ABBA-Esque Music Sampler (NEW LINKS)

UPDATE: Just 1 day after re-uploading disc 2, mediafire has blocked it again, so unfortunately that spells the end of disc 2. Disc 1 remains available and downloadable.
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(Originally posted 2 June 2012)
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As a follow-up to a blog post from two years ago, I have assembled a collection of forty ABBA-esque songs. Almost all of the songs are from my personal CD collection, with a few coming from various internet blogs. I haven't anything else to add about it; the content speaks for itself. See my earlier post for a brief overview of some of the artists presented here.
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So, without further ado, here is the track listing of this two-disc compilation...
Disc 1 can be downloaded here.
DISC 2 BLOCKED PERMANENTLY. :(
The two discs can be downloaded and unpacked independently of each other.
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#	Title	Artist	Album
1.01	Angeleyes	ABBA	Voulez-Vous [1979]
1.02	Angelo	Brotherhood Of Man	Images [1977]
1.03	I’m In Love For The Very First Time	Maywood	Different Worlds [1981]
1.04	Valentino	Champagne	Champagne [1977]
1.05	Telegram	Silver Convention	Summernights [1977]
1.06	Highwayman	Brotherhood Of Man	Images [1977]
1.07	El Lute	Boney M	Oceans Of Fantasy [1979]
1.08	My Man	Luv’	With Luv’ [1978]
1.09	Make Love Whenever You Can	Arabesque	Arabesque IV [1980]
1.10	Writer Please Write Me A Song	Dolly Dots	P.S. We Love You [1981]
1.11	Jimmy	Boney M	Boonoonoonoos [1981]
1.12	Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In)	Brotherhood Of Man	Oh Boy! [1977]
1.13	Cara Mia	Baccara	Baccara [1977]
1.14	Rio	Maywood	Different Worlds [1981]
1.15	Lucifer’s Lover	Arabesque	Arabesque II: City Cats [1979]
1.16	Plantation Boy	Boney M	Love For Sale [1977]
1.17	Figaro	Brotherhood Of Man	B For Brotherhood [1978]
1.18	Viva Torero	À La Carte	Viva À La Carte [1981]
1.19	Ann-Maria	Luv’	True Luv’ [1979]
1.20	Oh Me, Oh My, Goodbye	Champagne	Champagne [1977]
2.01	Cassandra	ABBA	Single B-Side [1982]
2.02	I Know Him So Well	Elaine Paige	Chess [1984 Studio Cast]
2.03	Story Of A Heart	Benny Andersson Band Feat. Helen Sjöholm	Story Of A Heart [2010]
2.04	Since I Met You	Maywood	Different Worlds [1981]
2.05	Slowly	Frida (Of ABBA)	Shine [1984]
2.06	Mother, How Are You Today?	Maywood	Maywood [1980]
2.07	The Winner Takes It All	ABBA	Super Trouper [1980]
2.08	The Queen Of Hearts	Agnetha Fältskog (Of ABBA)	That’s Me: The Greatest Hits [1999]; Recorded 1981
2.09	Hurting Each Other	Carpenters	A Song For You [1972]
2.10	Casanova	Luv’	Lots Of Luv’ [1979]
2.11	Somewhere In Paradise	Baccara	Single B-Side [1978]
2.12	Red Indian Drums	À La Carte	Do Wah Diddy Diddy Round [1980]
2.13	Black Jack	Champagne	Single A-Side [1979]
2.14	Hooray! Hooray! It’s A Holi-Holiday!	Boney M	Oceans Of Fantasy [1979]
2.15	Give Me Back My Love	Maywood	Maywood [1980]
2.16	Lullaby	Brotherhood Of Man	Images [1977]
2.17	Wanted (Jean Le Voleur)	À La Carte	Viva À La Carte [1981]
2.18	To Turn The Stone	Frida (Of ABBA)	Something’s Going On [1982]
2.19	The Sign	Ace Of Base	The Sign [1994]
2.20	Alejandro	Lady GaGa	The Fame Monster [2009]

Happy Birthday Björn & The Most ABBA-esque Artists

Today is ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus' 65th Birthday, so I first wanted to say Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Björn's contributions to ABBA's music is undeniable, as lyricist, guitar player, supporting vocalist, and lead vocalist on many songs.

I would also like to take a little time to write about the groups that are most like ABBA. As a crazily obsessed ABBA fan, I often find myself wishing for more. With only about 100 unique songs (by that I mean excluding the many non-English versions as well as remixes and live performances), ABBA's catalogue is rather small relative to those of other highly successful artists.
One of the side effects of this is that if I am in a particularly ABBA-ey mood, I often must listen to similar artists in addition to their music because 8 studio albums are easy to cycle through and even become tired of. There, I said it in print: Sometimes I get tired of ABBA's music. Not because it is bad, but because one could easily listen through most or all of their 8 albums in a single day, leaving one with the option of listening to the same songs over and over if one wants to relive the ABBA experience.

So, on to the most ABBA-like artists (all are more or less contemporaries of ABBA):
Brotherhood of Man (UK, 1974-1980, Pop) <= Actually 1969-Pres, but these were their years of success in their second, more ABBA-esque, lineup
Boney M. (Germany, 1975-1986, Disco, Pop)
Baccara (Spain, 1977-1981, Disco)
Silver Convention (Germany, 1974-1979, Disco)
Arabesque (Germany, 1977-1984, Disco)
Carpenters (America, 1969-1983, Pop)
Champagne (Holland, 1977, Pop)

All of the artists above attained some measure of success, although none (with the possible exception of Boney M.) even approached the level of popularity internationally as ABBA. Of course, the Carpenters were far more successful stateside than ABBA, but ABBA's sheer chart dominance throughout Europe, Africa, Australia, and Japan was unrivaled.

Boney M., my second favourite group (only behind ABBA), were a German disco group produced by Frank Farian. Their music, most of which featured lead vocals by Liz Mitchell, often had a Jamaican sound blended with the disco style common in Germany at the time. Many of their songs, especially El Lute, have been likened to ABBA. Boney M.'s years of greatest success were 1975-1979, which means their success was eclipsed by ABBA's in terms of the number of years, with ABBA's main success spanning from 1974-1981.

Brotherhood of Man was in many ways the British answer to ABBA. They won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 (as ABBA had done in 1974), and one of their hit songs, "Angelo," is essentially a knock-off of ABBA's Fernando. I should admit, however, that I actually prefer "Angelo" to the ABBA song. Champagne was essentially Holland's answer to ABBA.

Both Baccara and Silver Convention competed in the Eurovision Contest in the years following ABBA's rise to fame after having won in 1974, but neither won. Nevertheless, both entries were very ABBA-esque, especially Silver Convention's "Telegram." Baccara's music was very Spanish flamenco-ey disco, kind of a cross between ABBA and Santa Esmeralda, while Silver Convention's music was firmly in the Munich sound, with its heavy string and orchestral sound.

Arabesque also had sounds in the same vain of these two artists and of ABBA. Arabesque are probably the most ABBA-esque and the least original, as unlike the others, their music seemed to have very little regional or stylistic uniqueness.

The Carpenters were quite ABBA-esque in their own way, although it should be recognized that they had their first hits prior to ABBA's formation. The sheer intricacy of their vocal harmonies and care taken to create a layered sound is highly reminiscent of ABBA, but the Carpenter's instrumentation tended to be less complex than ABBA's.

One thing that should be recognized is that all of these artists are regularly compared to ABBA (whenever I read reviews of many other pop and disco artists of the time, I see similar references to ABBA), and not the other way around. I never see comparisons of an ABBA song to, say, a Boney M. or Carpenters song. Not that both of those artists didn't create highly unique music, but ABBA were in many ways the trend-setters of European Pop in the 1970s, and are therefore the yardstick by which other artists are compared.

UPDATE (2 June 2012): See my recent post featuring a 2-disc compilation of ABBA-esque songs :)