This is going to sound stupid possibly,

I was watching Mamma Mia on TV today and I was like fuck it, this music is catchy as ever. I need to listen to the albums.

So I downloaded Gold. And I'm nearly drawn to tears by the melodies in each song. It's the most bombastic, perfectly written pop with beautiful hooks everywhere, absolutely, and I'm going to go forward with some more hyperbole:

there is nothing as beautiful and happy and joyful and smile inducing and teary eye inducing as some of the songs on this.

Just thought I would express my opinion in a thread, but yeah. What's the consensus?

yes.

I acknowledge that this music is hitting me at the perfect time, and that my hyperbole is funny. But I had a pretty incredible moment listening to "Knowing Me, Knowing You" a bit ago. If anybody knows any good pop songs that I'm probably completely unaware of, fill me in.

"Breaking up is never easy I know, but I have to go."

That line and the way it's delivered ....

Exemplifies that the best pop music is A. about love and is B. incredibly straightforward and simple lyrically and is C. melodically GENIUS.

Scandanavia has always done pop well. This is a fact.

knowing me knowing you was my gateway to abba, too. i've still only dipped my toes in this group's waters, but i really should change that. funny, though, i hate hate hated them as a child. having a european mother will do that. at a certain age i began to appreciate the qualities that irritated me. what i'm trying to say, in essence, is that though my knowledge of abba is merely cursory, yours, yes, is hyperbole of the finest grade.

The film you reference is horrible, but Abba is tops. Any music fans needs to have Gold in their collection. Like you say, the melodies and arrangements are incredible. Way ahead of their time too.

Yeah I was just watching it because there was absolutely nothing on television. Not a good movie by any means, and I usually deeply enjoy chic flicks.

I say that because my gf loves that movie and plays it loudly whenever it is on. By default I hate musicals.

A cup of coffee and Abba Gold is a great way to start the day.

fuck Gold. that's fine if you just want the singles. what you really need is this:



i grew up on ABBA mainly because they were around when i was a child and heard their music when it was brand new. you can't fuck with a song like "The Winner Takes It All".

Gold is the only thing me and my mother have in common musically. If I'm in her car, I'll ask her to put it on, and we'll both be happy.

Yes, yesterday.

I like 'The Winner Takes It All' and 'Fernando', which with the latter I'm sure everyone is meant to despise. Not really into anything else they did.

Chuck Klosterman's Abba essay in his new book is pretty much spot-on in every point he makes.

I need to read this. Love Klosterman.


I never got into Abba until I married my wife. Her and her family go crazy and dance like maniacs whenever Abba comes on. I thought they were nuts, but the more and more I heard the music the more and more I liked it. Truly great songs. And I don't know that I've heard an Abba song I don't like.

I like Waterloo and a few of their other songs. but I can't stand Dancing Queen.

ABBA is beyond essential.

just thought i would share this series of comments on my facebook status:

Jennifer - dancing queen is the best song i've ever heard
20 hours ago
· Comment · Like

Hard- yeah and richard nixon was the best president we've ever had
20 hours ago ·

Casey- pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
20 hours ago ·

Casey- PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
20 hours ago ·

Jennifer- i swear this song just brought me to braingasm
20 hours ago ·

Casey- i dont believe you for a second
20 hours ago ·

Jennifer- if i told you what really happened you would be shocked
20 hours ago ·

Casey- tell me

you bitch
20 hours ago ·

Jennifer - Andersson has cited it as "one of those songs where you know during the sessions that it's going to be a smash hit". Also Agnetha Fältskog has stated in a TV-programe: "It´s often difficult to know what will be a hit. The exception was Dancing Queen. We all knew it was going to be massive".

During the sessions, Benny Andersson brought a tape home with the backing track on it and played it to his fiancée, singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad, who apparently started crying when listening. "I found the song so beautiful".
20 hours ago ·

Casey- dude
you are nuts. That song is a B+ at best.
20 hours ago ·

Hard- if i swung for the opposite team i might dig it
20 hours ago ·

Jennifer- fuckers
19 hours ago ·

Jennifer- another classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pg5NMGOlEE
19 hours ago ·

Casey- hahahahahah
19 hours ago ·

Nawid - wham! > abba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfinTQTMNTs
16 hours ago ·

Jennifer- Wham! is like Frank Sinatra to ABBA's Mozart. Which is to say that Wham! is the shit, believe me I've listened to that one song by them like 2000 times, but "Dancing Queen" is a flat out masterpiece.
4 hours ago ·

Jennifer- Plus Casey you like Weezer you should know ABBA are pop geniuses.
4 hours ago ·

Lauri- yes, ABBA are songwriting masters, as confirmed by their international fame and record sales. go scandinavia!
3 hours ago ·

Hard - now george michael on the other hand, like making love for the first time.
2 hours ago ·

reading this Klosterman essay right now. this guy is consistently brilliant. love him.

I'm going to tell you guys a story about my life, for those who want to read about some drama a stranger experienced while laying in bed.

Last night I was in a particularly awful mood. I was completely sober, but I felt paranoid and highly depressed (for the first time in many months, severely delusional-depressed feeling). Delusional thoughts are a pain in the ass, but thankfully I have them mostly under control. Last night was just a kind of a shitty night for various reasons. I only share this stuff because I know none of you give a fuck and I find this experience somewhat ironic.

Anyway, I was laying in bed, no music was able to bring me any form of joy. Everything sounded stale. Then I put on ABBA for the first time in my life, on these new Sennheiser headphones. I blasted "Dancing Queen" probably about 3 times. Immediately tears welled up in my eyes. By the third listen I was practically bawling (the subject of a male human-being crying is apparently an uncomfortable one). These tears were tears of joy. I hadn't cried - or felt any strong emotion for that matter - for a long, long time. I've been quite flatlined. But listening to "Dancing Queen," I could see the most beautiful things. It's really a beautiful song. It's one that is goofy, widely hated for it's silliness, and widely loved by women (and therefor ignored/detested by men). But if you listen to that opening ... with the crescendo and the glissando and the chorus and the wall of sound blasting the perfectly delivered singing - it's wonderful.

Anyway, just thought I should share my experience. I thought it was interesting/funny because one of the singers apparently had a similar experience the first time they listened to it.

some quotes from the essay:

"What ABBA built was a previously nonexistent pop universe: It was a serious attempt to embody U.S. culture, attempted by European citizens who weren’t remotely interested in being American. Consequently, it was always a little off. Sometimes it was too much. But it was successful. And everyone knew it. And that success became part of the sound. The fact that every human on earth (including their most vehement detractors) was keenly aware of ABBA’s magnitude changed how the songs came across. It validated the obtuseness and bewildered the inflexible. “ABBA was so mainstream,” Barry Walters would eventually write in The Village Voice, “you had to be slightly on the outside to actually take them to heart.” ABBA had figured something out about America that we could effortlessly hear but only partially comprehend. This was the supernatural element of ABBA Music—flawless, shiny, otherworldly songs that evoke both mild confusion and instantaneous acceptance.", [Chuck klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur]

"ABBA succeeds because the rest of the world isn’t necessary. They operate within their own actuality. In 2002, ABBA was offered $1 billion to reunite. That’s a billion, with a B. That’s $250 million apiece. If someone reads this book in the year 2110, that will still be a lot of money. But they turned it down. “We had to think about it,” Bjorn told The Guardian, “because one could build hospitals with that much money … [But] we don’t want to go through the stress of disappointing people evening after evening.”", [Chuck klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur]

"“It’s all ABBA music.” They were saying, “It’s all ABBA Music.” The M requires capitalization. And this is because—more than any other group of the post-Beatles era—ABBA is a genre unto itself. It’s a brand of music that’s sometimes recognizable in different songs and sometimes glimpsed through other artists, and everyone naturally grasps the qualities that come with it; you sometimes hear elements of it in department stores or druggy foreign films or New Age religious services. But only ABBA could make ABBA Music in totality. They are the only group who completely understands what they do, including the things they do wrong. So if that is what you like, there is only one place to really get it. The rest of culture does not matter. The Grateful Dead were kind of like this as well, but not as singularly as ABBA; while it’s easy to think of artists who deliver a comparable sonic experience to the Dead, the closest equivalent to ABBA Music—probably the Bee Gees—doesn’t come close at all.", [Chuck klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur]

Abba was all over the top 40 as a teen. My first commercial radio gig had me spinning The Winner Takes It All every couple of hours. Their music thrills and brightens any day for me.
I never bought the records in the day as most top 40 was a hidden pleasure for us FM album rockers. It was all about bands like Led Zep at the time.
In the CD era I bought Gold and More Gold. I also snatch any used vinyl LP I find of theirs these days.
We're heading across Pa. and home today from Philly in about an hour. We're anticipating snow in the mountains. That means white knuckle driving. Singing along to Abba should ease the fear.

Put me in the "it's just you" column. I spent my formative years changing the station of my AM radio whenever an ABBA song came on. Other than "Take a Chance on Me," I wouldn't call any of their songs great. My first commercial radio gig had me spinning Chiquitita every couple of hours. Pure hell (except for the sticker someone pulled off of a banana and stuck on the 45).

ABBA?

Really?

Out of all the bands in the world, the only one of my lists ABBA would make, would be one based on the alphabet alone. Unless of course the list was entitled, "Bands that make me want to tear my eyes out with fish hooks".

Bloody hell, I have to go brush my teeth now.

JC

i knew there was a reason why i'm jewish.

someone upload the best thing by abba and I'll download it

this is what did it for me

http://www.mediafire.com/?jbimop1thtz

listen to the first tracks a few times

appreciated, pancho.

The two big hits missing from Gold and found on More Gold are I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and Ring Ring.

Guys that refuse to see the gorgeousness of Abba's pop music are not comfortable or are questioning their sexuality. Ha.

Just wanted to add to the ABBA love. One of my favorite all-time catalogs, hands down and "S.O.S." is one of the most unfuckwitable songs ever recorded.

Not that I give a crap about who, or what you fuck, but for crying out loud, "The gorgeousness of Abba's pop"?

That's just wrong.

I have to wonder if you would still think Abba's pablum was the shit, if they only sold 38 albums to their parent's friends.

Their "commercial significance" outweighs their relevance.

JC

Abba is awesome! Anyone who can't enjoy Dancing Queen has no soul for fuck sakes. I love the Clash as much as the next guy but fuck if Dancing Queen (and many other Abba tracks) aren't every bit as good and revilement as anything ever produced and considered "important".

The song that has the chorus "Knowing me knowing you, there is nothing we can do; ahhhh, knowing me knowing you, there is nothing we can do....knowing me knowing you, that's the best I can do." That has to be one of the greatest pop songs of time.

Just for the record, it's my belief that Abba was a pretty bland 70's pop band. That does not mean I question my sexuality or that I have no soul. It means that I think Abba was a pretty bland 70's pop band. Yes, I understand they sold a ton of albums... but so did Paul McCartney from the same era and I think (although also pretty bland at times ie. London Town) his music is infinitely more listenable, endearing, and enduring than Abba. I put Abba on the same shelf as Three Dog Night - a few catchy singles but that's it.

Although it's true that if Donna Summer had released 'Dancing Queen' instead of ABBA I might like it considerably more.