“Mamma mia, here I go again.”
Steven Wilson often uses Mamma Mia as the perfect example of why ABBA’s songwriting deserves far more respect than it sometimes gets, especially from musicians who think pop is somehow “simple”.
On paper, it is a three minute pop song. In reality, it is a masterclass in structure, restraint, and relentless melodic invention.
Steven’s point is disarmingly simple. Count the hooks.
The song opens with a hook straight away, not a warm up, not a scene setter, a hook. Then it moves into another distinct musical idea that could easily be the chorus of a lesser song. Then another. Then another. By the time you arrive at the actual “Mamma Mia” refrain, you have already been handed four fully formed hooks, each with its own identity, contour, and emotional pull.
And then ABBA do something quietly brilliant.
They strip it back.
When “Mamma Mia” finally arrives, the band drops elements out, creating space and contrast. The impact comes not from piling things on, but from knowing exactly what to remove. That refrain lands harder because of everything that came before it.
And they are still not done.
After that, you get yet another melodic idea, the “da da da da” line, which somehow functions as a sixth hook in a song that barely crosses the three minute mark.
This is not accidental. It is not instinct alone. It is craft at the highest level.
ABBA understood something fundamental about pop songwriting. Attention is precious. If you have a great idea, use it. If you have several great ideas, sequence them. Do not save your best moment for later, because later may never come.
What makes this even more remarkable is how effortless it sounds. There is no sense of strain or over complexity. Nothing feels crowded or indulgent. Each section flows naturally into the next, yet every moment is memorable.
Steven often contrasts this with progressive music, his own world, where long forms and development are prized. ABBA, however, compress that sense of journey into minutes rather than movements. The ambition is still there, it is simply disguised by joy, clarity, and melody.
That is the real genius.
Not that ABBA wrote catchy songs. Many people can do that once.
The genius is that they wrote hook laden, structurally daring, emotionally direct music that feels inevitable, as if it could only ever have existed exactly this way.
Three minutes. Six hooks. Zero wasted seconds.
That is not just pop.
That is songwriting at the very highest level.
