Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

ABBA
ABBA tabs ABBA discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

ABBA guitar tabs

CD reviews

Waterloo

ABBA - Waterloo Audio CD

A fair review of the ABBA "Waterloo" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all ABBA reviews here, or go back to the ABBA tabs.

Band: ABBA
Title: Waterloo
Rating:

Release Date: 1999-03-16
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Waterloo 2: Sitting in the Palmtree 3: King Kong Song 4: Hasta Ma�ana 5: My Mama Said 6: Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) 7: Honey, Honey 8: What About Livingstone 9: Watch Out 10: Gonna Sing You My Love Song 11: Suzy-Hang-Around

Longtime ABBA fan's review
My excitement turned to disappointment as I listened to it for the first time. Having been a longtime ABBA fan since back in my highschool days (I'm now 42), I was delighted to receive the Waterloo CD from my husband for Christmas, one of the only albums I did not own. I've never heard an ABBA song I have not liked until this album. "Sitting in the Palmtree," "King Kong Song," "My Mama Said," and "Watch Out" are nothing like any other ABBA song I've heard. The musical styles are inconsistent and the lyrics don't make any sense. Too much of the guys singing and not enough of the girls' leads make them sound like a different group altogether.
Not to be totally negative, however, I would recommend this CD just for the good songs. Of course, Waterloo came from this album and Ring Ring is included, as well as Honey, Honey(not as well known but as good of a song too). Also loved Hasta Manana, Dance(While the Music Still Goes On), and What About Livingstone.
Overall, a must for any ABBA fan collections, but don't expect the quality of each and every song like their later years.

Water in your loo
" 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. 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.

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.

Second album features some great songs
As with the Ring ring album, the selection of songs to be included on Greatest hits was spot on. I never bought this album in my vinyl days, content with the tracks that were included on their first Greatest hits album, though I did buy it on CD. The four selected (Waterloo, Hasta manana, Honey honey and Dance while the music still goes on) are easily the best tracks on this album. Not that there's anything wrong with the other songs here, just that the other four are exceptional.

The title track is by far the best known - this up-tempo song easily won the Eurovision song contest and quickly topped the British chart. It also topped the charts in many other countries and was also a top ten hit in America.

Hasta manana was considered as an alternative to Waterloo for Eurovision. It might have won, but it is unlikely that it would have been as big a hit as Waterloo turned out to be. Indeed, I'm not even sure if it was ever released as a single - but it is an enjoyable song.

Honey honey was a top thirty hit for Abba in America, but Sweet dreams (a duo featuring ex-Pickettywitch singer Polly Browne) covered the song and had a top ten hit with it in Britain. Apart from Dance while the music still goes on, perhaps the best of the rest are My mama said and Gonna sing you my love song.

As with so many of Abba's albums, this is generally upbeat. Despite several wonderful songs, it is not as strong as several of their later albums. This is one for Abba's committed fans like me - and there are plenty of those around the world to ensure steady sales for years to come.

What About Livingstone
Jan & Dean's music was OK. Compare two album series issued in the Sixties during the surf music craze. The Beach Boys' was exceptional. Brian Wilson was a serious musician. At the time there was very little comment about that. If you asked listeners to the music at the time whether it mattered to them that there was serious creative input going into the Beach Boys' songs -- for example, chord changes seldom found in pop music -- most of them wouldn't consider it an interesting question. But subliminally I think people did appreciate it, and that explains in part why the Beach Boys became icons and Jan & Dean did not.

Compare two album series from the Saturday Night Live years. ABBA was to the BGs what the Beach Boys were to Jan and Dean. Musically, they were a true class act. They had the courage to be funny. For those who like their music, it sounds as good now as it ever did.

Most albums have a few bad songs. My count on this record is 7 good ones and 4 bad ones. If that ratio is unsatisfactory you might prefer a Greatest Hits album. I love this one.

Four and a half stars.

patchy
But 'suzy hang around' has some very off ey singing. It's ok- hasta manana is brilliant. 'Waterloo' was never great in my book and 'the king kong song' is definitely the worst song ever by ABBA.
The gorgeous melodies were yet to arrive.

You can see a complete list of all ABBA discography, or go back to the ABBA tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.