Very poor substitute
Bill L Orfl | Redmond, WA | 02/21/2000
(1 out of 5 stars)
"These songs are about what one would expect for knock-offs of ABBA tunes by no-name bands. The music sounds thin and campy. The bands have for the most part tried to remain true to the original arrangements, but that just adds to the disappointment -- there is little new or exciting here, just (mostly) poorly done remakes.To give some specifics, in "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)", the singer can't even pronounce "midnight" -- it comes out, appropriately enough, as "midnaaaaagh". In "Take A Chance On Me", the background male voices chanting the lead-in can't keep the timing or the words straight; the original sounded brilliant, while the remake sounds like they're tongue-tied.The sole bright spot is Wool's "Summer Night City" (on Vol 2), in which the singer shows at least a bit of real energy despite her overly rigid attention to the beat. It's not worth buying the CDs to hear her, however.People unfamiliar with ABBA will be bored, while ABBAphiles will be either outraged or rolling on the floor laughing their (bleep)es off."