Moopy's Top 50 ABBA Songs - FULL RESULTS ON PAGE 14

And the title of Moopy's ultimate ABBA horror, your least favourite of their entire back catalogue, by some distance, goes to...

112. I Saw It In The Mirror (2.56)
I really don't know what to say about this one - it's very rare to come across an ABBA song with no redeeming features whatsoever, but this must be it. Boring, dirgey, goes nowhere lyrically or melodically, and unusually for an ABBA song, when they try and insert some variation into it, it only serves to make it worse. It's from Ring Ring so they really didn't know what they were doing at this point, and @Iguana and @Sheena clearly don't think it's all bad as they each gave it a 6, but yes I couldn't really imagine any other song taking this spot.

 
I am disturbed that ‘Man In The Middle’ wasn’t in the bottom ten. It was just awful.
 
Pingu said:
2nd from bottom:
111. What About Livingstone (3.13)
Highest score: 6 from @Pingu (oops)
By far the lowest scoring song performed by the girls, the Waterloo track is perhaps an example of them trying to be a bit too smart too soon, still it's reasonably catchy and inoffensive really.

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Why do Abba have a song about a Scottish town with a shit shopping centre please?
 
I'm predicting

03 KMKY
02 TDBYC
01 LAYLOM

but I want

03 TDBYC
02 KMKY
01 LAYLOM

:disco:
 
3. The Day Before You Came
Single from The Singles: The First Ten Years
Released: 1982
Score: 9.59

As a pop fan, you grow up to learn that it's always a risky business wheeling out words like "masterpiece" when referring to a pop song, but of all the ABBA songs that may be deserving of such a term, surely this one is it. The very last track that the group recorded in their first stint, it's one of those songs that leaves you sitting and wondering how on earth they came up with it. It just works on so many levels, and is a fantastic example of music and lyrics working together to become more than the sum of their parts. The lyrics, recounting a monotonous series of events an ordinary woman aimlessly enounters during a day, are made infinitely more unsettling by Benny's sparse, moody backing track and that one ambiguous line, "the day before you came."

Essays could be written about what happened the next day and who or what came along, and that's the absolute genius of this song. The real fascination is with what isn't in the lyrics, rather than what is, which sets it apart from every other ABBA song. It's been said that Benny and Bjorn were sick of writing pop songs by this stage and wanted to explore the wider opportunities of a musical theatre format, but as theatrical as The Day Before You Came is, it could only ever work as a standalone pop song. Give it extra context and you instantly lose its appeal - that unsettling ambiguity that stays with you long after the song finishes beyond anything that was achieved even on The Visitors that came before it. No end of credit has to go to Agnetha and her devastating vocal. Heavily accented, shaky and sometimes off key, she sings this as an ordinary woman, recounting an ordinary day, yet sounding completely and utterly broken by whatever transpired that the listener isn't privy to. This is one of those songs that does not come along very often, and we're so lucky that the group clung on for just long enough to get it out into the world.

Highest scores: @Lockhart (11), @Marilyn (11)
Lowest scores: @dUb (6)

 
You've probably sussed out what the top two is by now... before I reveal the order, here's a ranking of your favourite ABBA albums. Disclaimer: Obviously a lot goes into making an album a good one - the flow of the tracks, overall mood and so on, which can't be taken into account here. But in terms of the best collections of songs, here's what you had to say:

1. Super Trouper (8.13)
2. Voulez-Vous (7.93)
3. The Visitors (7.85)
4. Arrival (7.58)
5. The Album (7.14)
6. Voyage (6.95)
7. ABBA (6.37)
8. Waterloo (5.31)
9. Ring Ring (4.59)

If bonus tracks are taken into account, then it's pretty much level-pegging between Super Trouper and Voulez-Vous on 8.02 each (Voulez-Vous edges just ahead as Summer Night City and Gimme!x3 come into play), but the rest of the order stays the same.
 
Pingu said:
Essays could be written about what happened the next day and who or what came along, and that's the absolute genius of this song. The real fascination is with what isn't in the lyrics, rather than what is, which sets it apart from every other ABBA song.
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That's exactly it. The ambiguity is brilliantly rendered; the song is too detailed to be vague but it leaves a major question hanging, unresolved. Which proved apt.
 
Pingu said:
You've probably sussed out what the top two is by now... before I reveal the order, here's a ranking of your favourite ABBA albums. Disclaimer: Obviously a lot goes into making an album a good one - the flow of the tracks, overall mood and so on, which can't be taken into account here. But in terms of the best collections of songs, here's what you had to say:

1. Super Trouper (8.13)
2. Voulez-Vous (7.93)
3. The Visitors (7.85)
4. Arrival (7.58)
5. The Album (7.14)
6. Voyage (6.95)
7. ABBA (6.37)
8. Waterloo (5.31)
9. Ring Ring (4.59)

If bonus tracks are taken into account, then it's pretty much level-pegging between Super Trouper and Voulez-Vous on 8.02 each (Voulez-Vous edges just ahead as Summer Night City and Gimme!x3 come into play), but the rest of the order stays the same.
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I could swap the top three according to my mood, and I'd POSSIBLY swap The Album and Voyage, but otherwise that's my call as well.
 
The Day Before You Came rabbit hole is endless and thrilling. In my ABBA fantasies there's a film with an ensemble cast acting out the possibilities.

But why should we care? Because lyrically, musically and most importantly emotionally we are obliged to care about the ultimate ABBA underdog.
 
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You
Single from Arrival
Released: 1976
Score: 9.64

It's often worth a reminder just how early this song came in ABBA's career. Arrival was the group in their most joyous bubblegum pop era, where they were at the peak of their success, travelling the world upholding their image of wedded bliss. Then out of nowhere comes this. The song that is so often used as the soundbed for documentaries talking about the couples' divorces was written while they were still (to the outside world at least) happily together. The fact that Bjorn, who grew up in an unbroken home and was married with a young daughter at this point, could conjure up such vivid images telling such a direct story of divorce that resonates so clearly with so many people just shows what talent there was and what great things were still to come.

Of course, being part of the Arrival album, these heartbreaking lyrics were sent to incredibly catchy music and resulted in worldwide hit for the group including a fifth UK number one. It is played at godawful ABBA disco nights with revellers cheerfully singing along to lyrics about empty rooms with memories of domestic bliss long since dead - yet another lesson in how to construct the perfect happy-sad pop song. I have to be totally honest, I'm surprised that it's this high up as you can see from my score, as it's always been the one that has captured me the least out of their mammoth hits, but as surprised as I was to see the tens rolling in for this, it was a very pleasant surprise to see just how beloved this is, and if I'm lukewarm towards the song itself, I absolutely love what it represents, which is the group's effortless ability to tell real, domestic stories about life and love that everyone experiences in such a direct, yet poetic way.

Of course, mention has to go to Frida's excellent lead vocal here, particularly as it is officially Moopy's favourite from the Frida canon!

Highest scores: This got 10s from literally everybody except the posters listed below
Lowest scores: @Pingu (7), @ZenGiraffe (8), @dUb (8), @Suomi (9)

 
Not an incorrect winner by any standards. In fact it's magnificent.

I'll save further enthusiasm until after it's officially announced.
 
It's the boys' backing vocals that tips KMKY over the edge for me.

And Frida in the video, naturally

2F1cD7A.gif
 
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Pingu said:
You've probably sussed out what the top two is by now... before I reveal the order, here's a ranking of your favourite ABBA albums. Disclaimer: Obviously a lot goes into making an album a good one - the flow of the tracks, overall mood and so on, which can't be taken into account here. But in terms of the best collections of songs, here's what you had to say:

1. Super Trouper (8.13)
2. Voulez-Vous (7.93)
3. The Visitors (7.85)
4. Arrival (7.58)
5. The Album (7.14)
6. Voyage (6.95)
7. ABBA (6.37)
8. Waterloo (5.31)
9. Ring Ring (4.59)

If bonus tracks are taken into account, then it's pretty much level-pegging between Super Trouper and Voulez-Vous on 8.02 each (Voulez-Vous edges just ahead as Summer Night City and Gimme!x3 come into play), but the rest of the order stays the same.
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This rate confirmed me as a Super Trouper, Visitors (deluxe) and Arrival queen, so delighted with these results
 
Ag said:
I discovered KMKY around the time my grandad died and the 'empty rooms' lyric was cruelly specific and apt.
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To add, ABBA got me through that early trauma. Possibly part of the reason they resonate with me SO MUCH.
 
Knowing Me Knowing You is.....words can't cover how good it is. Every section just brings in a new killer element! The guitar line! Agnetha's sexy whispers! The backing vocals on the chorus! One of the greatest second chorus elements ever written! One of the greatest instrumental postchoruses ever! One of the all-time great fadeouts! AHAAAA!! :disco: :disco: :disco: :disco: :disco:!
 
1. Lay All Your Love On Me
Single from Super Trouper
Released: 1980
Score: 9.95

It wasn't even particularly close in the end, and I had a sneaking suspicion it might go this way from the start, but it's official - Lay All Your Love On Me is Moopy's favourite ABBA song! :disco:

And it feels so incredibly appropriate that the internet's premiere gay chat lounge voted this as its fave, because despite Lay All Your Love On Me being generally very well loved by the public at large, it really does feel a bit like it's "ours" as an LGBTQ+ community (but of course thank you to any straights who helped it reach the top of the chart as well). While the hen parties are belting out Dancing Queen and the musical theatre audiences are shedding a tear to The Winner Takes It All and the ABBA tribute bands are bringing Waterloo out as their encore, Lay All Your Love On Me is still filling dancefloors in gay clubs 40 years after its release, effortlessly fitting in amongst more modern floorfillers.

It's obviously an utterly euphoric track, but in a much less obvious minor key way. Once again, Agnetha plays her role incredibly well, playing the insecure, paranoid woman across three stream of consciousness verses with lyrics that most of us are lying if we claim we haven't at the very least thought in our own relationships, if not outwardly said. It's such an incredibly desperate, borderline unhinged song, over a relentless dance beat, because as Agnetha herself articulated decades later, when there's nothing else left then you've got to dance the pain away. It's aged remarkably well as a recording, and like many of the group's best songs, there's so much there to lose yourself in, particularly the dark choral chorus, a triumph for Michael Tretow their studio engineer (who was by this point an unofficial 5th member, getting a share of the group's royalties, unprecedented for a studio engineer).

ABBA were winding down by this point and so this only got a limited single release with no music video - and let's face it, if it had one, it probably would have been disappointing by this stage anyway. In a way, Lay All Your Love On Me is a real bonus from the group. Their disco era was long over, but there just was no better medium to tell the story that they're telling in this lyric than on the dancefloor, and let's hope it continues to be passed down through generations of more discerning pop music fans like us!

Highest scores: @Ag (11), @Sheena (11), @ZenGiraffe (11), @Jark (11)
Lowest scores: @dUb (7), @Devil (9), @Hak (9)

 
Agnetha standing behind Frida during the whispering part gets me EVERY TIME.
 
I love these write-ups so much ! .. and am quite emotional how important these songs have been for me all my life ..I really couldn’t imagine my life without ABBA
 
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