CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
(This month Robert Christgau rates rock best-of compilations. — Ed.) ABBA: “Greatest Hits” (Atlantic ’76):: Although four of these songs have gone Top 20 here, the title commemorates the band’s conquest of such places as West Germany and Costa Rica, where Abba’s Europop is the biggest thing since the Beazosmonds.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
(This month Robert Christgau rates rock best-of compilations. — Ed.)
ABBA: “Greatest Hits” (Atlantic ’76):: Although four of these songs have gone Top 20 here, the title commemorates the band’s conquest of such places as West Germany and Costa Rica, where Abba’s Europop is the biggest thing since the Beazosmonds. Americans with an attraction to vacuums, late capitalism, and satellite TV adduce Phil Spector and the Brill Building Book of Hooks in their defense, but Abba’s real tradition is the advertising jingle, and I’m sure their disinclination to sing like Negroes assures the Europopuli. Pervasive airplay might transform what-is now a nagging annoyance into an aural totem. It might also transform it into an ashtray. God bless America, we’re not likely'to find out which. * C +