Arrival

My 13 year old GrandDaughter got a record player for Christmas and loves Abba, this is them at there best.

A loving homage for one of my favourite pop albums and a review of the 40th Anniversary 2LP set...Forty years...Wow, where did that go? I can vividly remember waiting for my local music store to open on release day here in Australia. Mum is with me because I'm being given a (surprise) early birthday present which she has secretly pre-ordered and paid for, we just have to pick it up. Abba's new album "Arrival". We already know four songs very well, "Dancing Queen" and its b-side "That's Me", "Money Money Money" and exclusively for us RCA Australia have added "Fernando" (unbelievably absent from the new vinyl album set) to the second side. After all it was number one here for 14 weeks straight, a stat that has remained unmatched to this day 40 years down the road (there's a couple of tracks that have equaled the weeks at number one but not in an unbroken run). That leaves 7 new Abba gems to blast out of the stereo speakers until Dad gets home from work. I've done my chores for the day and Mum has ironing to do so nothing is going to interrupt our delight until I have to turn the record over at the end of side one.The opening salvo of "When I Kissed The Teacher" and "Dancing Queen" is a powerful intro for what follows. I've just been dazzled by "My Love My Life" and Mum's bounced away behind the ironing board to "Dum Dum Diddle" but we both just listen to "Knowing Me Knowing You" in silence. What a magnificent piece of music that is! A glorious and deceptively simple tune hiding another of Björn's heartbreak lyrics that he is now getting very good at writing. There's plenty more of those to come in the next 8 years.Side two starts with two songs we already know, "Money Money Money" & "That's Me" then comes "Why Did It Have To Be Me". "That one's my favourite so far" Mum says as it fades out and Fernando fades up. Even though we've heard it countless times throughout 1976 we still sing along..."Can You Hear The Drums Fernando?". Next up the strange and eerie rock out of "Tiger" and the stunning instrumental beauty of the title track, still one of my favourite pieces of music written by Benny & Björn. I'm in awe of these four talented Swedes! I get up from studying the cover/reading the lyrics and turn the record over to start again.I must've played the record 10 times on that first day. I distinctly remember waking up to the endless crackle of the run out groove on side two having fallen asleep with the cans on. Over the next eight weeks or so I know every song by heart and Arrival is number one around the country, well on its way to platinum sales figures (18 times at last count, that's 900,000 copies in Australia!) with the fourth single "Knowing Me Knowing You" stalling at number 5 but still managing to stay in the charts for 11 weeks. Probably thanks to the non album b-side "Happy Hawaii", same tune as "Why Did It Have To Be Me" with a completely different arrangement and lyric. Musically and production wise I prefer it to the finished song. The lyrics are so cheesy but, as always pretty impressive for someone not writing in their native tongue....homage se termine .... Now onto the Arrival 40th Anniversary...Universal/Polar Music have decided to only reissue the vinyl pieces associated with Arrival timeline. There's a limited edition box set Arrival: The Singles [7" VINYL] featuring all four singles in reproduced picture sleeves and coloured vinyl. The four singles are also available to purchase separately as picture discs. And there's the album itself. Nicely recut on two 180g 45 rpm platters and 1/2 speed mastered by Miles @ Abbey Road Studios. Once you read that info on the audio reissue side of things you're in good hands. Those of you looking for a digital celebration Polar/Universal have reissued a cheaper edition of the Arrival 30th Anniversary deluxe cd/DVD set from 2006. Worth it for the DVD by itself.Onto the new plastic wax. The records are the best I've ever heard the album sound on vinyl and thank goodness, my birthday present from 40 years ago can now be sent to the permanent collection vault. The cover package itself is a reproduction of the fabulous gatefold Arrival was originally issued in for the Australian and New Zealand markets only. On the inside you'll find a 12" x 12" alternate cover image and the lyrics to all songs. The two newly created inner sleeves have three sides of Abba ephemera (including an image of the album master tapes) and a new brief history. There's also a Sound Of Vinyl voucher to download MP3 files of the new master.This album is a landmark in the history of popular music. There are many luminaries past and present in the music industry that have found inspiration in the glorious sounds, not to mention world wide number ones that were emanating from Sweden. Arrival really should be in any discerning music collection and what better way than the 40th Anniversary double (think two twelve inch singles) vinyl.It's a signposted time stamp of 1976 and besides that...Can you imagine a world without "Dancing Queen"? I can't!"Still My One And Only..."

After they found their way on their first couple of albums, Abba consistently released albums full of classic tracks. For those who haven't bought this album before and only know Abba from their singles, this is the one with Dancing Queen on it, and Knowing Me Knowing You, and Money Money Money. It also has the slightly less well known but equally excellent That's Me, and Tiger - and so on. Every track is a gem. Even the lyrically weak Dum Dum Diddle is musically stronger than initial impressions might suggest. It also contains one of Abba's very few instrumental tracks, Arrival itself (non-lyric track, anyway - the voices are still in there). I love this track.But many people will already have this album and will be wondering whether it's worth buying it again for the extras with this version. The other reviews have already suggested you should, and I'd definitely agree. The TV documentary is excellent. It's in-depth enough to be insightful without being too personal to be comfortable. It's full of Swedish humour. It's full of complete performances of songs from the album, excellently filmed. There's also film of Abba in the studio recording Dancing Queen, a superb cartoon accompaniment For Happy Hawaii (if you cringe at cartoon pop videos, don't worry - it's pretty good), a British TV interview or two, and more. The BBC Young Nation interview asks all the right questions, showing the band members as people without being too personal, and giving a valuable insight into Bjorn and Benny's song writing methods. And Richard Skinner is excellent in his interview section.We've known some of this TV material was out there, of course, and in fact I took the opportunity a couple of years ago to ask the appropriate people at Universal to release some of this stuff. But I'm amazed by just how good this stuff is. Thank you, Universal - and please do the same with the rest of Abba's albums.

The tunes on the CD take me back to the 70s when I purchased the album on vinyl. Spent many hours singing along with my girlfriend after school. Abba at their best.