ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits
shortcut: [Album1611]
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| Artist | ABBA |
| Type | Compilation |
| Released | September 21, 1992 |
| Rating |
3.87 from 1036 ratings
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| Ranked | #35 for 1992 , #979 overall | | Genres | |
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| 1 | Dancing Queen | | 3:49 | | 2 | Knowing Me, Knowing You | | 4:01 | | 3 | Take a Chance on Me | | 4:01 | | 4 | Mamma Mia | | 3:32 | | 5 | Lay All Your Love on Me | | 4:32 | | 6 | Super Trouper | | 4:10 | | 7 | I Have a Dream | | 4:43 | | 8 | The Winner Takes It All | | 4:54 | | 9 | Money, Money, Money | | 3:05 | | 10 | S.O.S. | | 3:19 | | 11 | Chiquitita | | 5:26 | | 12 | Fernando | | 4:10 | | 13 | Voulez-Vous | | 4:21 | | 14 | Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) | | 4:46 | | 15 | Does Your Mother Know | | 3:14 | | 16 | One of Us | | 3:53 | | 17 | The Name of the Game | | 3:56 | | 18 | Thank You for the Music | | 3:51 | | 19 | Waterloo | | 2:42 |
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never_knows_best
 Street Fighter The Movie: The Game
[Rating25453477]
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When I was younger I tried to listen to this entire compilation as an endurance test. For a moment, I thought I had actually started to like Abba. But it wasn't to be. I ended up switching it off half way through.
I reckon I'd switch it off sooner if I tried it again. But I'm not gonna try it again because that's just stupid. |
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gelud
Digital
[Rating8026800]
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Попса. Попсятина. Танцевальное дерьмо.
Но, черт возьми, насколько же гениально!!! Почти каждая песня - шедевр в своем жанре. Для полного комплекта не хватает только Summer Night City. |
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soap_putin
 Alan Shearer
CD
[Rating24907627]
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My ultimate guilty pleasure. This is the only thing of theirs I have I've not really got any desire to get any of their studio albums, but I love almost every song on Gold. Favourite songs, Dancing Queen, Fernando and Waterloo. |
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fcescgb
CD
[Rating24662541]
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9/18/09
If you, like me, grew up in Europe in the 70s and 80s, you've heard ABBA for sure. Unless you were living in another planet. This Swedish pop/disco band were very popular, and to this day, you can easily listen to some of their most popular tunes on the radio. Besides those very popular tracks, like 1, 4, 11, and 12, the rest is average or below average.
Finally, listening to ABBA creates a very strange mood in me, that I can't particularly label of positive, but of a mix of sadness and melancholia.
Tracks #11 and #12 for the Spanish release are sung in Spanish. |
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Dark_Ridley
 Shakugan no Shana
[Rating24465371]
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Although I'm a appreciator of throwaway pop alongside more "serious" music, I'm not terribly keen on ABBA. This collection, however, remains a great compilation of fun little pop ditties. Dancing Queen is still the best, but I recommend it to anyone who wants some good, unpretentious fun.
If you don't want that, get it anyway. You'll still like it. |
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Ben_V
 Decent
Digital
[Rating13377767]
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ABBA are one of those bands that appear everywhere, and I largely associate them with middle-aged women dancing in an embarrassing fashion out of nostalgia (probably from being forced by my parents to go to Mamma Mia, the musical, when I was about 8 years old) and that hilarious scene in Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge where Alan does an ABBA medley with this singer. As a result, I never really thought of giving them a serious listen; I assumed it would be a total waste of time. But when I saw the ABBA CD in my parent's collection the last time I raided it, a strange sort of fascination overtook me. Maybe there was something to this music...or maybe I just wanted to hear it so I could abuse it. Probably a bit of both. The latter feeling was certainly the dominant one when I found out this Greatest Hits was my latest Go Review That Album Game assignment.
But when I first put this on and heard Dancing Queen, I instantly knew something; I liked this music, and there was now I could deny it. Even Alan Partridge couldn't ruin it. Dancing Queen is certainly the best way to start this greatest hits; it is without a doubt the best song on here, and I feel no doubt when I call it a piece of pop perfection. Few bands write a chorus that good, and I cannot believe ABBA is one of them. The disc just generally gets off to a cracking start, with all of the opening six songs managing to stay well clear of the cheesiness I was expecting to find on this disc. And Alan Partridge memories just gave me laughs, as opposed to preventing me from enjoying these songs.
After the opening six songs, however, this disc is very, very patchy. ABBA couldn't walk that fine line between good 70s pop and cheese forever, and they firmly fall into the cheese zone for much of the remainder of the disc. It's not that most of it is bad, it's just hard to take much enjoyment out of it when I can't help but cringe at half the songs on the remainder of the disc. Some highlights can still be found; S.O.S., Fernando and One of Us are all good, and Does Your Mother Know is a surprisingly good, more rock orientated song. The rest has its moments, with the arrangements on songs like Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! being rather good, but the melodies have a seriously cheesy feeling to them, and I just struggle to enjoy it.
Despite these flaws, I'm still glad I gave ABBA a listen. Dancing Queen is a genuinely great song, and the band generally have a quite a few good singles. But they aren't perfect, and I'm not planning on digging any deeper into their discography, particularly since the rest of it is supposedly pretty crap. Even so, ABBA are one of those bands nobody can ignore forever, and when the time comes for someone to give an unbiased judgment on the band, Gold is the place to go to get the best stuff. |
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PeteAnderson91
Just Very Good
Digital
[Rating24343855]
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Since I'm an 18-year-old male (at the time of writing), you can reasonably expect me to have had some fairly painful experiences over the last few years.
One of the top 5 worst of these was being forced to watch the film Mamma Mia in the cinema in the autumn of 2008. I won't bore you with the details of exactly how this came to happen, but suffice it to say that it gave me a terrible first experience of ABBA. However, the one thing about the film that did make an impression was the opening music.
Some weeks later, I decided to give ABBA another chance and downloaded this compilation. Listening to ABBA outside of the context of that cinematic abomination, I soon found I actually quite liked them. They will probably never be among my favourites, but there are many excellent songs to be found on ABBA Gold. It soon became clear that the song from the movie that had really stuck with me was "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", which I shall get to later.
I daresay that if this album's opener "Dancing Queen" had been my first exposure to ABBA, I would never have had anything against the group. Despite being pure pop, it's sure what I'd call quality. Standout: that bass line - quite worthy of a Paul McCartney.
After "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (good) and "Take a Chance on Me" (not so good - I'm not a fan of all that chanting) we come to "Mamma Mia", which is probably my overall favourite ABBA song. How ironic that it should have supplied the title of the worst movie I ever sat through... But I digress. The song itself is absolutely fantastic. It's one of the band's most energetic performances, with the electric guitar uncharacteristically prominent. And, of course, the hooks are everywhere.
The rest? "Lay All Your Love on Me" teases you with a grandiose, classical-style keyboard intro, before turning into a cute little pop ditty. "Super Trouper" and "I Have a Dream" are a bit disappointing for me, and not quite what I'd call memorable. Then there's "The Winner Takes It All". At least two of my ABBA-loving friends like this one best, and I can sort of hear why: glorious, soaring melody, beautifully sung, and even the lyrics (not usually a standout feature of this band) are good here. My slight beef with the song is that it's a bit too long and repetitive, and I'm not quite convinced by the abrupt change of arrangement around 1:19 in. Still, a good song.
"Money, Money, Money"? Somewhat Broadway-ish in melody if not in arrangement, which means you will either hate it or adore it. I'll just say it does a good job of showing off ABBA's eclecticism. "SOS"? Better, despite the silly title and lyrics. The contrast between slow piano balladeering and double-tempo passages sounds less forced here than on "The Winner Takes It All", to these ears at least. "Chiquitita"? Nice classical guitar intro, overall one of the best-arranged tunes here. It largely gets by on the lovely piano arpeggios. A shade too long though.
"Fernando"? Some lovely flute work here, although I'm sure I've already heard the chord progression earlier on this compilation. Also, it would appear to rip off the bass line from the Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko" during the up-tempo section. "Voulez-Vous"? This is where we enter disco territory. Luckily, I have nothing against that in and of itself, and the opening guitar/synth riff is quite majestic. However, as far as disco goes, I far prefer the following "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!". As noted earlier, this was the one song that stuck with me after seeing that disgusting film. You've got one of the all-time great instrumental hooks at :17, a cool-as-hell vocal performance, and a somewhat eerie instrumental break starting at 2:52. It just might be my second-favourite ABBA song overall, with "Mamma Mia" at #1 as noted earlier.
Next comes "Does Your Mother Know". This is an absolute lyrical low point, but musically it's a decent effort, especially considering that it's definitely a rock song, not something that ABBA did very often (or well!). That ABBA were much better as a pop band, though, is confirmed by the fact that I feel so much better hearing the gentle "One of Us", which comes next, despite my preference for rock over pop in general.
Three songs to go... "The Name of the Game"? Cool synth/drum groove, making for quite a weird effect when contrasted with the usual mellow vocals. Listen out for some tasty hidden guitar licks starting around 2:09. Finally "Thank You for the Music" and "Waterloo" are a rather disappointing way to finish off. Before giving this album a listen, I had been under the impression that ABBA in general were a tacky band. Yet it is only on these last two songs that I get that impression while listening. "...Music" is listenable, but the verses are somewhat Broadway-ish, again. And "Waterloo", ironically the band's big breakthrough single, hasn't aged well at all. It's probably my least favourite song here, with the vocals sounding rather obnoxious (apparently the girls had't quite found their styles by then).
Overall, however, after actually listening to ABBA I feel duly humbled after having carried a nasty bias against them for so long. Not all the songs here are to my taste, but on the whole I quite like this disc. Buy it even if you're not a fan of this kind of music in general. Dare I say, especially if you're not a fan. It's worth it. |
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Odd_even
CD
[Rating23166441]
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The truth being said, well, as far as I believe, this is all the ABBA you'll ever need. While my only other ABBA album Arrival contains some generic pop drab this is, well, the gold from the throne room established by the kings and queens of Euro Pop. Can't say I thoroughly enjoy it, however. After all, I'm not the largest ABBA fan. In fact I'm not an ABBA fan at all. This fell into my hands one Christmas and you keep it and put on a brave face sayin "Oh, I've always wanted to listen to this", as you do.
KEY TRACK(S): Dancing Queen, Super Trouper, Money, Money, Money, S.O.S. |
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heartbeatlover
CD
[Rating23203689]
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Up to last year I liked ABBA, but I wouldn't have gone out and got a studio album of theirs. However I enjoyed them a lot and couln't stop singing them; but mainly for the vocals of Agnetha Faltskog it must be said. The melodies are great too though; but I'm very partial to her singing. I was surprised to discover that an ABBA studio album is pretty listenable end to end. Of course Abba have gained a certain kind of credibility over the past couple of decades due to modern songwriters praising their skill in writing sophisticated but universal-sounding songs. However ABBA are actually even more than that; whenever someone contemporary comes out with a huge song with universal appeal, it inevitably has something of ABBA in it. This hits compilation is not really as good as the studio albums I've heard because it's more enjoyable to hear their songs in their particular time periods together I think; and also it excludes a magnificent song like 'Eagle'. But nonetheless it includes some of the best songs you could ever hear, like 'SOS', 'Dancing Queen', 'The Winner Takes It All' and 'The Name Of The Game.' I love ' I Have A Dream', but I actually prefer that in Spanish, which I would describe as a sublime song in itself. Ultimately what is really great about ABBA for me is the huge communal effect of their songs. They appeal to people in a way that makes you like them even more. It's like they produce a kind of musical version of elation and people want to sing and dance along to it spontaneously. It's undoubtedly a musical gift they had, though I hope Agnetha doesn't give up singing just yet and releases another solo album. I actually linked the song not on this album, I Have A Dream(Estoy Sonando), just to show what else they did apart from the obvious hits(though I'm definitely no ABBA expert like Soren or Goregirl).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTwXLlEKJj4 |
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Actopus
[Rating23507311]
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в детстве у каждого был на полке рядом с романтик коллекшн. |
distribution | 0.5 | | 9 | | 1.0 | | 10 | | 1.5 | | 11 | | 2.0 | | 23 | | 2.5 | | 34 | | 3.0 | | 111 | | 3.5 | | 163 | | 4.0 | | 298 | | 4.5 | | 187 | | 5.0 | | 190 |
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distribution | Cassette | | 24 | | CD | | 802 | | CD-R | | 42 | | DVD-A | | 1 | | Vinyl | | 6 | | Minidisc | | 3 | | Digital | | 209 | | Multiple | | 3 | | Other | | 12 |
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rym
