Arrival - ABBA

From the beautiful, burning beaches of the West coast of California to the smallest, poorest lowliest communities of Japan, Abba will always be the worlds biggest, highest paid international group of the 20th of century and beyond. This Swedish quartet of individual songsters on their own right joined forces originally in 1971. The powerful drive of creative writing came from the two male members, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. The two iconic female voices came from Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad. Together, their real success came with their Eurovision winning song, ‘Waterloo’ in 1974. It was to be the biggest winning euro song ever. No winning ...  Read the complete review

If you're a fan of ABBA's famous hits, this is probably the original album for you. Of course it is now likely to pale beside the CD recordings of "Gold" and "More Gold", but if you want original items, it's great. It features the ABBA song par excellence - "Dancing Queen", as well as the "Knowing Me Knowing You" out of which Steve Coogan made two whole series of parody. Money Money Money is also a well known ABBA song, with its feelgood jumpy atmosphere, at the same time as a down-to-earth message about, err, dirt-poor rock superstars. Hmm, maybe not. In the same vein as these songs, but less well ...  Read the complete review

"Arrival" was recorded in 1976 & originally featured 10 tracks by the group. 01) When I Kissed The Teacher A strong opening track with a solo vocal by Agnetha. Stands up very well on its own. 02) Dancing Queen What can one say about Abba's most successful single? A great track, released just before disco became the dominant sound of the late 70s. Guaranteed to get people on the dancefloor in any nightclub. 03) My Love, My Life A gentle ballad with a solo vocal from Agnetha. It's pleasant enough but for some reason have never really made that much of an impression on me. 04) Dum Dum ...  Read the complete review

This album was given to me for Christmas 1977, and so began my love affair with Abba, which continues today. I was 11 years old, and didn't have my own "record player" as they were called in the good old days! So my poor parents had to endure endless plays of this album (funnily enough, for my next birthday I was given a music centre and headphones. I wonder why?! "Arrival" is still one of my favourite albums, the tracks on it are as follows: WHEN I KISSED THE TEACHER ......................... When I hear this it always reminds me of a wet break time at school. A friend and I (a fellow Abba fan) were playing Hangman, ...  Read the complete review