ABBA: Albums Ranked from Worst to Best

In November 2021, ABBA released their ninth studio album Voyage. It was the Swedish quartet’s first studio album in almost 40 years – an unprecedented gap in output for a superstar group. It’s not the longest gap between releases – niche groups like The Sonics, Fanny, Strawberry Alarm Clock, and The Standells have all taken longer between albums, but to less fanfare. On this list, Voyage is weighed up against the albums that ABBA released between 1973 and 1981.

ABBA is a quartet of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Ulvaeus and Andersson both enjoyed success in folk bands in the 1960s and formed ABBA’s songwriting team. Fältskog was already a solo star in Sweden, while Lyngstad had enjoyed smaller-scale success as a jazz singer. Pooling their talents the four became phenomenally popular in the 1970s, scoring worldwide hits like ‘SOS’, ‘Dancing Queen’, and ‘Take A Chance On Me’.

ABBA have a reputation as a singles band rather than an albums band. This is justified with regards to their early work – they were creating worldwide hits like ‘Waterloo’ before they started making solid albums. But looking back at their career in retrospect, they have albums that are enjoyable the whole way through. Here are ABBA’s nine studio albums, ranked from worst to best.

#9 Ring Ring

1973
ABBA didn’t yet have a name when they released their debut album – it was credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida. Despite the group’s collective talents, they hadn’t figured out their act – the men sing more often than on subsequent releases, and they try everything from country on ‘He Is Your Brother’ to a show tune on ‘I Am Just A Girl’. The single ‘Ring Ring’ was a minor hit, but it’s primitive compared to later triumphs.


#8 Waterloo

1974
The title track of Waterloo famously won ABBA the Eurovision Song Contest, and it’s their first classic song. But like Ring Ring, Waterloo is the inconsistent output of a group searching for its identity. There’s oddball material like the reggae of ‘Sitting In A Palm Tree’ and the glam rock of ‘King Kong Song’. The minor hit ‘Honey Honey’ is pretty, but ABBA would release much stronger albums as they grew artistically.


#7 Voyage

2021
It’s unprecedented for a major group to release a new album after more than half a lifetime away. To ABBA’s credit, Voyage is a dignified return; it follows the ABBA formula of catchy songs with dark undercurrents and it doesn’t chase trendy sounds. It’s often more kitsch than their 1970s heyday; ‘Ode to Freedom’, ‘Bumblebee’ and the children’s choir of ‘Little Things’ all could have come from stage musicals. But there’s some genuinely strong material – ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ is propulsive, the 1970s leftover ‘Just A Notion’ is a worthy addition to their stellar catalogue, and ‘Keep An Eye On Dan’ is fascinating. Despite the impressive achievement of creating a worthy comeback after so long away, Voyage still ranks in the lower half of ABBA’s discography.


#6 ABBA

1975
ABBA started to hit their stride with their third album. Ulvaeus later stated that “ABBA found its identity as a pop group with the release of “SOS””. ‘SOS’ wasn’t the only hit from ABBA – there’s also ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’, while the forgotten glam of ‘So Long’ was actually the first single released from the record. There are still some awkward moments, like another venture into reggae on ‘Tropical Loveland’, but ABBA just about sustains momentum for a full album.


#5 Voulez-Vous

1979
ABBA embraced disco on their sixth album – the title track and ‘Angeleyes’ followed The Bee Gees onto the dance floor. Voulez Vous isn’t all disco – there’s the torch song ‘I Have A Dream’, while ‘Does Your Mother Know’ is the only ABBA hit to feature the vocals of Ulvaeus. Best of all is ‘Chiquitita’, a ballad with an arrangement inspired by Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘El Condor Pasa’ that showcases the gorgeous vocals of Fältskog and Lyngstad.


#4 Arrival

1976
ABBA’s fourth album is their most hit-laden – ‘Dancing Queen’ is their signature song, while ‘Money Money Money’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, and on some editions ‘Fernando’, are also present. The cover, with the group in a helicopter, is their most iconic. Arrival is notable for songs that are much stronger than their banal titles suggest, like ‘Dum Dum Diddle’ and the excellent opener ‘When I Kissed the Teacher’. ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ is the first emotionally wrenching ABBA song – there’d be more to follow on their more mature later albums.


#3 Super Trouper

1980
The cheeriness of Voulez-Vous largely concealed the issues within the ABBA camp. On Super Trouper, however, the sadness of Agnetha and Ulvaeus’ divorce is reflected in ‘The Winner Takes It All’. Super Trouper is like a refined version of Voulez-Vous – ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ is a great dance floor filler, and ‘Our Last Summer’ is a stronger ballad than anything on the previous record. The synth-pop of ‘Me And I’ is one of ABBA’s best deep cuts – it should have been a hit single.


#2 ABBA: The Album

1977
ABBA: The Album accompanied ABBA: The Movie, a documentary about the group’s tour of Australia. It marked the peak of the group’s success – in communist Poland, sales of the album exhausted the country’s supply of foreign currency. The first side is magnificent – the opener ‘Eagle’ soars close to progressive rock, while ‘Take a Chance on Me’ and ‘The Name of the Game’ are brilliant and sophisticated pop. The suite that closes the second side – The Girl with the Golden Hair: Three Scenes From a Mini-Musical – is a slight letdown compared to the rest of the record.


#1 The Visitors

1981
ABBA’s final album from their initial tenure is their weirdest, but also their most consistent. Seemingly, Ulvaeus and Andersson stopped chasing hits and instead wrote music they wanted to hear. The single ‘One of Us’ is well crafted but less buoyant than ABBA’s best work. The Visitors, as a whole, is laden with enjoyable album cuts like the gorgeous ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’. Synth-laden tracks like the title track and ‘I Let The Music Speak’ show the group adapting successfully to 1980s music trends. Later editions add ABBA’s final singles as bonus tracks – ‘Under Attack’, ‘The Day Before You Came’, and ‘Should I Laugh Or Cry?’ are all first-rate ABBA songs.

What’s your favourite ABBA album?

What Is Your Favourite ABBA Album?
×

Read More

Aphoristical
Aphoristical

Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

25 Comments

  1. I must admit I always think of them more as a singles band. I would give an album a chance though. They did have some of the best pop songs of the 70s.

  2. I’m with Max. They were a singles band for me and never ventured in to the albums. Glad to see you say the new one isn’t half bad. And crazy that 40 years later they do one final swan song.

    • Yup, other bands have come back for an album after a long time off, but no household name band after such a long period.

      • I think the list tends to reward bands that have before/after records – like Nirvana’s Nevermind followed by In Utero or Pulp’s Different Class followed by This is Hardcore.
        So having the different tone of Arrival and Visitors fits with that sort of bias.
        But when it means including all of the above albums, I’m ok with such biases!

  3. They weren’t as consistent hitmakers as ABBA but Strawberry Alarm Clock, which had a roughly 43-year gap between their studio albums Good Morning Starshine from 1969 and Wake Up Where You Are from 2012, is a band I at least have heard of long before I checked to see whether there were any major bands that had a longer gap between studio albums than ABBA.

  4. The new album is interesting, and it’s great to see a legendary band make a comeback. It really made me think, too. About how ready people are right now for something big and epic and the soon to come Music Revolution. Overall, you always worry about whether people could handle such things, but it’s looking like now is the perfect time and people will hopefully embrace it! 😃

    • I know. It sounded like they went from their kiddie 70s music to ’80s Adult Contemporary. I like the older stuff better.

  5. So glad to see “The Visitors”, my favourite ABBA album ranking at number 1, on the other side I’m sad to see “Voyage” ranking so low : all their albums from “The Album” to “Voyage” are their best to me.

    • Sorry – for me The Visitors was a valiant effort, but the old magic was only there sometimes. Just a Notion and Don’t Shut Me Down are great efforts though.

      • Thanks for writing in! I think it’s their clearcut best – the more adventurous and the most consistent.

Leave a Reply

More from Aphoristic Album Reviews

Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.

Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

Review Pages

Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:

Stevie Wonder Fulfillingness First Finale
1970s Album Reviews

The 1970s are beloved by music nerds; artists in a variety of genres cranked out a 40-minute album every year. The late 1960s staked out the territory for many genres; the 1970s was when they were explored fully. Artists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder broke free from the Motown […]
Manic Street Preachers

This page was largely written by a guest reviewer – I wrote the introduction and the review of The Holy Bible. Manic Street Preachers formed as a high school band in Blackwood, a town in South Wales. Singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore are cousins, and shared bunks […]
Ray LaMontagne Album Reviews

Ray LaMontagne worked in a shoe factory in Maine. One morning he was woken by his alarm at 4am for work. The alarm clock’s radio served up Stephen Stills’ ‘Treetop Flyer’. At that instant, LaMontagne decided to become a musician. It took him more than a decade from this epiphany […]
Real Lies Album Reviews

The sophisticated monologues of the London electronic duo Real Lies have an obvious precedent. It’s hard not to compare them with 1980s synth pop-duo The Pet Shop Boys – among other similarities, including Real Lies remixing a Pet Shop Boys track, both bands feature former music journalists as lead singers. […]
About Aphoristic Album Reviews

I was born in 1979, in Lower Hutt New Zealand. I grew up in a household where the main music was bagpipes and Christian radio. When I discovered pop music at the age of 12 it was new and exciting, and vintage acts like Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles […]
Mitski Album Reviews

Mitski Miyawaki was born in Japan to an American father and Japanese mother. She studied at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music, during which she self-released her first two albums, 2012’s Lush and 2013’s Retired From Sad, New Career in Business. Both albums are centered around Mitski’s piano and are formative […]

Blog Posts

I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:

Radiohead Kid A
Radiohead Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

The members of Radiohead formed the band at high school – they were originally named On A Friday, reflecting their practice regime at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. It took them an album to find their feet – debut Pablo Honey contained the hit ‘Creep’, but was lacking in personality compared to […]
Tom Waits Heart of Saturday Night
10 Best Tom Waits Songs

California’s Tom Waits is effectively the patron saint of this website. My Waits album ranking was the first post from this site to become popular, and it’s still one of its most-visited posts. With recently accounted reissues of Waits’ peak albums, it feels like a good time to make a […]
10 Worst New Order Lyrics

Great music isn’t always synonymous with great lyrics – early Beach Boys records dressed up Mike Love’s mundane teen dramas with genius harmonies and sophisticated chord changes. Yes adorned Jon Anderson’s cosmic nonsense with their amazing instrumental chops. Perhaps the most extreme example is New Order. Due to the untimely […]
Simon & Garfunkel Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel started their recording career as Tom & Jerry in 1957, making teen-oriented Everly Brothers style pop. After a temporary split, they re-branded as Simon & Garfunkel, an earnest folk duo. Their debut album, 1964’s Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was unsuccessful, and a frustrated Simon relocated to […]
Sault Albums Ranked from Worst to Best

British soul collective Sault have broken almost every rule of album-making during their brief career. Debuting in 2019, they’ve already released 11 studio albums; yet they’ve never played live or given an interview. Their already sizeable catalogue has taken in everything from smooth R&B to raw post-punk, gospel-tinged soul to […]
Asterix Books: Ranked from Worst to Best

The Gaulish warrior Asterix has been a French institution since he first appeared in 1961’s Asterix the Gaul. He’s accompanied by his inseparable friend Obelix and aided by the druid Getafix’s magic potion that gives superhuman strength. His cunning defends his Gaulish village from Romans, Vikings, and even aliens. Three […]
%d bloggers like this: