A+ / Where Do We Go From Here?

Thanks, wasn’t sure if voice was faltering, I was just guessing. I don’t really notice any auto tune, I can’t tell the difference, I don’t know if my ears can pick up on it.
I can hear the difference on early and late Madonna, Madonna’s most recent songs are highly computerised almost, all the emotion has left. Agnetha’s interpretation in WDWGFH is commendable, just the song is a bit ordinary at the moment. Hopefully it grows on me. The YouTube comments are positive though.

One more note. If you want to listen to the pure voice of Agnetha or Frida. Play their solo albums up to 1975.
You know why Abba didn't like to perform live. Because the voices were artificially modified in the studio and had to be sung live through playback. Otherwise, the songs would lose their appeal.

Phil Spector – Inventor of music walls.
1959–1962: Beginnings of production, Philles Records.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound
I would say the first mixed group was The Mamas & the Papas in 1965.
The mecca of US music. Everyone learned from them. The British musical invasion of 1964 shattered this dominance and robbed many artists in the United States of their confidence. Still, I think the best music was and is being made in the United States.

An interesting note is that Benny and Bjorn found inspiration in Phil Spectra and later.
At the end of January, Andersson and Ulvaeus left Sweden and rented an apartment in the Bahamas where they felt they could get some inspiration by listening to American music and experiencing a whole different vibe to the rather conservative Stockholm. Two songs emerged from this time; "Voulez-Vous" and "Kisses of Fire". Excited by the former, they went to Criteria Studios in Miami to record the backing track with the disco band Foxy — the only time they recorded a song outside Sweden. Upon returning to Sweden to finish the songs, another track, "Does Your Mother Know", was recorded - a song that was to be the next single, and also the only mainstream release to feature Ulvaeus on lead vocals. The single would not become as big a hit worldwide as "Chiquitita", but was the most successful release from the album in the US.

evilincarnate, I don’t think anyone has asserted aggression and bitterness. The person in question isn’t even a member, they’re posting as a guest. We had someone once before that tried to shame the forum and make out that no one else, anywhere, was saying similar. Oh, naughty us, how dare we? Even if that was the case (which it isn’t and never was), so what? Does that mean we shouldn’t give our constructive criticism?

I do think the marketing has been quite poor for this (and I know I’m not the first to say that). It was set up as though it was a completely new album. We got over that disappointment. The single artwork and title suggested something with much more depth than we got, so for many of us there was going to be further disappointment. The vocal manipulation is only part of it I think. The song itself just isn’t that good.

Thanks paulman for that. I guess people - and not just here, not just about this song - are focusing on one particular technique that first came to prominence with Cher's "Believe" way back in the late 1900s and has remained fashionable ever since. The studio environment is constantly evolving. And talk about those techniques has been going on forever too. The old school singers and musicians asserted that "modern singers" (in the 1970s!) couldn't sing as well as the previous generation. That still goes on: we all become our parents in some respects. I think the more obvious or intrusive a technique is, the more likely it is to attract comment. The vocoder on Under Attack, for instance, has even declared "old hat" at the time. Cher's "Believe" was cited as evidence that she couldn't sing - which is utter nonsense (I'm not a fan, but can't deny her abilities). The latest Kylie single, Tension, is 3 minutes of in-your-face vocal effects and it sounds fantastic. Studio tools FTW!

In this case, I wonder if people just don't like its prominence on the track? It was a subtle enough production flourish on the original album. I know some people kvetched about it, but it didn't ping my radar at all. I wonder if people need to use it as a reason to explain why they dislike the new track - because it's natural for more invested fans to want some reason for a thumbs-down; they want to make sure it's not just a bias-driven side-swipe. I think that if Elofsson (and Agnetha) had wanted to disguise all evidence of age, they'd have ironed those gorgeous little crackles out of the verse too.

For me, the song just fails to deliver. It lands somewhere in the lower half of the songs on the album. A personal view, of course. Some of the songs I really dislike are beloved by others. If we're going to have hair-pulling about someone disliking a song we love, we need to have strong words with ourselves. Aren't we all grown-ups?

There's one other issue here that seems to exaggerate the unfortunate sense of "negativity" - the deflation people felt when this project turned out to be just one new song on a remixed old album. That blame lies squarely with BMG. Not Agnetha. Not the album. Not the new single. It's an issue that needs to kept entirely separate. The problem is that people reacted with disappointment to that news and - I'm sorry - but some were also disappointed in the new single too. The two reactions happened in quick succession, making it look like Agnetha couldn't win. If Agnetha's letter had been the first salvo - and not the audiovisual teases - we'd have approached this discussion in a different way.

Right now, it looks like we have maybe three camps on this forum: 1 - people who love the single 110% and cannot countenance that anyone would think differently; 2- people who think it's an average song that might not have been a single had it appeared on the original album (full disclosure, that's me); and 3 - those who seemingly hate it. All views are valid.

Maybe some people are disappointed by what they perceive to be failing vocal abilities. That seems crazy, when our heroine is 73. We can't expect the body to age and the voice to remain untouched. I've heard singers lose their mojo in their early 50s and no amount of vocal production techniques has been able to correct it. I'm one of that crew who loves the new textures that age brought to both voices on Voyage. I'd love to hear both women deliver material with those gorgeous voices on new solo projects. Age is a triumph over life. The older you get, the bigger the win. If you have a problem with age, you'd better start giving your mirrors to charity shops, because none of us escapes it (unless the grim reaper is moving faster than us).

I'll still buy it and I'm intrigued to hear A+.

I've listened to the song a couple of more times this morning and still I find myself somewhat torn. It doesn't 'tickle my ears' the way many of her songs still do. This is the first time this has happened to me! Taking album tracks out of the equation, I've always liked, loved even, every Agnetha single release. If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind still gives me 'ghost'bumps. I feel a tad sad about it and even slightly guilty, which is ridiculous. Am I a bad fan? Usually, I'd have any new song on repeat and be buzzing about it for ages. Maybe I'm just a jaded old fool. It's disappointing to me because I remember how utterly thrilled I was when My Colouring Book was released and when I first saw that picture of Agnetha and Frida on the carpet with Meryl Streep there were real tears! The same with the Voyage premiere on YouTube. I still feel emotional when Frida sings those first few lines of I Still Have Faith In You.

I think I'm overthinking it all. It's ok to not rave about everything. It's not the end of the world.

Some great points all round. I just want to say this then I don't think I've got anything more to say - for now, anyway! - about this song.

I don't think anyone who listens to popular music is likely to be ignorant of the fact that there have been various vocal treatments deployed, to a lesser or greater extent, to singers' voices throughout the history of pop. Nor have they conveniently ignored, or at last decided to concede (not that there's anything wrong with that), that ABBA also used vocal manipulation. My point in my previous post was simply that a few of us don't like how it's deployed on this one particular Agnetha track.

Not a difficult distinction to understand. And hypocrisy has nothing to do with it.

Here's a cover version for comparison.

I knew she would like it. Now it's a real top hit.

Thanks for the link. A very nice article. Where Do We Go from Here? is really growing on me

Same. I just can't remember it at all.


itunes chart news (yes I know not many download these days)

Sweden #2
Netherlands #41
UK #42
Germany #43
Australia Not in Top 200.

in Sweden not in the Top 200 Spotify chart.

Oh dear, half a week is a long time in the world of pop.

Blimey, UK number 42 in iTunes? I think someone said it was number one to start with, then you reported it as number 5, johnny, and now dropped to 42.

iTunes charts are irrelevant anyway, but with drops like that it’s difficult to take them seriously at all.

At least no one is going to be clinging on to any hope of it charting. Back in 2013, many had high hopes. Only one of the four singles charted, the one with Gary Barlow, at number 99, but that was mainly because of the Children in Need performance.

It was a one day wonder.

Now at #99 on itunes in UK and never made Spotify charts (Top 200)

In Sweden WDWGFH only made #117 on the Spotify chart.