Commercially,
Super Trouper,
ABBA's seventh album, was another worldwide blockbuster. "
The Winner Takes It All", its lead-off single, released several months in advance of the album in most territories, was a smash; for example, it was the group's 14th consecutive Top Five hit in the U.K. and their eighth number one there. The title track was also a British chart-topper (their last), as was the album, their sixth. "
Lay All Your Love on Me" made the U.K. Top Ten, and "
On and on and On" was released as a single in some countries, hitting the Top Ten in Australia. (Typically, American success was more modest, though the album went gold, and "
The Winner Takes It All" was a number one adult contemporary and Top Ten pop hit.) Musically,
Super Trouper found
ABBA, always trend-conscious, taking account of the passing of disco and returning to the pop/rock sound typical of their early albums. Only "
Lay All Your Love on Me" employed a dance approach. The title song had the kind of martial beat and pop sound more in keeping with the group that had broken through with "Mamma Mia" and "S.O.S"., and "
On and on and On" paid homage to one of their chief influences, the Beach Boys, with an arrangement reminiscent of "Do It Again". Lyrically, there was a distinct sense of world weariness and melancholy, from the divorce lamentations of "
The Winner Takes It All" to the dissatisfaction with touring expressed in "
Super Trouper" and even the nostalgia for a simpler time in "
Our Last Summer". For performers on top of the world, the members of
ABBA were putting an unusual amount of what sounded like real unhappiness into their pop music. [The 2001 reissue added "
Elaine", a non-LP B-side, and "
Put on Your White Sombrero", an outtake. Both were excellent songs.]
Super Trouper review by allmusic.com