Abba-The Magic of Abba

Abba-The Magic of Abba

Cover has normal wear and tear for the age. Cover is graded VG. Record is graded VG.

The Magic of ABBA remains the definitive retrospective of the Swedish juggernaut. Its 16 selections are perfectly chosen and sequenced, and although it doesn’t contain late-period hits like “Thank You for the Music,” it’s impossible to quibble with any of the material that did make the cut. Wisely forgoing chronological order, it opens with “Dancing Queen” — were it to come later, you’d just manually drop the stylus there to hear it anyway, so why not let it lead off? From there the collection alternates between early hits (“Waterloo,” “Fernando”) and later favorites (“Take a Chance on Me,” “Voulez-Vous”), expertly juxtaposing upbeat club hits with lush ballads, and why the same sequence wasn’t copied wholesale for subsequent hits collections remains one of the great mysteries of our time.

The Magic of ABBA Review by Jason Ankeny