ABBA

Perhaps the first band to force rock elitists to take fluff pop seriously, ABBA made deliriously optimistic, naive, danceable, slightly off- kilter Europop that has enjoyed three heydays: its original one, during the '70s; one during the '80s and '90s, sparked by open- minded fans of the craft; and one that began in 1999, with the success of Mamma Mia!, a musical based loosely on ABBA songs. At this point, fans can find virtually every blip and chord the Swedish quartet ever recorded, thanks to Universal's frantic mass release, in 2001, of the band's early albums, remastered and tricked up with bonus tracks. Although the original version of Waterloo, the band's second record, is still on the stands, as is 1977's Arrival, Universal's rereleases are the ones to seek out.

There's some stylistic variation among ABBA's releases—some are disco, some are Euro- by-way-of-cabaret, some are "serious"—but, thanks to the never-less-than-sterling songwriting gifts of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and the clean, pert female vocals of Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, there's very little variation in the recordings' quality. Some of the rereleases fool around with chronology, but their featured bonuses are plums: Arrival sticks in "Fernando" as well as the cheery travel-ogue "Happy Hawaii"; ABBA contains a medley of folk songs recorded for a charity album as well as the B side "Crazy World"; Waterloo introduces a Swedish version of the title song and includes a remix of "Ring Ring," which can of course be found, unremixed, on Ring Ring the album—early, less bouncy ABBA with the men singing lead. The Album offers an early version of "Thank You for the Music"; Super Trouper includes an outtake ("Put On Your White Sombrero") and a previously 7-inch- only B side "Elaine." Voulez-Vous features no fewer than three bonus tracks: "Summer Night City," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," and the B side "Lovelight." If none of the above sounds interesting to you, but you still want to own "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo," buy the airtight Millennium Collection. (ARION BERGER)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide