Eamon Blog
Today's Shelf Pull: ABBA, The Album
The Big Green Pop Machine
ABBA's The Album arrives as a Limited picture disc LP, with theatre, polish, hooks and a green sleeve built to catch the eye.
Some records arrive quietly, asking only for a clean inner sleeve and a bit of respect. ABBA's The Album does not quite do that. This limited edition picture disc version comes forward in green, opens a circular window on the artwork, and makes the shelf look as if somebody has switched the lights to Saturday.
The catalogue gives the bones clearly: ABBA, The Album, LP, Pop, 2022, issued on Polar as a limited edition picture disc. The product notes also anchor it to the original 1977 album, which matters because this is ABBA thinking in a larger frame than the usual singles conversation allows.
There is a tendency to talk about ABBA as if the songs simply fell out of the ceiling fully polished. The Album is a useful correction. It is not only a hit delivery system, although it certainly knows where the hooks live. It is the group stretching into a wider, more theatrical shape while still keeping the chorus machinery beautifully maintained.
Eagle opens the thing with wingspan. The catalogue notes call out its wide-screen lift, and that is exactly the job it does. It sets a bigger room around the band, one with more distance in it, more horizon, and less of the neat pop postcard feeling people sometimes expect.
