Plenty of joy can be found in the singles ABBA put out. Voulez-vous, the single, that is, showcases just how powerful and intoxicating their thrill-laden Europop sound could be. Like the albums before it, Voulez-vous rests on the comfort of its title track and a selection of other hits that would be ripped into this film or that production. They’re like Queen in that regard, but Voulez-vous has a crucial, extra feature to it. Solid album tracks. A rarity for pop outfits of the time, but ABBA makes a real go of it here and it makes all the difference. Where the preceding albums had been focusing on the standout hits and working from hit to hit with miserable, album dreck which has been forgotten by the passing fan, Voulez-vous is an active attempt from the band to make a wholly fleshed-out album. It works, sure, just not as well as the band had presumably hoped it would. Still, the effort is there, the thrills of As Good As New rival that of the hits, and that’s a strong enough start.
Pair that start with the title track and I Have a Dream, a slowed sentimental track which would come into a life of its own in the years to follow this ABBA album’s release, and the band has a magnificent start on their hands. In fact, the first four songs of Voulez-vous are arguably four of the best tracks the band ever wrote. I Have a Dream and Angeleyes also feature that fundamentally upbeat thrill, but with lyrical work which captures the delights of pop at the time. There isn’t a darker side to ABBA, there’s no space for negativity in the uptempo choices, but the instrumentals are meant to inspire you out of that nastiness, and it works for ABBA in great chunks here. Compare that with the rather stop-start sound of Waterloo or Arrival, and what you have here is a frankly cool Europop hit. Some of the most fun you’ll ever have with ABBA can be found on Voulez-vous.
Those thrills don’t stop either, they’re merely paused until Chiquita appears. Both The King Has Lost His Crown and If It Wasn’t for the Nights are nice enough, just not essentials. Does Your Mother Know has that playful sound, an inevitable development and much improved on the tropical island fodder of their first albums, but still a weightless piece of work. Nice enough as a transition into Chiquita, though, the strong punch of the B-side. It’s a shame the rest of the album after that, albeit just two songs, is nowhere near as strong. A shame both Lovers (Live a Little Longer) and Kisses of Fire are such letdowns, they hold such promise in the early moments but never amount to much in the way of fresh thrills, but they’re decent enough.
ABBA took a long while to score an album worth of material worth listening to, and even then, they drop the ball at the end, but it’s a stark contrast to what precedes it. But Voulez-vous is an album the band could and should be proud of, it’s their first which feels more like a complete project than their hit singles with some filler to coax listeners in. Some all-time great pop work can be found here, and much of it sounds phenomenally fresh. Part of that may be the mass appeal of ABBA through other mediums, but sometimes, there’s no deeper reason than the frank simplicity which makes ABBA such a household name. They’re great fun to listen to, and this is their best album for a complete listening experience. Bar the compilation albums which feature all the hits, Voulez-vous hears the band bring about a complete studio project, their first and only dynamite album.
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Have you actually listened to their other studio albums? How could you say predecessor The Album is dreck? How can you dismiss Super Trouper, which doesn’t put a foot wrong? No darker side to ABBA? You’ve not picked up on the melancholy of many of the songs, or the Cold War masterpiece The Visitors or the single The Day Before You Came.