I usually consider Super Trouper and Arrival as their best albums then comes the others. I used to think that the first

two records Ring Ring and Waterloo (from which I used to listen to only the title track and Honey Honey) weren't that

good.

When I finally bought Waterloo to myself and started systematically listen to its songs I was blown away by the

quality put on its tracks.I think that by the time Waterloo was recorded in 1973-74, Abba was more wide open to different influences, ready to create material without prejudices, everything that worked in the studio. Therefore Waterloo's soundscape is more surprising and unusual than their later works was.

Many of this albums songs have truly classic melodies and when you get them in your head you just sing them for weeks. Honey Honey, Dance and the title track are many times cherished as Waterloo's finest moments but really there are songs such as Hasta Manãna, Gonna Sing You My Lovesong, What about Livingstone and Suzy Hang Around that are absolutely quality material.

I adore especially Gonna Sing You My Lovesong for it's a ballad-like, Frida on lead vocals and when the chorus sets in the song's layered harmonies really blooms.

Sittin in the Palmtree has a light reggae-feeling in it, King Kon Song and Watch Out are more rocking tunes - the style

that dissappeared from Abba's repertuare as time went on.

If you're searching an album by Abba from where to start I can gladly tell you that Waterloo is as good choice as The

Album, Abba, The Visitors or Voulez-Vous. Nowadays it's my personal favourite after Arrival just because it contains

so many classic Abba melodies.

ABBA. Waterloo. Any connection? Well, it's a brilliant song for starters, and what an album. Eclectic as can be, polished as a tabletop- -and about as deep as a formica veneer. But the more I listen to this thing, the weirder it gets. Every track is a Big Production worthy of anything by Phil Specor sonically, if not musically. And the tunes. . .well, from the beginning ABBA was always about melody and even if some of these songs are not exactly High Art, every one of them has some melodic twist, some hook that grabs and never lets go. 'Sitting In The Palm Tree' may not be the only reggae song in the world to prominently feature a Mellotron, but it certainly is the only reggae song by a Swedish group that does, and that makes it A-OK in my book. 'Gonna Sing You My Love Song' might have bland and generic verses, but check out that absolutely gorgeous chorus. (And someone should ask Elvis Costello if he listened to 'Dance While The Music Still Goes On' while writing 'Oliver's Army', by the way.) But it's in the lyric department that ABBA never ceases to amaze. 'Waterloo' is a cutesy trope on well, Waterloo, but that's just (literally) the beginning. Just a couple of examples. . .'King Kong Song' is, astonishingly, a song about a guy inspired to write a song about a dance named after guess-who after seeing guess-who on TV, complete with shrieks of delight and terror from the female half of the band. Definitely one for the ages. And elsewhere, you gotta admit that there is something intriguing about a girl stunning a bunch of 'fellas' at a newsstand into silence by pointedly lecturing them about the nobility of Dr. Livingstone's explorations. I know I'd be stunned. But the absolute show-stopper is the final track (naturally), 'Suzy-Hang-Around'. It's about this 10-year-old boy and his friends who tell this 9-year-old girl to get off the playground and come back when she's 'grown'- -and that's it! So she goes; she cries to her Mom; Mom admonishes the boys and wonders aloud why they can't all 'play together in harmony'- -and when Mom leaves, they STILL insist that Suzy go!! No Cherry Hill Park, this playground! 'Get off our playground and stay away!' Then this 10-year-old kid grows up and writes a song about it- -and it's the very same guy who was watching TV one night and was inspired to write 'King Kong Song'!! So he forms ABBA with this girl and a couple of friends, and now they all sing and play together in glorious harmony! Thanks, Mom! Nowhere but ABBAland!

this is the music that started the greatest band ever - ABBA.

If you have this music, then that is all you need.

it is great!

While I enjoy most of the material on Waterloo, I fail to see how this is supposed to be some kind of drastic, major improvement compared to Ring Ring. This album has its share of throwaway tracks just like Ring Ring does. "Honey, Honey" and "Hasta Manana" aren't particularly great, and "Gonna Sing You My Love Song" absolutely stinks.

Now for the good- the title song is AWESOME, "Sitting in the Palmtree" reminds me of monkeys having fun in a tropical rain forest. It contains a pretty good (though VERY filler-ish sounding) vocal melody, and "My Mama Said" is funky and rock solid.

"King Kong Song" and "Dance (While the Music is On)" are both really good energetic dance songs, and "Watch Out" absolutely rocks. Great track that one is. "What About Livingstone" sounds like a throwback to the late 60's pop movement with bands such as the Zombies, the Bee Gees, Paul Revere & the Raiders, etc.

I don't know guys, this definitely doesn't seem like any kind of significant improvement compared to Ring Ring, so I have to strongly disagree with the majority on this one. Still, Waterloo is a pretty decent collection of pop songs.

I do have to wonder though, if future Abba albums contain the same kind of inconsistency that the first two albums do. Either way, Abba is a very talented pop band as far as memorable vocal melodies is concerned.

My continued fascination with ABBA, fuelled primarily by my interest in hearing those ABBA songs that are NOT on their greatest hits albums, saw me pick up their second release, "Waterloo." I should have have bought this 20 years ago, considering the fact that I went to the University of Waterloo, but better late than never.

Of course, the album begins with Waterloo, which we've all heard a million times, but then goes into a weird reggae song sung by Benny and Bjorn that sounds very... Dan Fogelberg. Or maybe how a song would sound if there were two Dan Fogelbergs singing at the same time. The third sond is the decidedly weird hard rock/doo-wop "King Kong Song" that hears the guys really screaming their lungs out in parts (is this the same ABBA we all know, or were they highjacked by Deep Purple?) But it was only their second album and the band was still experimenting with their sound to an extent, as is evidenced by the wild stylistic shifts from song to song - which kind of makes me wonder how things would have turned out if the heavy metal ABBA turned out to be the best-seller. Familiar-to-everyone songs on the album include "Hasta Manana," and "Honey Honey", while the superb "Dance (While the Music is still on)" is at once familiar and also intoxicatingly fresh.

"My Mama Said" is a sort of strange, spooky Blondie-like song that's somehow quite intriguing. "What About Livingstone" sounds like an old-time bubblegum song that is quite good fun. "Watch Out" is sort of about heavy guitar riffs and rock `n' roll drumming... and then in come in the cheezy lyrics and one of the guys singing. Oddly enough, a few songs like this prove that ABBA was the rock `n' roll band where the backup girls were better than the main vocalists... so the main vocalists gave the girls the band. "Gonna Sing You My Lovesong" sounds like that famous Wilson Phillips song, decades before it was recorded. Very grandiose and catchy. `Suzy Hang Around" has a catchy Byrds-like guitar riff. Sung by Bjorn, or Benny, but quite nice.