along (no pun intended) Move On, and the hard rocking (seriously) "Hole in your soul".

But its the opening track Eagle which soars (pun intended) above the rest. Apparently a tibute to the californian soft rock of The Eagles, its hard to imagine a more perfectly transcendent record. i time as i weep; its perfect.

I remember looking forward to the abba christmas special on the radio at the time. Tommy vance interviewed the band and played songs from the early days up to tasters from the forthcoming Album. Songs they played were Take a chance, Thank you for the music and Name of the game. I played them over and over. Coudn;t wait for the album. I wasn't disappointed. I do however prefer the live version of I wonder which was on the b side of Name of the Game. Also the bjorn sung Move on is rather poor. The other songs are just terrific. Eagle soars majestically. Take a chance power pops along making it one of the best pop records ever. You feel like you had heard it before or wonder why someone hadn't written it already. The ballad One man one woman could have been a single also. Perfectly sung by Frida, loved this. Name of the game sounded great also. One of their finest songs. Hole in your sole is high energy power poptastic. Love the sweet vocals during the soft parts of the song. Thank you for the music is agnethas tour de force. Superb vocal soaring high and mighty above a beautiful tune. I wonder is a lovely ballad too. Dont particularly care for i'm a marionette. Not really a good poppy abba song. More an angry outburst by the girls wanting their freedom back. My favourite abba album though. I thought they went downhill after this really. Still have all their albums though. Much much better pop than the drivel served up nowadays by cowell, walsh etc. Why wasnt Thank you for themusic released as a single at the time. One of pops great mysteries. A number one hit of epic proportions .

Now there is a word you won't often see attached to (earlier) ABBA recordings. Known basically for being a pop band - thanks to being hijacked by the bubble-gum pop brigade in recent years - ABBA albums pay off being actualy "listened" to.

This one, especially, bares out repeated listens. The soaring 'Eagle' is an outstanding track and is supported very well by tracks such as 'One man one woman' & 'Move On'. 'I'm A Marionette' is more biting than was once expected of ABBA songs.

The whole is very much the sum of it's parts, with the singles not being in any way superior to the album tracks, nor indeed they being inferier fillers.

Do yourself a favour . . .

This album is very nearly as good as its predecessor 'Arrival' from the previous year 1976, and that is truly saying something. And what it perhaps lacks in continuity, or marginally in consistency, it almost makes up for with the stupendous highs that are achieved on this record.

The opener 'Eagle' was initially disappointing to me on early listens, perhaps due to its slower pace but this opening track has really aged well to the point where now it is the classic it undoubtedly is. If not to freak out to on the dancefloor, at least as an album track to listen and Soar To. I apologise to my good friend Todd for my ill-advised comments about this song! It may not grab you in the way 'When I Kissed The Teacher' did as the opener of 'Arrival'. But in its own majestic way it is mesmerising and highly evocative of the lyric's subject matter: the most wonderful bird in God's creation flying so high. Over Mountains and Forests and Trees. In a way the second track 'Take A Chance On Me'is a bit of a let down after the opening track. But then again, it is so undeniably catchy and so typical of the Happy Go Lucky songs that this band produced by the bucket load that it is pretty hard to fault this song. And the impact on first listening of those first few lines with those 'take a chance take a chance take a chic-a chic chance backing vocals' from Bjorn and Benny back in 1978 was so Huge in my experience that it is guaranteed a High Place in my affections. 'One Man One Woman' is another (of so many) examples of an album track that prompts that same seven word sentence: 'How Come This Wasn't A Single?!!' The closing number of Side 1 (the vinyl record we're talking of course) was the first single I ever owned. And that may be why it is up there in the upper etchelons of all of Abba's songs in my book. Or of anyone's songs for that matter. But subjectivity and sentimentality aside, this song is truly amazing. Incredibly melodic, really great heartfelt lyrics. Many do not rate Benny and Bjorn as serious lyricists. But I do. This song says more to my ears than the whole of Punk put together. Not surprisingly therefore that it is remembered somewhat better nearly three decades on than any of that Anarchy In The UK rubbish. Sorry Tim.

But if Side 1 was close to perfection, Side 2 is rather less so. The opener 'Move On' with its silly deep voice man contributing trite rubbish is only rescued by the melody and uplifting chorus. And then only marginally. 'Hole In Your Soul' was an OK attempt at disco but Abba were to do far better in this field on their next album 'Voulez Vous' (1979). Here, this track is amusing but, ultimately disposable, filler. But just when you think they've lost the plot along comes 'Thank You For The Music'. Which may not be the best song ever recorded. But is probably the happiest. The fact that it appeals to almost anyone of any age is to its eternal credit. This song will be played and loved in centuries to come. 'I Wonder' is another lost gem of an Abba ballad, similar to 'My Love my Life' from Arrival in this respect. A melody to die for.

As with 'Arrival' this album ends a little uncertainly, with the jerky 'I'm A Marionette', interesting but hardly the stuff of greatness.

But as with 'Arrival', this album contains so much quality material that it is somewhat churlish to snipe at its minor flaws. Here we see Abba basically still on top of the world. Flying high. Over mountains and forests and trees. And History is behind me on this one.

A near perfect album here from Abba that is possibly their very best !This album is well rounded with real musical depth and no really weak efforts are present to spoil the party . The superb 'Eagle '( largely sang by Frida and Agnetha in unison)is the opening track and, in my opinion, is probably Abba's most under-rated song.Next is the classic 'Take a Chance on Me 'which ,of course, never disappoints .The third track is a hidden gem in the Abba catalogue called 'One Man, One Woman'which is followed by 'The Name of The Game'(featuring heartfelt vocals from Agnetha).This song will always be in my top three ,personal favourite, Abba songs.'Eagle' and 'Take A Chance On Me' are also in my top 10 Abba list (5th and 8th respectively).After this incredibly strong start comes 'Move On' ,another fine song (where Frida's vocals are warm and relaxed) that definitely deserves it's place amongst the group's lesser known,quality songs.'Hole in Your Soul' is not one of my favourite Abba songs, although it is catchy and proved to be a live favourite and many other fans love it.Finally we come to a "mini musical" called 'The Girl With The Golden Hair' featuring Agnetha as it's focus.Here we have one of the best and most interesting songs/projects/experiments in the group's career.'The Girl With The Golden Hair' consists of three parts .The first of these is the wonderful 'Thank you For The Music'.The middle section is a contemplative song called 'I Wonder (Departure)and the third, and final, part is a dramatic and exciting ,yet strangely melancholic song entitled 'I'm A Marionette'.If you are new to their music and you are wondering which Abba album to buy first then you cannot go wrong in choosing 'The Album' . And ,of course, every fan of the group will usually end up (as I have done)seeking out ,and purchasing, all of their brilliant work.

This was the first album I ever bought and thirty years later I still think it is excelent. It includes two classic Abba number one singles (Take a Chance On Me and Name of The Game), but apart from those every track is pure Abba gold. 'Eagle' sees Abba in full grown up mood and the instrumentation is just fabulous. 'One Man One Woman' gives Frida a chance to shine in full heartbreak mode. 'Move On' was always one of my favourites and has a fabulous melody, if you can ignore the slightly cheesy spoken intro by Bjorn. 'Hole In Your Sole' has tremendous energy and was performed live by Abba in 1977 as part of 'The Girl With Golden Hair' mini musical. 'Thank You For The Music' is perhaps the best known Abba song never to be a major hit. In fact, it wasn't even released as a single in the UK until 1983 and even then it missed the top 30.
'I'm A Marionette' also from the mini musical is perhaps one of Abba's strangest songs with a slightly sinister melody.
Frequently seen as inferior to the mighty 'Arrival', I love this album and have had many happy years listening to it.

As an Abba fan, ABBA The Album was very welcome and expected in my collection. The one song that I enjoy the most is Move On. The lyrics sound and feel timeless and natural. The second song that makes me scream, shout, be happy and excited is Hole In Your Soul. Yes, "There's gotta be rock'n roll, To fill the hole in your soul".

Following the immense success of Arrival, The Album - their fifth - both consolidated what they were already doing and broke new ground. It's also very much a record of two sides. The first four tracks develop their pop writing ability to slightly more epic proportions - Eagle being a highly evocative near six minutes and the single Name of the Game being a complex, and nuanced, tale of sexual awakening while One Man, One Woman has so much polish you can practically walk into it. The latter stages are altogether more experimental - and darker - Move On is a melodic roller once it gets going, showing massively high production standards, Hole in Your Soul is strangely harsh leading the way for the scenes from their tour's mini-musical The Girl With Golden Hair - the story of a girl who seeks success as a singer but finds herself lost and out of control. Thank You for the Music and I Wonder are lavish forerunners of their Lloyd-Weber collaborations whilst I'm A Marionette is so raw, so furious and so "un"Abba you begin to wonder what's what, the story of what came after - know well known - answers the question.

This was the last album I needed to complete my Abba collection -- and I'm not disappointed.

There's a sense of refinement here -- down a gear from "Arrival" album --and while the highly commercial appeal is still there on songs such as 'Take A Chance', 'Thank You For The Music' and 'The Name of The Game', we also get to hear a more mature and pensive Abba, such as the soaring 'Eagle' and 'One Man, One Woman' -- undoubtedly one of the album's highlights and a true hidden gem.

I wouldn't say it's an absolute classic, but it certainly won't disappoint.