ABBA: Classic Or Dud?

Summer Night City was inspired by The Bee Gees too according to the liner notes on the re-issue of the Voulez Vous album. "It never turned out as good as it could have been, there's something missing" says Bjorn and they deliberately left it off the album in the end. i like it. still baffles me why If It Wasn't For The Nights wasn't a single off that album.

Well, to me it's more of a 'track' than a song, perfect dancefloor/mixing material, with a really driving atmosphere, therefore to me it's their most disco.

Great song, Bjorn's wrong. #5 in the British charts, not exactly obscure either!

"WALKING in the moonlight"

Then Play Long finally reaches Abba: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/abba-greatest-hits.html

Sunday morning reminder.

The ABBA Session Band: http://felpin80.tripod.com/ata/id41.html

The soundtrack of the movie, except it's more of a soundtrack of their own minds: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/abba-album.html.

Not so much a greatest hits review, more an explanation of what Then Play Long has been all about: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/abba-singles-first-ten-years.html

the *fantastic* BBC doc is only up for a few more days so please do watch it at all speed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03lyzpp/The_Joy_of_ABBA/

Yes, the BBC documentary is really great.

On another note, this map is interesting:

http://i.imgur.com/xLfdUoP.png?1

The website mentioned on the map only has information about Polish chart placings from 1982 onwards- were their records not available in Poland before that point,(or information about sales not recorded)?

The Radio Trojka archives only go back as far as 1982. The records would have been available but i don't think there was a formally compiled chart before then.

That BBC doc was thrash, sorry, again its doing the whole "isn't stuff that was popular at the time really great".

I wish the guy who said oh Joy Divisions/Stooges didn't sell as many records but had more cultural influence posted on ilx just so he could be abused.

fantastic documentary, saw it on bbc4 over christmas. fantastic, fantastic group, my favourite group at moment. must recommend the compilation the essential abba!

Docu is on YT if u look

That map is great but 'sup Denmark, lettin' the Northern Europeans down, do you think this is the Austro-Hungarian Empire or sumthin'?

informal Beach Boys (& opera) jam with OLJ and Andy Gibb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gt3grMaHZI

due to over exposure in the 70s via my parents love of radio 2, i have always avoided buying any ABBA product, but on a whim i picked up the boxset today (twas bargain of course!), and so far i have listened to their first 2 albums, 'ring ring', and 'waterloo' and have already come to realise the errors of my ways.

of course, in recent times i have fallen hard for lounge/easy listening, so i guess i'm in a better place (i.e. i am old.) to listen to ABBA these days.

The albums get better and better too.

bloody hell, opening track of 'the vistors'.

could be an offcut from a lost goldfrapp album.

brilliant.

best £15 i ever spent.

... also best bonus trax on an album evah

no bonus tracks on the boxset editions ..

are the tracks on the extra cd that comes with the boxset !!?

(please please please .. )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Albums#CD_9_-_Bonus_Tracks

Yes, 13-19

... uh, 17

hurray !

ta for being my knight in shining glitter tom d ..

much appreciated sir.

i need this groove this dark dark weekend

You Owe Me One and Under Attack are great. Like they were trying to take on some new wave influences. You Owe Me One reminds me of Oh No It's Devo.

re you owe me one : ok, i get the devo vibe. just.

would never have picked up on that if you had not said, i would have basically connected it with annie styled scanda pop, but i cannot deny the all too brief guitar break at 2.27-2.42 = devo-esque.

Ha, good comparison. Sometimes I think 'Should I Laugh or Cry' is my favourite Abba song.

my god this thread up top

14 years ago!

under attack = devo

yup : via Time era ELO (albeit on a slo-mo groove)

i.e. there is definitely a new wave groove to these tracks ..

damn.

this boxset = best money i have spend in ages.

Last year I tried making a single 80 minute CD of the best of the last three albums which was very hard to do. But here's what I ended up with...
http://s15.postimg.org/tl8tyfaaj/2014_03_07_13_44_45.jpg

The Day Before You Came probably the glaring ommission for a lot of people, but it's so long! The big error I realised later was excluding Lovers Live A Little Longer.

no "When All Is Said and Done" = try again

I've done about three different versions b/c I give it away to people but it's always lacking some great number. Even did a volume 2 but that was weak.

Here's the volume 2 / second best picks.

http://s7.postimg.org/rn0595q4b/2014_03_12_16_46_49.jpg

glad i don't have to restrict myself to such limitations

Loving "the visitors". Thanks for whoever recommended it on the "shifts in taste" thread, i think it was forks or scott, some ilm luminary

that was me i think. you're welcome, it's a fantastic album. especially when you know what turmoil they were going through. I'm always sad that the original album doesn't include Under Attack and The Day Before You Came, both of which feel inseparable to the Visitors experience.

Sorry for forgetting you dl! You're a luminary too. And yeah, you can tell the songs are coming from a very real place despite the glossy/disco/crowd-pleasing ABBA sheen.

xp

agreed, adding Cassandra as an awesome add-on for this record. If you're interested in more ABBA, here's an overview I did years back when all the CD reissues came out: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/abba-the-full-story.htm

Thanks dude! Reading now

cool, dominique! :-)

Dud: Chiquitita.

Correct about the song. Wrong about the album. Some of their best stuff.

Prefer albums before and after it.

Of the last four, Voulez-Vous has the weakest singles and the strongest deep cuts. On balance, I think it's their best album.

don't know if i posted it anywhere, but i went to the abba exhibition at the southbank a few weeks ago
it was great! but the abba japan 1980 tour jacket they had was the real winner, i need one

it's on the right here: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MXo60bJRd9g/VhWwn7WFfAI/AAAAAAAADmY/rHR4GYP3T7g/s1600/IMG_0208.jpg