[NEW RELEASES]ABBA

When this box set landed on my desk, I groaned. Sure, I like ABBA, but between the film and the musical, isn’t anyone else out there totally ABBA-ed out?

The release of this collection is cunningly timed to coincide with the holiday season. With its nine CDs - the group’s eight albums plus a disc of bonus tracks - it’s the perfect Christmas gift for diehard fans.

It’s immaculately packaged, with each CD printed retro-style to look like an LP. There’s even a chunky booklet of all the song lyrics and their Korean translations.

It was fun to listen to the band’s lesser-known tracks, like “People Need Love” and “Merry-go-round,” the first singles the group ever recorded, but frankly there’s a reason these songs never made it big. Still, their music is irresistible. Although I’m closer to 34 than 17, when “Dancing Queen” came on, I just couldn’t help jumping to my feet and throwing some shapes. By Jill Thomas

ABBA

“The Albums”

Label: Polar Music

Genre: Pop