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Post by chron on Sept 16, 2019 23:54:42 GMT
Jesus, 'ABBA Platinum' is a thoroughly uninspiring album title. At least go for something that hints at where we are in terms of the group's career and lives: 'ABBA Deep Gold' or 'Sunset Gold' or 'Late Autumn Gold' or 'Twilight Gold'. 'Platinum' is so unimaginative and rote it sounds like something a marketing team or an Artificial Intelligence gizmo would come up with.
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Post by chron on Sept 10, 2019 19:35:02 GMT
They are all knocking on a bit but they live comfortable lives that won't have the stresses most ordinary people have. They have all been afforded like few others, the opportunity to live outright dementedly extravagant and opulent lives, if they so wish. Which is why it's such a shame, to me, that rather than guarding and being sparing with what will ultimately become the most meaningful part of their legacy, the music, the colossally wealthy Bjorn, by farming it out for this business enterprise and that, risks undermining its chances of being seen, now and in the future, as a strong and discrete and integrated ouevre.
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Post by chron on Sept 10, 2019 17:15:59 GMT
It's curious to me how closely Bjorn, as he makes the transition from late-middle to old age, has seemingly come to resemble his old mentor, Stig Anderson, in terms of business-dealing as an activity in itself appearing to be the thing that drives him on. It's been a good while since I read it, but I remember Carl Magnus Palm's Bright Lights, Dark Shadows depicting Stig in his last years and days as a somewhat isolated, painted-into-a-corner figure, making cold and unsatisfying (in the broader existential sense), deals and investments. If there was much doubt that it was the other three (plus Mike Tretow) who were, before all else, artists/craftspersons, then their relative absence from the ABBA spotlight in recent times (I always think Benny looks as though he's had to be dragged away from his keyboards or his armchair and slippers, whenever he's pictured these days at an opening), in contrast to Bjorn's very visible involvement in things like the creation of the museum, the Mamma-Mia! franchises, the spin-off nightclubs-cum-eateries, as well as this will-it-or-won't-it-happen ABBAtars thing, surely extinguishes it.
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Post by chron on Jul 8, 2019 20:15:09 GMT
Orf, I strongly disagree with you. Good! There should be more passionately felt but civilly expressed disagreement in the world; this would be a bland place if everyone rated The Winner Takes It All as some sort of peerless masterpiece. For me it's neither a masterpiece (it IS very well made, as I'm always happy to acknowledge), nor is it anywhere near the front of the pursuing pack of ABBA songs trying to chase down the likes of Knowing Me, Knowing You, Dancing Queen and The Name Of The Game, which are way, way out in front. Saying you don't like something is easy, since it's a personal reaction based on honest feelings, but saying why you don't like something can be tough. Having had a bit more of a think about why I don't like TWTIA, I've come to realise that I might be being a bit hard on Agnetha. I still think she took the wrong tack with it (or was encouraged to take the wrong tack), but the end effect may've been out of her hands in any case, since the main problem may ultimately lie with Bjorn's words. As I've said before, I think that as he became more proficient at writing in English, Bjorn developed a tendency to overwork lyrics at times, replacing simple but effective words and phrases with more complicated ones, which sometimes led to the balance of a song being upset, or its thrust being hampered (this tendency reached its high or low point, depending on you POV, in songs such as Our Last Summer, I Let The Music Speak and The Day Before You Came). With TWTIA he overdoes the gambling metaphors to the point of undermining the song's credibility, since it's built around the confessions of an emotionally wounded person, and people tend to express themselves simply and directly when they're hurt or upset, rather than using metaphorical language. So what I think I'm saying now is that Agnetha was probably onto a bit of a hiding to nothing regardless of how she opted to approach delivering the lyrics, but what she should've been doing at all cost at any rate was reining in any urge to over-emote and 'act out' the feelings being expressed by them.
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Post by chron on Jul 5, 2019 22:42:41 GMT
^I disagree strongly. The melody is anything but fussy- it's simple and uncluttered. It's actually beautiful in its simplicity and very affecting. As for Agnetha being histrionic- 😆 if you're referring to the chorus, I guess you could say that if you want to be mean but I see it more as her interpreting the very strong emotions evident in those lyrics. [...] In the verses to TWTIA Agnetha's actually restrained and far from histrionic. [...] I get upset (not really, it's all subjective opinion) when people slate this song and performance. Newsflash: all singing is a performance- you could say life itself is a performance. Or a stage or summat.💃 I didn't mean cluttered fussy; I mean high-strung fussy - e.g. those little staggered patterns that pop up at the start and then here and there, like a fop hoofing down a flight of stairs in stages. There's also something washed-out about it; the glassy piano tone may have something to do with it. And I'm sorry, but for me there's something hard to accept about Agnetha's choice of approach. When there are, as you say, lyrics that already pack an emotional punch, the singer ought to compensate and be especially wary of 'interpreting'. Agnetha may not outright sob or wail, but that self-pitying waver in her voice in the verses, for me it's needless dramatising and it grates (as Alan Bennett once remarked in response to someone's heavy-handed performance in a stage adaptation of Kafka: "just play the text; don't play the implications of the text"). I remember either Benny or Bjorn, I can't recall which (actually, it may even have been Carl Magnus Palm!) saying that in retrospect The Day Before You Came would've benefited from Agnetha singing it 'straight' instead of doing that rather plain 'talk singing' style, and I think a similar sort of thing could be said about the way TWTIA got made. Anyway, it's one of the few ABBA tracks I really can't stand (You Owe Me One is another); and my negative feelings towards it really are true and heartfelt, even if I'm not very good at explaining how and why I feel like that!
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Post by chron on Jul 5, 2019 16:13:08 GMT
I always get upset when The Winner Takes It All gets included in ABBA's pantheon of iconic songs. The melody is wan and fussy, miles away from the quality of Benny and Bjorn's best efforts, and Agnetha's singing is too histrionic, too much of an acting performance. 'Telegraphed' emotion is never as effective as emotion that the listener has to infer or create within themselves from 'clues' provided by the performance; it's one of the blights of modern pop that so many singers are convinced that in order to express emotion you have to sound emotional.
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Post by chron on Jul 3, 2019 14:44:22 GMT
Arrival's cover art work is also a big step-up from that of self-titled's, and visually backs up the 'message' of the album title. ABBA present themselves as equal parts of a team; they're close by, yet still seem distant and enclosed, the occupants of a slightly different world than the one inhabited by most of the rest of us. The clothing and the setting act as subtle reinforcements: the plain white outfits represent apparel for a new era (they almost look a bit uniform-like), while the wide, empty expanse of field can be seen as a tabula rasa or the arena for a fresh start. The artwork for the ABBA '75 album is certainly very nicely done, but trades in cliche a bit: pop/rockers as the new aristocracy, living the blank good life; stylish and a bit shallow. The Arrival cover is a more effective mingling of image and message, one of the most iconic album covers there is.
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Post by chron on Jul 3, 2019 3:30:04 GMT
I'd agree with the OP that the ABBA album is a bit overlooked. It showcases ABBA's versatility (you could say it's a more varied album than Arrival, in terms of genre flavours) - sassy glam (Hey, Hey, Helen), sleaze funk (Man In The Middle), folk-calypso (Tropical Loveland), and a good dollop of prime power 'bubblegum' (Mamma-Mia, SOS, Bang-A-Boomerang) form the heart. It's a decent album for sure, certainly their best up to that point, a where-we-are-now consolidation and and indication of things to come. However, it's also top-loaded, and runs out of steam quite quickly on Side 2: schlager rears its head in the witless sing-along I Do..., Rock Me is a laboured rocker, I've Been Waiting For You cloyingly obsequious and Intermezzo a cold, abrasive exercise in chopsmanship from Benny and the backing band. So Long (which rocks a darned sight more than Rock Me) does pick things up at the end.
With Arrival, ABBA realise their full potential as consummate pop creators from start to finish for the first time (there's a clue in its title). It's a much more cohesive album; its brilliant sequencing accommodates and absorbs what lulls there are, Bjorn's lyrics have, by and large, a new lucidity and weight, and the performances of both the core band and the backing musicians are shot through with an energy and belief they'd never quite been able to summon and sustain over the full course of an album before. You can sense how thrilled and enlivened they are by the quality of the material they're working with. For every strong track on the ABBA album, there's a stronger equivalent on Arrival: the dream-dance pop of Dancing Queen and the mature, bittersweet AOR of Knowing Me, Knowing You go higher and further than Mamma-Mia and S.O.S. My Love, My Life is a better take on the yearning chamber ballad than I've Been Waiting, because both the words and Agnetha's performance have been dialled down; there's less emoting, and the fantastic arrangement gives it a delicate, ethereal quality that the earlier track lacks. The title track, meanwhile, is a more integrated, more purposeful instrumental than Intermezzo, and scores extra points for functioning as a novel album closer. Even Arrival's minor tracks offer a fair amount: off-hand lyrics aside, Dum Dum Diddle is a catchy, affecting little track featuring a lovely Benny keybs riff, and That's Me has a quirky, sardonic vibe, Agnetha and Freda showing that they can voice emotionally confident, self-contained characters as well as they can wounded ones in turmoil. The only true throwaway on it is Why Did It Have To Be Me, another ponderous rocker in the Rock Me mould; that aside though, everything else plays a part and earns its place. I think Arrival remains their best album, although The Album runs it very close.
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Post by chron on Apr 26, 2019 20:54:12 GMT
There are a number I skip often (e.g. Winner Takes It All, Thank You For The Music, When All Is Said And Done), but will sit through with from time to time. And then there's one that I've probably not listened to more than two or three times in total, always skip, and can't imagine wanting willingly to listen to again. There's a case for saying it's the worst thing they've done: You Owe Me One. I loathe its flippancy and that whole hard-nosed, jocular trivialising approach to addressing and articulating relationship shenanigans. It doesn't even truly sound like ABBA, and/or feel like them, or something.
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Post by chron on Mar 18, 2019 17:18:48 GMT
I'm aware that Roy Orbison often wore shirts, on Stage, that were white etc. I was referring to his suits, when I said that he only wore black on Stage. I guess they could have sometimes been dark blue too. It is hard to tell, when a lot of his early 60's performances were filmed in black and white. He certainly did not go in for light coloured suits - which is what I've seen The Orbitar performing in. The outfit in that clip isn't far off qualifying as a suit, though - a deliberately coordinated, one-colour top and trousers ensemble (and clearly meant as a nod in the direction of Elvis's jumpsuits). I'm aware Orbison mainly wore, and was known for wearing, black or dark colours, but that word 'always' made me wonder if it was as categorical as all that. Apparently not!
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Post by chron on Mar 17, 2019 2:31:17 GMT
Roy Orbison only ever wore black on Stage. *Cough*
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Post by chron on Jan 23, 2019 0:54:45 GMT
It's nice to see that someone else rates My Love, My Life as one of their favorites. It's been one of my favorites ever since I became familiar with the Arrival album in 1977. I always try to include it in any poll or discussion about ABBA's best tracks. Why I like it so much must partly be down to context - it's part of a brilliantly strong album and it's position in the track sequence is spot-on, but on its own terms it's a beautifully affecting track. I know some feel the arrangement is a little fussy, but I really like its spectral dreaminess. One of the great lesser spotlighted gems on Arrival, along with That's Me.
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Post by chron on Jan 22, 2019 13:16:37 GMT
Remember that we're talking about personal preferences, not the actual quality of certain songs That means... I can see why chron , included for example The Winner Takes It All in his list, which otherwise I would consider simply outrageous Nice of you to be so reasonable and restrained about that one choice, Michal! know it's considered sacrilege by many to cite TWTIA as anything other than one of the prime jewels, but I've never been able to get along with it. For me, a rare Ulvaeus/Andersson misfire tune-wise, with lyrics that stray too far into self-pity, and exacerbated by Agnetha's over-emoting. It's undoubtedly made from a solid piece of timber, if you like, and has been worked on with ABBA's usual care and attention; it's just that I happen not to like the type of wood chosen, nor the way it's been carved.
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Post by chron on Jan 21, 2019 1:13:34 GMT
I fair rattled along doing this until I got to about the 17 or 18 mark, at which point I began to struggle, which suggests that these 20 comprise the essential ABBA, for me. The top five are all more-or-less equal and on a plane apart in terms of utter excellence (with KMKY elevated a little above the others - it's the very best thing they did). The fifteen that follow might be in a rough sort of order of preference, but quality-wise they're practically on a par, and I wouldn't be unhappy if they got jiggled around. The high number of inclusions from Arrival and The Album shows me once again what stand-out albums I consider those two to be - side-by-side at the toppermost of the poppermost.
Knowing Me, Knowing You The Name Of The Game SOS Dancing Queen Move On Hole In Your Soul The King Has Lost His Crown My Love, My Life That's Me Summer Night City Slipping Through My Fingers Dum Dum Diddle Tiger The Visitors Hey, Hey Helen Eagle Chiquitita Lovelight One Man, One Woman Mamma-Mia
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Post by chron on Jan 20, 2019 19:38:19 GMT
no mention of Two For The Price Of One? *Cough*
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Post by chron on Jan 20, 2019 19:29:31 GMT
I tend to cut their earlier work a bit of slack, given that they were still finding their feet writing in English and had yet to fully break free from the influence of the genre fields that they were respectively working in prior to becoming a pop quartet. I'm less tolerant of some of the tracks done towards the end of their career, which seem to me a bit overblown, highfalutin, and/or emotionally a little cold.
The Winner Takes It All The Day Before You Came You Owe Me One Elaine Intermezzo No. 1 Thank You For The Music The Way Old Friends Do I Saw It In The Mirror What About Livingstone Two For The Price Of One I Let The Music Speak When All Is Said And Done Money, Money, Money King Kong Song Happy New Year Voulez-Vous Lovers Live A Little Longer Rock Me Ring Ring I've Been Waiting For You
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Post by chron on Oct 14, 2018 17:10:40 GMT
I couldn't care less about the numbers, but I think it's a good thing that a compilation album doesn't top this sort of chart. And it seems right that Sgt. Pepper should top it regardless, since, beyond units shifted, when it came out it represented a true line-drawn-in-the-sand moment, its impact going beyond pop culture and spreading into life at large (the album cover design alone is etched in the collective memory, along with things like JFK waving from a limo in Dealey Plaza and Neil Armstrong's photo of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon). With all due respect to them, nothing ABBA or Queen put out could hold a candle to it (as I suspect Benny and Bjorn would be happy to tell you).
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Post by chron on May 10, 2018 12:46:56 GMT
According to their recent official statement, they've only just " come of age" That line made me smile when I first read it. Nice to see Bjorn (presumably) still slightly overreaching himself in the English department and misusing old idiomatic phrase (in a way that remains winning) after all this time. Another little example of "just like the old days" - since many years [sic] we haven't had this in an ABBA context! This vouchsafes for me that they drafted the statement themselves.
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Post by chron on Apr 29, 2018 13:41:38 GMT
I didn't mean to come across as unmoved; just cautioning (myself as much as anyone else) against the giddy effects of hype! It's certainly very exciting news indeed.
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Post by chron on Apr 29, 2018 12:42:50 GMT
Great news, but they aren't half making a rod for their backs by announcing this well before the release date. No matter how good these tracks might be, it's going to be very hard for them to live up the amount of anticipatory expectation that will have built by the time they surface. Possibly they should've followed Bowie's lead re. the handling of Where Are We Now? - i.e., just release suddenly, without a lot of prior hoopla, to catch the world by surprise. In any event, it's good news for this place. I like to imagine that Benny and Bjorn have lurked here from time to time and have finally concluded: "Enough! AbbaChat has become little more than a bleedin' Agnetha Faltskog picture repository! It's time to give them something else to chew on!"
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Post by chron on Oct 31, 2017 22:02:48 GMT
Considering the amount of themed tat on sale everywhere: Money, Money, Money
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Post by chron on Oct 20, 2017 13:11:34 GMT
Shocking. I would never leave the 'g' off the end of Anetha's surname.
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Post by chron on Oct 19, 2017 15:23:31 GMT
Haha, did this and got That's Me! Not really; I got 'Winner too, the one song of theirs I cannot CANNOT abide! (Book: historical/geographical; God: Apollo; Band/musician/singer: Donna Summer; Most important thing in song: harmony; Habitat: coffee shop; Fave ABBA album: The Album; Band member: Benny). I was hoping for Move On or Hole In Your Soul or Name Of The Game. Anyone else get the feeling that the answers for this are permed from a small group of their biggest hits?
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Post by chron on Oct 12, 2017 0:55:14 GMT
Bang-A-Boomerang's chorus has a line with about six 'dums' in it!
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Post by chron on Jun 26, 2017 19:52:19 GMT
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Post by chron on Jun 15, 2017 11:29:20 GMT
Too soon after GingerSpice's original Megarate held in the old forum for me to go through the process of assessing all these songs again, and actually, I think those who voted in the original one ought to stay out of it this time, in order to see what sort of result we get with a new set of voters, and whether it leads to a consensus result across the two forums. A couple of other things: firstly, the votes for the original Megarate were submitted ballot-box stylee, so to speak, via private message to GingerSpice, so that only he was privy to how the songs' scores were racking up, which generated a sense of excitement and engagement around his countdown reveal of the final result, when it came. Here, everyone's votes are being submitted in view of everyone else; you can see patterns emerging and pointers to the final result from the off, which is going to make for a flatter, less involving experience. Secondly, I think by including different mixes of the same song is going to complicate things and effect the momentum of this Megarate. As I remember, the original one limited itself to ABBA's core studio album oeuvre. It seems a bit pointless to pit the original English language mix of When All Is Said And Done, say, against the Spanish version, or the live version of Take A Chance On Me against the studio version, when they are, in essence, the same song. Just my two penn'orth.
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Post by chron on Jun 5, 2017 14:04:14 GMT
Happy I didn't drop nearly a hundred sovs on the physical version of this, so that I could, in effect, take the saving and use it to acquire the Sgt. Pepper 50th Anniversary Deluxe box instead. This, ABBA and everyone else, is how you do an album mix/reissue!
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Post by chron on May 9, 2017 17:24:39 GMT
[W]hen it comes to trying to discuss the music itself, especially down to the technical details... I wonder if he doesnt have any experience or technical expertise in doing so. I'm fairly certain he has neither, but even if he had, this expanded edition of TCRS, like the first edition, is meant to appeal to the enthusiastic general fan (all ABBA books are, aren't they; it's a given, considering the sort of band they are and the type of fans they have), so the information in it was never going to have an especially heavy technical slant or contain in-depth analyses of gear, in any event. I got the e-book version of this, but I've only flicked through it. I can't see me ever doing more than using it as a reference to dip into, as and when.
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Post by chron on May 1, 2017 17:56:32 GMT
That's surely the dreaded?
(Intermezzo)
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Post by chron on Apr 28, 2017 10:14:20 GMT
Got this item, today. Hadn't heard Frida's version of Lycka before, but seeing this post prompted me to have a click on YouTube, and it's a lovely version. Smokes both versions - Swedish and English - that Bjorn handled lead vox on, as you'd expect, but maybe by a wider margin than you'd expect (I think Bjorn was always capable of delivering quite an affecting vocal, given the right track, but the latter never really came his way during ABBA's run). Anyway, Frida really infuses Lycka with feeling.
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