living in the future is wild
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 27 April 2018 14:23 (five years ago) link
First I learn that Fugazi occasionally gets together and jams, and now ABBA. Following a Cubs win, death of Bowie and Prince, a couple of weird Super Bowls, that Oscars best picture debacle, Trump ... yeah we are living in an alternate reality. It's pretty much the right time for Tupac to call off the ruse and go on tour.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 April 2018 14:36 (five years ago) link
it can only be a matter of time before hologram fugazi hit the road
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 27 April 2018 14:39 (five years ago) link
We are all holograms living in a world where Fugazi is still on hiatus. There is another dimension where Fugazi still records and tours, but there are no other people.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 April 2018 14:41 (five years ago) link
Soldiers is so fucking good
― done and dusted (Ross), Friday, 27 April 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
otm
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 27 April 2018 14:57 (five years ago) link
First I learn that Fugazi occasionally gets together and jams, and now ABBA
tour 2019
this is pretty sweet news. i recently listened to the greatest hits LP and every song was a glorious pop gem.
i have some friends in Malmo that i have visited a few times. when you first get to the Stockholm airport there was a giant mural of ABBA on one of the walls. for good reason, they are a treasure.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 27 April 2018 15:08 (five years ago) link
oh god
― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:25 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzEY1MfXrQ
― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
its like they took all the worst elements of the worst euroballads of the last couple of albums and made its gruesome prototype
― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:27 (two years ago) link
I feel like this whole thing is a bad idea, might have worked better if they had tried it 20 years ago, but I know their lawyers needed ample time to come to an agreement on how this would work, and of course the de-ageing tech wasn't great back then.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:29 (two years ago) link
Don't Shut Me Down is much better imo
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:44 (two years ago) link
these two songs are amazing
― abcfsk, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:53 (two years ago) link
no idea what that means about euroballads xp these are great abba songs
― abcfsk, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:54 (two years ago) link
Rutger and Ole turning over in their respective graves.
― Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:57 (two years ago) link
That was not terrible, but I don't know if I'd listen again.I don't know about the self-mythologizing video, though, as if we've all spent 40 years doing nothing but waiting for their reunion?
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:57 (two years ago) link
Yes, your take seems about right.
― Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 September 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
i love Abba, i don't love reunions, i really don't love being beaten over the head with wrong opinions by the normie media
guess i'll check this out when i feel like it
― pings and noodles (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:05 (two years ago) link
the reunion concert will be an absolute fiasco
― bon ivermectin (Murgatroid), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:05 (two years ago) link
What, you don’t like avatars?
― Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:18 (two years ago) link
Should ILX have avatars?
― Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:19 (two years ago) link
I didn't realize there was an entire new album, that actually makes me more optimistic (rockism).
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:42 (two years ago) link
Good point.
― Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:47 (two years ago) link
what a dreadful boring comeback song.
― Pfunkboy AKA (Oor Neechy), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:55 (two years ago) link
I really hoped they would return with a great pop banger. They should have stayed retired.
― Pfunkboy AKA (Oor Neechy), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:56 (two years ago) link
Pop banger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWGWFa3jznI
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:04 (two years ago) link
Tracklisting for the Voyage album:
1. I Still Have Faith In You2. When You Danced With Me3. Little Things4. Don’t Shut Me Down5. Just A Notion6. I Can Be That Woman7. Keep An Eye On Dan8. Bumble Bee9. No Doubt About It10. Ode To Freedom
Short demo versions of Just A Notion and Bumble Bee can be found on the Abba Undeleted Medley, released in 1994. Just A Notion is at 4:55, Bumble Bee at 14:41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUfAzxBKvLA
Just A Notion was first recorded in 1982 for the abandoned follow-up album to The Visitors; both versions of the recording were bootlegged.
Free As A Bumblebee (with a Bjorn vocal) was demoed in 1978 during the Voulez-Vous sessions.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:14 (two years ago) link
I like both tracks. I didn’t expect to, but I prefer the ballad. The chorus on the poppy one doesn’t soar where I want it to, but the ballad is all soar, all the time. I can’t help it, I’m a cheese ball and I found it moving.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:28 (two years ago) link
Keep An Eye On Dan surely has to be a Bjorn vocal.
― "Bobby Gillespie" (ft. Heroin) (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:35 (two years ago) link
Gawd bless them for not using autotune, the vocals on the ballad are kinda pitchy in places and they could have easily tidied that up, along with the timing.
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:36 (two years ago) link
I can see this working out for them, apparently the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour just before Covid made tons of cash (despite being Lindsey-less), nostalgic boomers money is there for the taking.
― Siegbran, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:37 (two years ago) link
I've never had much interest in an ABBA reunion, I think finishing when they did and then never doing anything together after it was a touch of class. Both new songs sound very like ABBA, but sort of as if they've been constructed from bits of their older songs. I like them though.
― "Bobby Gillespie" (ft. Heroin) (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:41 (two years ago) link
(xp) The thing about ABBA is, that in the UK at least, they're very much not just a band loved by boomers.
― "Bobby Gillespie" (ft. Heroin) (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:43 (two years ago) link
Surely their fanbase when they were originally around was majority gen X.
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:08 (two years ago) link
I learned from an early 80's Look-In annual that I shared my birthday with Bjorn and considered that confirmation that I was cool!
― calzino, Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link
(xp) They were something of a 9 to 90 band. My mum, who was never much into pop or rock music, loved them - in contrast she had no interest in the Beatles whatsoever.
― "Bobby Gillespie" (ft. Heroin) (Tom D.), Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:28 (two years ago) link
I guess that’s true they held an appeal to a wide age range. Quite enjoying these new ones, maybe the sound is less “fuzzy” and “warm” and more shiny than classic Abba, but it’s a different age.
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:33 (two years ago) link
My parents and my Granny's loved Abba
― Pfunkboy AKA (Oor Neechy), Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:48 (two years ago) link
Where the fuck did this come from????
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 2 September 2021 21:12 (two years ago) link
Both songs are a HELL of a lot better than I was expecting. Thumbs up!!
Sweden, iirc
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 2 September 2021 21:12 (two years ago) link
bet Jeff Lynne's gutted he wasn't asked to produce
― mahb, Thursday, 2 September 2021 21:20 (two years ago) link
abba has always been a self produced all swedish in house crew!
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 2 September 2021 21:24 (two years ago) link
Another softie here who likes both of these songs. "I am not the one you knew/I'm now and then combined/And I'm asking you to have an open mind" <== that is a lovely lyric
― Josefa, Thursday, 2 September 2021 22:17 (two years ago) link
"Don't Shut Me Down" is aces. A legitimate ABBA song.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 3 September 2021 01:38 (two years ago) link
Both new songs are strong, but "Don't Shut Me Down" is really excellent and bodes well for the rest.
I was on the livestream yesterday. As the first video (for "I Still Have Faith In You") started playing, without any prior explanation, my thoughts went from "hmm, don't remember this one", to "oh, those voices sound distinctly older", to "fuck, this is a new track". That's when the shivers started. Then, towards the end: "how have they got late-1970s Frida to lip-synch the lyrics, that's uncanny". We didn't yet know about the avatars.
The most charitable thing I can say about Zoe Ball's interview with Benny & Bjorn is that she was overawed and lost it a bit. B&B handled her excitable wibblings with patience and grace.
Gleaned from the interview: the show is 22 songs, 90 minutes, mostly greatest hits plus the two new songs and a few deeper cuts. 10 live musicians on stage. Visual direction by Baillie Walsh. Inclusion of "Dancing Queen" confirmed (duh). They also talked about "Under Attack" and "The King Has Lost His Crown" as songs that should have been big hits, which could be a hint. On the new self-produced album ("it's all us"), "Little Things" is a Christmas song.
― mike t-diva, Friday, 3 September 2021 09:08 (two years ago) link
*43 seconds into "don't shut me down"* god i fucking love abba
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 3 September 2021 15:14 (two years ago) link
oh man wtf both songs rule
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 3 September 2021 15:20 (two years ago) link
Yeah, ISHFIY wasn’t immediately so matched to my tastes, but I love it just as much now.
― mike t-diva, Friday, 3 September 2021 15:40 (two years ago) link
Fun record. Witless Guardian review. First two singles probably the best tracks but the rest is great. I despair of people who can't be moved by good schmaltz.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 5 November 2021 20:41 (two years ago) link
I’ve been playing it over and over again today. It’s such a strange record, and like a lot of ABBA, a lot of it sounds off-kilter and naff, but that’s something to push through. “Little Things” in particular is… challenging… but then it segues straight into “Don’t Shut Me Down”, which immediately reframes the idyll. And then there are the subsequent songs about marital/post-marital strife, which sit all the better in its wake. B&B’s ventriloquising is unsettling in much the same way as “The Winner Takes It All” was us telling - all that self-denigration - but A&F interpret the sentiments beautifully, and in a way that suggests that they’re fully on board.
― mike t-diva, Friday, 5 November 2021 22:13 (two years ago) link
(“us settling” = “unsettling”… I may have had a drink or two)
― mike t-diva, Friday, 5 November 2021 22:14 (two years ago) link
Don’t get the hate for Little Things. Fits in the long tradition of sickly twee Abba songs haunted by a sense of loss.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 7 November 2021 09:48 (two years ago) link
Yeah, that one works for me. The two I’m still a bit cool on are Bumblebee and Ode To Freedom.
― mike t-diva, Sunday, 7 November 2021 12:24 (two years ago) link
I'm having a lot of fun writing about Voyage, and the reaction to it, for a glossy gay lifestyle magazine. It does help enormously when you're not welded to the hot take.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:47 (two years ago) link
:)
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 November 2021 18:32 (two years ago) link