The Abba album is better than Arrival

Ooh, that’s controversial! I admit I view things from a UK perspective, but Arrival is probably my favourite pop album of all time, closely followed by The Album. For me, Arrival is consistently excellent the whole way through. ABBA, on the other hand, has some sublime songs but also quite a few weaker songs. IMHO, the great songs are SOS, Mamma Mia, Bang-A-Boomerang and I’ve Been Waiting For You. They’re the start of the quintessential ABBA sound. Tracks such as Rock Me, Intermezzo, Tropical Loveland, So Long and Man In The Middle aren’t great favourites of mine. But it was my first ABBA album, so I still have a soft spot for it.

I’ve never been able to distinguish between ‘best’ and ‘favourite’. Aren’t they both subjective?

But I must admit that my ‘favourite’ albums aren’t always my currently most-played. I’m not sure I can discover anything new from Arrival, whereas I might from Waterloo!

I couldn't say one was better then the other as the "ABBA" album was at the start of their career with all the songs that made us love ABBA so much.
ARRIVAL was at the peak of their career, both hold good memories for me.
Sadly my turntable on my stereo isn't working anymore so I have to see if I can get a new one with a Radio and CD player.

As much as I love The Abba album I love Arrival more. Dum dum diddle is s good tune , it’s just those lyrics. Love title track. It’s just so haunting. It kind of magics me away to the Scottish Highlands, castles and mist. Far from the bustle of city life. One of the most unlikeliest tracks to hear on holiday. But for 2 weeks in Ibiza in 1988 my hotel played it along with other instrumentals in the morning....probably to soothe soreheads from night before. Not so keen on Abba’s other instrumental track on Abba, Intermezzo No1. We never did get a No.2. Think Benny likes this one. His Emerson Lake and Palmer moment. Also not keen on Man in the Middle. But love the rest of the album. I feel as though they were still experimenting with the Abba album but with Arrival they had arrived. Struggle to pick my favourite Abba album though. Split between Super Trouper and Arrival.

I'd agree with the OP that the ABBA album is a bit overlooked. It showcases ABBA's versatility (you could say it's a more varied album than Arrival, in terms of genre flavours) - sassy glam (Hey, Hey, Helen), sleaze funk (Man In The Middle), folk-calypso (Tropical Loveland), and a good dollop of prime power 'bubblegum' (Mamma-Mia, SOS, Bang-A-Boomerang) form the heart. It's a decent album for sure, certainly their best up to that point, a where-we-are-now consolidation and and indication of things to come. However, it's also top-loaded, and runs out of steam quite quickly on Side 2: schlager rears its head in the witless sing-along I Do..., Rock Me is a laboured rocker, I've Been Waiting For You cloyingly obsequious and Intermezzo a cold, abrasive exercise in chopsmanship from Benny and the backing band. So Long (which rocks a darned sight more than Rock Me) does pick things up at the end.

With Arrival, ABBA realise their full potential as consummate pop creators from start to finish for the first time (there's a clue in its title). It's a much more cohesive album; its brilliant sequencing accommodates and absorbs what lulls there are, Bjorn's lyrics have, by and large, a new lucidity and weight, and the performances of both the core band and the backing musicians are shot through with an energy and belief they'd never quite been able to summon and sustain over the full course of an album before. You can sense how thrilled and enlivened they are by the quality of the material they're working with. For every strong track on the ABBA album, there's a stronger equivalent on Arrival: the dream-dance pop of Dancing Queen and the mature, bittersweet AOR of Knowing Me, Knowing You go higher and further than Mamma-Mia and S.O.S. My Love, My Life is a better take on the yearning chamber ballad than I've Been Waiting, because both the words and Agnetha's performance have been dialled down; there's less emoting, and the fantastic arrangement gives it a delicate, ethereal quality that the earlier track lacks. The title track, meanwhile, is a more integrated, more purposeful instrumental than Intermezzo, and scores extra points for functioning as a novel album closer. Even Arrival's minor tracks offer a fair amount: off-hand lyrics aside, Dum Dum Diddle is a catchy, affecting little track featuring a lovely Benny keybs riff, and That's Me has a quirky, sardonic vibe, Agnetha and Freda showing that they can voice emotionally confident, self-contained characters as well as they can wounded ones in turmoil. The only true throwaway on it is Why Did It Have To Be Me, another ponderous rocker in the Rock Me mould; that aside though, everything else plays a part and earns its place. I think Arrival remains their best album, although The Album runs it very close.

Good point! I know it's a good one, because I've been making it myself for many years! The very cheekiness of that title indicates an act with enough well-deserved confidence to show the world that they're about to make a quantum leap in their creative career. Another example that comes to mind is young Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home"...

To adress the thread-starter, you can't really compare them, they're both hugely enjoyable in their own ways, 'ABBA' was conclusive proof that they were going places...and 'Arrival' is where they went.

(And I must confess that I too, have a soft spot for Rock Me, possibly because of childhood memories...but Björn really got to prove he could sing!)

What do people have against schlager? I've loved I Do x5 from the first time I heard it. It's catchy and pleasant to to listen to. But I don't agree that the ABBA album is better than the Arrival album. I agree with most ABBA fans that Arrival and ABBA-The Album are their two best albums.