Going against the grain (aka Ripping up the fan "rule book")

Full disclosure - bloomin' love TFTPOO and always have. And I rather like ISIITM. Don't even mind Crazy World too much. Maybe I've just got a soft spot for Bjorn's hangdog 'three-time-loser' vocal outings. I think he does that stuff rather well! I do massively struggle with IAJAG, however. Just not my bag at all. 

On another topic, is LT actually improvable?

I bow to no-one in my dislike of Little Things, which rivals I Am Just A Girl for the worst thing in the ABBA catalogue, but a while back someone on here posted a nice gentle piano-only (?) version and it really was quite nice. So I guess it could be improved.

I’ve compiled my own Greatest Hits 3 before now, with exactly the songs that Alan mentions. There are easily enough genuine hits.

Listen to Matt Pop's Little Things remix and you'll have your answer. It makes the song instantly ten times better.

That said my initial dislike for it was because I kept seeing it as a 'poor man's I Have A Dream'. Once I stopped comparing them I enjoyed it much more

I'm largely indifferent to Intermezzo No.1. I don't usually skip it. It's fun.

I'm one the few who doesn't mind ISIITM. I prefer it to Rock & Roll Band and MABABB. As for IAJAG, the vocals are part of the problem for me: that breathy Lift Muzak Singers style is very unABBA and makes my teeth itch. It's like something that would have been part of that awful Black And White Minstrel Show or The Good Old Days - cloying nonsense that passed for light entertainment in the early '70s. As for Just Like That, a tenner says it could be firmly mid-ranking on most lists of favourites if it had actually been released. Great chorus with an ill-fitting verse and some clunky lyrics. I think that DSMD is a very similar kind of song, but done much, much better.

The main problem with Little Things is the ghastly lyrics.
It's like Bjorn bought a Christmas cliches machine and just cranked them out.
The music has always been pretty good, and there's nothing an altered arrangement can do to change the awfulness of the lyrics. 

I’m liking both your post and the thread title, jj. 😃

Excellent. What has inspired and provoked us is, I’m afraid, this post:I find this attitude quite dismissive - it’s almost saying no one’s allowed to like these songs as the rule book says you can’t. The post made me want to go “Then again maybe yes, yes, yes!!” And @thisboycries agreed, I think!

But yes, thanks jj for creating this thread (the words used in the title may have been mine but their use in the title wasn’t). I have moved some posts to it.

Taking Alan's point a bit further, it's always nice to be able to come to the defence of a song or whatever that you think gets unjustly maligned. And picking up on Tony's, the great thing about personal views on music is that they can be highly individual, totally unreliable, subject to change - and don't even need to be justified. Not that that stops us, of course.

Not sure what page of the rulebook I'll find JLT on, but I'll probably skip over it anyway. It's a real 'meh' song, for me, and I really can't work myself up into a dudgeon - high or otherwise - over whether it should properly see the light of day. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another of the underwhelming Class of '82. Not a colossal fan of any of those songs tbh, though TDBYC is clearly comfortably the best of the bunch. 

As for TFTPOO, I AM genuinely surprised it attracts SO much 'stick'. Full of lovely little melodies and musical touches, just the faintest whiff/hint of musical theatre and, most of all, what about those backing vocals?! A&F's 'If you are dreaming" bit really is one of my favourite things in the whole ABBA catalogue and "we-eeeeeeeee may be the answer"... Just fabulous!  

The difficult-to-decipher acronyms are strong on this thread!

I'd like to toss my hat in the ring for a song that I believe to be thoroughly underrated - Gonna Sing You My Love Song.

I absolutely love it, it's probably my favourite Waterloo album song after the title track and Honey Honey.

Frida's vocals on it are gorgeous throughout, the chorus harmonies are great, the bridge is magnificent... but what I also like is the hidden 'sinister' meaning behind the lyrics, disguised by how saccharine the rest of the song is.

Whilst I'm not a major fan of either "I Saw It In The Mirror" or "Two For The Price Of One", there is no denying the backing vocals are splendid, particularly the more complex vocal arrangement on the latter - pure genius!

My all-time second favourite ABBA song.

It is magnificent.

Whilst ABBA’s biggest and most famous hits belong to everyone, this early album track belongs only to the fans who know them best.

Excellent. I'm one of the very few who absolutely loves BS's Never Say Die album! And the fact that the word ABBA lurks inside Black Sabbath is simply brilliant, of course. 

Hahahaha!

It is great to see posts like this and the one you were quoting. Followers of the fan rule book irritate the hell out of me.

Do some people feel afraid to go against the grain? Fear of being ridiculed? And also, if you’re not over-enthusiastic about, say, Just Like That you’re somehow a traitor against the community and are personally responsible for it not being released.

To add to the rule book, liking anything Agnetha releases. Not making it obvious that you might prefer her to Frida, but enough to stamp on anyone that doesn’t agree with you (which is what killed the A+/Where Do We Go From Here thread stone dead, as few will now go near it).