“Arrival” Album Review

“Arrival” album cover.

1) When I Kissed The Teacher; 2) Dancing Queen; 3) My Love, My Life; 4) Dum Dum Diddle; 5) Knowing Me, Knowing You; 6) Money, Money, Money; 7) That’s Me; 8) Why Did It Have To Be Me; 9) Tiger; 10) Arrival

10 out of 10

And finally ABBA truly “arrives.” The title here, of course refers to the helicopter picture on the front cover while also referring to the gorgeous title track. It also refers to ABBA finally reaching the state of perfection they would achieve for two albums and sporadically throughout their career. Benny and Bjorn’s songcraft has been perfected. Agneta and Frida’s voices are now fully utilized. The band is ready to take over the world.

Which they did with this album: the number of hit singles from this album is staggering. Nearly every song on this album was a hit somewhere in the world, with none of the songs getting bigger than “Dancing Queen.” In fact, this song was their biggest hit in America (their only number one in that rather ABBA skeptical country) and deservedly so.

“Dancing Queen” is their signature song and represents every thing good about the band: a great dancing beat, amazing melodies, beautiful arrangements, head spinning singing and a dozen different hooks. What is more memorable: the opening piano runs, the rising and falling choral parts, the verse melody, the chorus melody or all them combined? A nearly perfect pop song that sets the tone for the rest of the album.

Of course, the album doesn’t start with this song: instead, it starts with the rather “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”-ish “When I Kissed The Teacher.” Of course, Sting painted a portrait of an elderly pervert who got what he deserved: ABBA shows a giddy kid, giggling at kissing the teacher. A bit accidentally perverse perhaps, but the music is great: the opening 12 string riff, followed by a series of breath taking vocal melodies and backing vocal harmonies. The backing chants during the verse are probably the best hook on the whole song.

The band doesn’t stop there with the stunning hits: “Money, Money, Money” has the simply incredible and memorable opening piano and vibes introduction combined with a “loop” of cascading piano parts. Benny plays particularly menacing chords here, in slightly “Kurt Weil” manner. The lyrics, intoned dramatically, are perhaps a bit generic but they work. And the melodies and arrangements are perfect. “Money money money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world” is an undeniably catchy memorable chorus.

Again, ABBA sticks with an aggressively upbeat style of music throughout the album. “Tiger” is particularly aggressive: the drum parts in the verse pound like John Bonham while the girls shout out an aggressive, melody that fits the atmosphere of the track perfectly: the chorus has a disco or dance rock feel that contrasts with the pounding of the verses in a way that emphasizes the strength of both, making both instantly memorable.

However, the band doesn’t stick with just this aggressive style. “My Love, My Life” is one of the band’s most effective ballads. The operatic vocal introduction, the simple but genial string arrangements, the melody, the vocalization: I fear I don’t give the girls enough credit for their vocalization. They truly make each of these tracks come to life by the power of their lungs. The “third voice” effect is prevalent throughout this album. Their harmonies on this track are particularly effective.

The band also combines an aggressive and downbeat approach with “Knowing Me, Knowing You” perhaps one of their best known songs. The aggressive guitar parts of this song actually highlight the melancholy of the melody and the lyrics. The lyrics here are not embarrassing but aren’t great either. Fun fact: the song was originally known as “Number One, Number One” as the band predicted great success for the song.

I really hate describing every track like this because it begins getting a bit predictable; great arrangements, beautiful melodies, amazing singing. Each song has its own identity, this is true but each song is ABBA to the core and could never be anybody else.

For example, what other band could take a song called “Dum, Dum Diddle” and not only make it work but make it work so well? The odd synthesizer opening leads to an upbeat, simple but fun set of lyrics and melodies that are highlighted by the nursery rhyme choruse of “dum dum diddle dee dee dum diddle de dum.” Humpty Dumpty? Who knows: the song is hilarious.

“That’s Me” takes basically the same approach of that song meaning while it’s not exactly a highlight it’s a lot of fun and is well written. This album has no filler: even songs like this, which feel like filler are simply too much fun and too well written to call filler. The band put a lot of work into making the album as entertaining as possible.

For example, the Bjorn led “Why Does It Have to Be Me?” may seem like its out of place but it brings in a weird, roots rock feel that the band rarely flirted with in the past or in the future. Bjorn actually sounds good here, with his world weary tenor sounding 100% authentic for once. The band tries to sound “rock and roll” but fails: however, the song understands this and focuses on the campy aspects of the song to make it a goofy highlight instead of a failure.

Finally, the album ends with “Arrival” a piece of “ambient disco” (!) that has such a beautiful melody that the band simply repeats it over and over again, while adding supporting instruments and arrangement twists. But it has a “disco” feel due to the beat that goes throughout the song. Surely, ABBA were never so serious yet (a precursor of things to come) yet they pull it off by focusing on creating a mood and not spoiling it with their banal lyrics. Instrumental wizard Mike Oldfield does a perfect version of the song.

The lyrics on this album aren’t exactly an upswing from past lyrics, however. Yeah the band gradually gets better: starting with ABBA and continuing for the next few albums, they are simply banal instead of embarrassing. No more “King Kong Song” here. Instead, the band focuses on simple love cliches that sound okay with the melodies and the rhythms being exploited.

Basically, don’t come to this (or any ABBA album, bar MAYBE “Super Trouper” or “The Visitors”) if you want to experience some emotions. The band is always faking their emotions. This is not a crime to me, as pop lyrics are generally banal and ignorable. They’re especially ignorable if the band creates such beautiful pop music as on this album. The band’s first perfect album (out of two, alas) that helped set the stage for the band’s (well deserved and fully understandable) conquering of the world.