Anne Sofie von Otter sings Abba

I really loved von Otter's pop album with Elvis Costello and in general have nothing against classical artists making excursions into other territories - why not,after all - besides, woman needs a break from melancholy of Mahler, Grieg and Brahms from time to time and songbook by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus after all, has enough of gems worth playing with. Surely, she won't fiddle with bubblegum like "Honey Honey" or "Mamma Mia" but her relaxed touch on dramatical ballads like "The Winner Takes it All" could be something to hear? 

Strangely, the result sounds slightly disappointing - while music background is nice and unobtrusive (effective fiddles!) and von Otter sings as beautiful as ever, album is bogged down with decision to include too many less-known songs from musicals and other corners of Benny & Björn's work - are we avoiding potential criticism or association with "Abba"? - which is pity because as real actress von Otter missed the chance to act some of the most attractive and durable songs from group's catalogue. This brings up the question: to what audience this album was actually offered? Abba fans would be disappointed because there are hardly any Abba songs here. Classical listeners would scream "blasphemy" anyway. The answer perhaps lies in the last song - where von Otter deliciously camps it up with all her years of theatre experience in "Money,money,money" and clearly has great fun letting her hair down. She did it for herself.

Sadly, this is not what I expected and I don't find guys work outside Abba specially interesting.