Title Fight: "Happy New Year"

Trade card of Chinese boy with stamps by Daniel Low, c. 1900

Happy New Year, everyone. In 1980, ABBA released Super Trouper and, as you might expect from a band that came out of the Eurovision Contest, the Swedish quartet was not above writing a pandering cash-in holiday song on occasion. "Happy New Year" is very cheesy, but Agnetha's lead vocal makes the cornball lyrics work. And I love how, at the beginning of the chorus, I always expect the line to be, "Happy new year, happy new year! May we all have a beer!" Of course, the line actually ends with, "Have a vision..." but it's still funny. And it's on my favorite ABBA album of all ABBA albums, and that's got to be worth something.

Twenty years after the ABBA song, Camera Obscura released their own "Happy New Year" on their first full-length, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. It's a less heavy-handed number than the ABBA song, with the light pop sound you'd expect from a Stuart Murdoch production. The wordless backing vocals on the later choruses is nice, and Tracyanne Campbell's voice is as strong as on their later work, but something about the song is a little too insubstantial. This is a feeling I get from most of the songs on Camera Obscura's debut - they just lack the hooks and depth of their more recent work. And there's nothing really "New Years"-like about the song, so I think I have to give the win to ABBA, who catch the New Years vibe better with their "Happy New Year".

Winner: ABBA

"Happy New Year" by ABBA

"Happy New Year" by Camera Obscura