ABBA - Gold

Gold is a greatest hits compilation album by Swedish pop group ABBA, originally released in September 1992 via Polydor Records and Polar Music.

Gold, released almost a full decade after the band had broken up, stands the test of time as not only a time capsule into an important era in popular music, but also as an outstanding greatest hits collection of a band that often gets the short end of the stick from the music world and the public in general.

From the onset, the talent and chemistry that these four Swedes had becomes undeniable to the listener. With the famous piano slide of “Dancing Queen” opening the album, Gold kicks into full gear, proceeding to string together hit after hit.

All the classics are present on this collection: “Take A Chance On Me” and “Voulez-Vous” bounce along smoothly under weaving and contrasting vocal melodies, and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” and “Money, Money, Money” nicely complement the more upbeat and positive tracks, serving as a telling precursor to the group’s shift in overall tone only a few years later.

Meanwhile, the uplifting tone of “I Have A Dream”, the haunting “One Of Us”, the prevalent, bouncing bass line of “Chiquitita”, and the lighter-than-air “Fernando” all demonstrate the group’s ability to create beautiful ballads, regardless of the message underneath all the glossy production.

What makes Gold truly worth its weight in the realm of pop music is in the songs that utilise a (slightly) harder-hitting pop-rock/glam-rock structure, revealing the great depth of pop-styles that these four continuously churned out. Tracks like “S.O.S.”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Does Your Mother Know” are all still pop tunes at heart, but they’re easily some of the group’s best and catchiest songs because of their great pacing, perfect lyrical phrasing, and outstanding instrumentation, along with their dazzling musical composition and arrangements.

There’s no messing around here; Gold gives the listener exactly what they want: outstanding pop songs, catchy melodies and lyrics, and above all else, the ability to make you dance, even if everyone else tells you that you shouldn’t.

This double album 2LP record set is a 2022 repress on 180 gram black vinyl housed in a single pocket sleeve with printed inner sleeves, pressed in Europe via Polar Music.