More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits

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ABBA

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I loved this follow up to "ABBA Gold," yet this album delivers a very different set of ABBA hits. If you are a casual ABBA fan and want to listen to the songs that were most prominent on the radio like "SOS" and "Dancing Queen," you may want to opt for the original ABBA Gold.

What makes "More Gold" stand apart from the original is revealed best in the lyrics. The first "Gold" has songs of love, sensual desire, and inspiration, all that express the core passions in a nutshell. The songs in "More Gold" tend to tell more detailed stories behind these emotions, be it a slice-of-life narrative like "The Day Before You Came" (a woman recounting the last time her weekday routine felt comfortable but mundane, which was the day before she meets her lover for the first time)or a classic myth in "Cassandra."

The story telling nature of the tunes on "More Gold" sound more like something we would hear in a stage musical rather than on the radio or a rock concert. Perhaps Benny & Bjorn were getting the "theater bug" while penning these songs, as both went on to collaberate on musicals like "Chess" and "Kristina Fran Duvemala."

The most recognizable hit on this CD is "I Do, I Do, I do," but virtually every song is a pleasure. The only tracks that left me flat were "I Wonder" (I love whimsical songs, but this was a little too over-the-top melodramatic for me) and "When I Kissed the Teacher." Neither of these tunes take anything away from "More Gold" being a great buy.