To put it bluntly the worst songs ever made by ABBA are in this album but since this album has 12 songs to choose from there are still hints of future success of the group. At the time known as Agnetha Bjorn Benny And Frida the group messed around with different techniques to find the perfect sound for the group. Although not found in this album there are a few songs such as :RING RING , ANOTHER TOWN ANOTHER TRAIN AND NINA PRETTY BALLERINA show that this rookie group could go far if they worked more on their melody. This is a reasonable beginning but not too flash. Definately not a very good ABBA album but still they were only just starting out and the albums after that pretty much showed how well they could be. Die hard fans will love it but the rest of us stick to greatest hits albums to get the better of the songs on this album.

When ABBA arrived in the US via Atlantic Records in the early/mid 70's; the earliest work you could get of them was the "Waterloo" album. Although some tracks from "Ring Ring" did show up on their "Greatest Hits" LP in '76, most of us had never heard the rest of the tracks from this, their first album. I am delighted to finally be able to add this first album to my ABBA collection. Although some people find the tracks on this album to be inferior to their later releases, I find this album to reflect their "roots" if you will. Most of the tracks reflect a happy upbeat time in the groups career; a far cry from some of their later releases which reflected sadder times in the members personal lives. The best tracks on the disc include "Ring Ring," "Another Town, Another Train," "He Is Your Brother," and "Rock 'N Roll Band." And yes, while it is easy to tell that this album was the beginning of what would become a phenominal sensation all over the world, the mood of this album is more true to life of what the group was all about. If you're a fan of the group as a whole, you will want this album. If you're only a fan of their biggest hits, you might want to skip it.

While hardly a masterpiece in the league of the great, late albums, 'Ring Ring' is a vast improvement on patchy albums like 'Waterloo'. The grotesque prog-rock indulgences that marred that work are largely absent; the one exception, 'I Saw it in the mirror' is redeemed by sad lyrics and moving backing vocals.

By this tage of their career, Abba had yet to find their true voice, so 'Ring Ring' largely comprises some excellent pastiches (eg the Carole King of 'Disillusion'; the Animals of 'She's My Kind of Girl').

Full of exhiliratingly tuneful dance pop, the Abba aesthetic can be glimpsed in the frothy stomp/melancholic subject matter of the title song; the haunting 'Another town, another train' reminiscent of the astonishing late ballads; and 'Nina, pretty ballerina', an early stab at what would become their euphoric masterpiece, 'Dancing Queen'.

I originally purchased this album on vinyl (anyone remember that format?) from a Swedish record dealer during the late 1970s. At that time an ABBA obsessive, I was rather confused as to why "Ring, Ring" had never been released in the U.S. After hearing the tracks on this album, I understood why Atlantic had chosen against issuing it stateside. While some of the songs, particularly "Ring, Ring" itself, Agnetha's compilation "Disillusion" and "I'm Just a Girl" are pleasant enough, others, such as "Rock 'n' Roll Band" and "Me and Bobby's..." are shockingly bad. To be fair, every ABBA LP contained at least one song that should have remained in the vaults, and this effort was issued very early in their collective career. The preponderence of awful songs on this album, however, makes it one to skip for all but the most die-hard fans.

Listening to this you may be forgiven for marvelling how ABBA became as great as they did. Even as a first album it's a dud, full of clodhopping songs with clumsy lyrics, and as such is fit only for the absolute fanatic.