Voulez Vous birthday today

Some reason this album doesn’t click with me, in fact I don’t think I could trip off the running order of the album off the top of my head, unlike any other album apart from Ring Ring.
I first got this in 1985 and loved As Good As New and obviously the hits, I don’t mind I Have A Dream, it is one of my favourites, the Spanish version especially.
If It Wasn’t For The Nights has passed me by, I don’t see its appeal unfortunately. I prefer Erasure’s VV to ABBA’s (don’t shoot me.) I think it tries too hard to be You Should Be Dancing by Bee Gees or any Nile Rodgers’ song from the same era. I would prefer only one of the ladies singing the verse on this.
I’m happy others rate it so highly, I’m perhaps odd in my indifference to it.

This was the first album we got when we were up-to-date with ABBA’s releases. From the end of 1977 and throughout 1978 into 1979, my brother bought all five existing UK albums (including Greatest Hits - in the order Arrival, The Album, Greatest Hits, ABBA, Waterloo). Voulez-Vous was therefore eagerly awaited.

I remember not being particularly enamoured by the title. What a silly name, I thought, and what did it mean? Some of the songs were already familiar as they’d been performed on ABBA In Switzerland, which my brother had taped onto audio cassette. If It Wasn’t For The Nights had been on Mike Yarwood but I’d forgotten that.

There was a sense that this album was something quite new and different. The intro of As Good As New sounded fresh. Even today, it still does. I wasn’t over-fussed with the title track and I don’t think I Have A Dream or Does Your Mother Know were ever favourites, but most of it I really liked (plus Summer Night City and Lovelight, not on the album but by then very familar with from the singles).

There is some sadness here though. With Björn and Agnetha now separated, the pretence that ABBA was two happy couples was over. I was very aware of that even at the young age I was. Plus it was the last album of the classic years, with their sound and look altering for the 80s. And Agnetha went and had her hair cut, which to me was sacrilege. If Agnetha still had That Hair then all was still well. Once she didn’t, things would become more unsettled. Which they did.

I love Voulez-Vous from start to finish. It's zesty, glamorous and energetic. The less-subtle-than-usual stabs at sexiness feel honest too. The ballads are optimistic, rather than self-pitying. It's easy to gripe about how they derail the danceability of the overall album but that seems like ABBA's wanton/stubborn streak when it comes to sequencing tracks on almost any of their albums. 

I remember the anticipation growing for this album ahead of release. The Magazine article in which Charlie the editor visited the studio was the first whetting of the appetite. Titles were dropped in - The King Has Lost His Crown, Just A Notion, Lovelight... and "Love Is Live A Little Longer," as Charlie misheard it. The Mike Yarwood performance of If It Wasn't For The Nights made me make a fruitless trip to the record shop as soon as it opened after Christmas. Then the Unicef concert. Then ABBA In Switzerland. It was a terrific pre-release run of promo. When DYMK dropped, I had a hard time getting used to the harder synth/drum arrangement and was surprised to see KOF on the flip - it sounded like a hit to me at the time. 

I think the album has aged pretty well - and I attribute that to its danceability, rooted in disco. The naysayers said that disco sucked, but disco had the last laugh and proved to be virtually immortal. 

I love the string arrangements on this album too. Their baroque feel on intro to As Good As New and, later, on Angeleyes. The soaring swoops on If It Wasn't For The Nights and Lovers (Live A Little Longer). Anders Eljas really did a superb job with those arrangements and I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) that he wasn't asked to provide similar work on the following albums. 

I even like the cover - I know, I know,  shut up. The photo is terrific and they look achingly glamorous, despite the hideous wrestler belts ruining the girls' dresses. 

The bonus track editions make the album seem a bit like another Greatest Hits collection. I think the long version of Summer Night City would have been a great opener for side 2, echoing some of the drama from side 1. This is how I'd rank the album right now:


1. If It Wasn't For The Nights (it has been my favourite for 44 years)
2. Angeleyes
3. Voulez-Vous
4. The King Has Lost His Crown
5. Lovers (Live A Little Longer)
6. As Good As New
7. Chiquitita
8. Does Your Mother Know?
9. Kisses Of Fire
10. I Have A Dream

And don't imagine that I dislike the songs at the end of that chart: I really like them. I'm just ranking favourites.