ABBA Album: “Arrival [Bonus Tracks]”

I think this was my first record of theirs. I loved/love them. On this, is my absolute favourite, lesser known songs of theirs called My Love, My Life. It's beautiful. I'd love it too if someone would remake it to make it popular. It's great. Also there is Tiger, Knowing Me Knowing You and When I Kissed The Teacher. Two of their more popular songs. These guys would do great getting back together and doing one last world tour. There fans are so loyal and any true fan would have this great cd in their collection.

A strange thing I noticed in Singapore is that there are many "greatest hits" bands here. Certainly, all of the one hit wonders of the 80s are represented there - Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Alphaville - but so are mega-groups like the Beatles or the Eagles and the Police and whatever. Try to find their albums if you dare, but if you want a greatest hits package you have half a dozen to pick from. ABBA is the same thing, so that's why I was quite happy to finally get a true ABBA release, not just in its regular version, but in a deluxe version with unreleased songs and a bonus DVD.

Ever since seeing Bjorn Again recently, my interest in ABBA has picked up somewhat, and I wondered what it would be like to hear ABBA songs that aren't among the 20-30 songs regularly regurgitated in greatest hits packages, or the Mama Mia song track, or even on the Bjorn Again set list. And yes, it was eerie hearing songs that sound like "Dancing Queen" and "Voulez Vous," but have titles like "When I Kissed the Teacher" (my son gets a kick out of those lyrics), "My Love, My Life," and "Dum Dum Diddle." Bonus songs like Spanish versions of "Dancing Queen," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," and "Fernando are good fun, so is the Swedish version of "Fernando" from Frida's solo album. Apparently the lyrics are not about a partisan but just a regular old love song (but I just have to take the liner notes' word for it since I'll probably never learn Swedish).

The accompanying DVD is fantastic, with all sorts of yummy bits in it, like the ultra-crappy animated version of "Happy Hawaii," which is a slowed-down version of "Why Did It Have To Be Me." There's a scary version of Fernando and Dancing Queen, then some good scenes in the stdio during the recording of "Dancing QUeen. The highlight of the DVD is "ABBA-Dabba-Dooo!!!" TV special from Swedish TV (subtitled as there's very little English) that talks about ABBA's difficulty in getting appreciation from local fans. Apparently the haughty, intellectual Swedes found their biggest cultural export to be pap, at least in those days.