ABBA

ABBA: Bjorn Ulvaeus (vocals, acoustic guitar); Benny Anderson (vocals, piano, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron); Agnetha Faltskog, Anni Frid Lyngstad (vocals).

Additional personnel: Janne Schaffer (guitar); Christer Eklund (tenor saxophone); Rutger Gunnarson, Per Sahlberg (bass); Ola Brunkert (drums); Malando Gassama (congas).

Recorded at Metronome Studio, Stockholm, Sweden in 1973 & 1974. Includes reissue liner notes by Carl Magnus Palm.

Digitally remastered using 24-bit technology by Jon Astley.

German remastered reissue features the bonus tracks "Ring Ring" (1974 US Remix), "Waterloo" (Swedish Version), and "Honey Honey" (Swedish Version).

ABBA's second album, titled after their breakthrough single, which won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, shows how the Swedish foursome was already starting to outgrow the confines of the chirpy bubblegum with which they originally made their name. Super-catchy songs like "Waterloo" and "Honey Honey" abound, but composers Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson seem to be taking cues from greats like Lennon and McCartney and Brian Wilson, slipping febrile, inventive tunes like "What About Livingstone" and "Suzy Hang Around" in amongst silly but entertaining trifles like "Sitting in the Palmtree" and "King Kong Song."

Meanwhile, "Hasta Manana" shows the first glimpse of the fascination with Latin music that would lead to songs like "Fernando" and, much later, the Oro and Mas Oro compilations. Overall, WATERLOO shows that ABBA was well on their way to the brilliance of their later career as the decade's foremost purveyors of commercial pop.

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