review for ABBA: The Definitive Collection on AllMovie

This deluxe collection of ABBA's music videos provides an interesting insight into the group's visual appeal (i.e. their clean-scrubbed, deliriously European look) by collecting their video output in one convenient package. Most of the clips were directed by Lasse Hallström and utilize the kind of snazzy, inventive cinematography and editing that would soon become hallmarks of most future music videos. The early videos suffer from a rather repetitious approach (usually a band performance shot from plenty of odd angles) but soon the videos take on a minimalistic but dazzling style of their own: "Money, Money, Money" captures the melodramatic mood of its song nicely with its sleek, rapid-fire imagery and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" offers a fun glimpse at ABBA in the studio instead of the expected discothèque performance clip. The most sophisticated clips come near the end: "One of Us" depicts a lonely Agnetha Fältskog moving into a new apartment to underscore its tale of a regretful breakup and "The Day Before You Came" plays like a miniature art film about romantic longing in the white-collar world. All these clips in one place might be overkill for the casual fan but ABBA: The Definitive Collection is a stylish and frequently engaging compendium that is well worth a look to anyone interested in the ABBA phenomenon.