But what can I say? Rules must be obeyed

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

6/1/23 : Gold - ABBA

I have to admit I wasn't expecting to start 2023 listening to an album that's 30 years old.  What is going on?  More on that later...

Because firstly we have to celebrate this behemoth of a best of - yes, I normally reject best ofs, but I've actually already rejected one ABBA best of and I've not come across any other of their albums (and their studio albums are considerably better than they're given credit for).  But, whatever else they've done, this is the album they're best known for - and a particularly fine collection of songs it is too.  There aren't many best ofs that I know all the songs on (even Queen's Greatest Hits has a couple of "huh?"s on it).  And they're all pretty fine tracks as well - if I had to pick some faves, I'd go for "Take A Chance On Me", "The Winner Takes It All", "One Of Us" and "Lay All Your Love On Me" but it all depends on what kind of mood I'm in (my favourite ABBA song is "The Day Before You Came" which is a very peculiar song indeed).  And, for the first time in years, it's one we actually own!

We're at #10 in the charts this week on its 1079th week (20.75 YEARS!) on the charts, having first charted in October '92.  It's spent eight weeks at #1 in '92, '99 and '08 and it's currently on a 288 week run.  It either is or isn't the album with the most time on the charts, depending upon whether you let the time spent on the charts by Queen's Platinum Collection (which contained their three Greatest Hits albums) count towards their Greatest Hits - either way it's a pretty impressive effort.  But how are we listening to it this week?  The top five this week are Taylor, SZA, (she's hanging in there well), The Weeknd's best of, Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles - heavy hitters, but we've seen most of them.  The rest of the top ten are split equally between previously seens and previously rejected best ofs, bringing us to here.  If I'd chosen to reject this (which wasn't going to happen) I'd have ended up at a quite incredible #33 with The Weeknd's 2015 album, Starboy (one of four he has on the charts this week) - and it would have been a 50/50 split between previously seen and previously rejected.  Have I listened to all the music I need to from modern times?

Wikipedia has a pretty sizeable entry (264 milliPeppers) but there is absolutely no content other than sales and chart figures.  It's allegedly sold 30 million copies globally, including 5.5 million over here - which is quite a few really, isn't it?  It's the second best selling album in this country, behind Queen (over 7 million copies sold) and it's been in the year end charts every year since its release except for 2002 and it's definitely a fixture now, being #10 last year.

"Customers also listened to" Gloria Gaynor and Blondie - OK, that's a slightly curious combination and that's it.  I won't be checking either of them out, but I'll continue revisiting ABBA Gold on a regular basis - you can't go wrong with it.  And all I guess that's left for me to say is - thank you for the music!

2022 - Another one bites the dust
13/01/23 - A perfectly lovely album, but...