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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on May 12, 2022 23:19:07 GMT
Hi everyone. Had to prioritise some things for a few months but I’m back now. Meanwhile, I created a couple of album instrumental videos for Frida’s Something’s Going On, Shine and Gemini’s first album, which you might like. However, Something’s Going On and Shine got blocked on YouTube, but you can access the videos through the links in the description.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 12, 2021 0:06:27 GMT
Voyage
1. I Still Have Faith In You 2. I Can Be That Woman 3. Bumblebee 4. When You Danced With Me 5. Keep An Eye On Dan
ABBA Gold 1. Knowing Me, Knowing You 2. Super Trouper 3. The Winner Takes It All 4. SOS 5. Money Money Money
More ABBA Gold
1. The Day Before You Came 2. The Visitors 3. I Am The City 4. When All Is Said And Done 5. Summer Night City
Top 5 ABBA Studio Albums
1. The Visitors 2. Ring Ring 3. Super Trouper 4. Voyage 5. Voulez-Vous
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 9, 2021 11:17:07 GMT
I Can Be That Woman has grown on me a lot in the past couple of days. It has definitely gone up in my ratings. (9.5/10). Been playing it loads on Spotify.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 9, 2021 0:33:57 GMT
When ABBA stand on and occupy Mike Oldfield territory the outcome is always fantastic.!!!!! when you danced with me is one of the best songs on the album. also the vinyl liables don't tell you which is side one. if you do play side two first when you flip to side one I still have faith in you sound almost like a continuation of the Ode to freedom the two songs work incredibly well together. there does seem to be an A etche on to the actual vinyl but its very difficult to see. Side one is the longest so you ca go by the groovs Bumble bee is also rising fast as one of my favorites. The first A in “ABBA” on the label is in white to represent the A-Side, while the backwards B on the other side is white to represent the B-Side.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 8, 2021 18:16:44 GMT
Could it be the only ABBA song to chart that hasn’t been a single? We’ll have to see if they are still in the charts by Friday. I don’t think I Can Be That Woman would’ve been too far behind When You Danced With Me as well.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 6, 2021 17:27:53 GMT
One thing that strikes me: I find the endings to one or two of the songs a bit abrupt, almost as if Benny and Bjorn didn't have the time or inclination to 'fuss' with them any further. I wonder if the lack of fade endings is indicative of that at all? But otherwise I often like cold endings that say, in effect: that was the song, and now it's ended, no messing. And still preferable, in my opinion, to what I regard as the lazy padding things out that often goes on a lot of today's popular music that I've heard. Probably, it's the contrast with such songs, which makes Voyage's tracks stand out for me in this way. I agree with you with the cold endings. Only Just A Notion had a fade out. By having that, I found that song fleshed out nicely. No Doubt About It definitely could’ve benefited from a fade out.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 6, 2021 14:20:55 GMT
Here’s how I’d rate Voyage right now.
I Still Have Faith In You - 10/10 When You Danced With Me - 9.5/10 Little Things - 7/10 Don’t Shut Me Down - 8.5/10 Just A Notion - 8/10 I Can Be That Woman - 7/10 Keep An Eye On Dan - 9/10 Bumblebee - 9/10 No Doubt About It - 9/10 Ode To Freedom - 4/10
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 5, 2021 13:41:23 GMT
It also looks like the Amazon pressing has got the ABBAtars in the gatefold too.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 5, 2021 13:38:19 GMT
I’ve also got the 4 CDs with Frida, Agnetha, Benny and Björn on the front cover. The weird thing is, there’s a side portrait of Benny on the back of the Frida CD, a side portrait on the back of the Benny CD, a side portrait of Björn on the Agnetha CD and a side portrait of Agnetha on the Björn CD. If it was me, I would’ve put the same member on the front and back cover to keep with the consistency.
I absolutely love When You Danced With Me, Keep An Eye On Dan and No Doubt About It. I think they should’ve kept Just A Notion on this album. It’s brilliant, but wasn’t strong enough to be a single. I also really like Bumblebee so far. The instrumenal and lyrics for I Can Be That Woman are awesome. However, I would’ve like there to be more depth to Agnetha’s vocals, as it basically sounds like a song from Agnetha’s A album. (Where the vocals wears a bit thin and the overall atmosphere is outdated). Ode To Freedom is a difficult song as it feels quite heavy to listen to, if that makes sense.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 5, 2021 13:16:35 GMT
I was at HMV in Chester just after it opened at 9am. By a stroke of luck, the shopping centre it’s in is literally just round the corner from the hotel. I was the first to buy it from there. I got the alternative artwork versions of both the CD and yellow vinyl. It’s a nice yellow. Gatefold sleeve but slightly disappointed with the inner gatefold artwork (not sure if it’s standard or alternate). Plain black back cover with the tracklisting. I’ve got the HMV and Blue vinyl pressings. The Blue vinyl one has the ABBAtars heads on the left side of the gatefold whereas the HMV one has an eclipse (It uses the same cover art as I Still Have Faith In You).
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 4, 2021 23:35:58 GMT
Has anyone noticed that the album cover is moving with the sunrays? I haven’t noticed this animation before. I’m not drunk or anything.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 4, 2021 13:12:51 GMT
Do you reckon there’ll be any songs charting next week due to the release of Voyage? How would that usually work though?
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 2, 2021 13:52:06 GMT
There’s some more information bout the new songs, but coming from Björn. Björn Ulvaeus inför Abba-släppet: ”Nervös”Translation Björn Ulvaeus about ... The Christmas song "Little things": - When Benny played it for me, I immediately felt that "This is a Christmas song". It is not that we wanted to do a Christmas song, or that it would be "commercially good" to do a Christmas song right now. I just got such a clear picture of a "Christmas morning", this peace and quiet before the children have woken up, he says. "Bumble Bee": - The bumblebee is such a beautiful image for the vulnerable nature that we are talking about now. How species die out and how to watch a bumblebee under a blue sky on a summer day. And then the thought comes to "what if it no longer existed". It would be a kind of loneliness that man has never experienced before, when the species dies out and we are left. "I still have faith in you": - It is a bit existentialist, it needs to be in its narrative, I think. I am thinking of the journey we have made, and while it can be read just as if it were about us, it has other roots, about strange things, about "unions". I think people should be able to discover for themselves what it is about, says Björn Ulvaeus. "Ode to freedom": - What freedom is, it is very difficult to understand and there are any number of definitions. So I wish in the song that someone would write an ode to freedom that was good. "Keep an eye on Dan": - You have divorced someone and perhaps did not want to divorce, then you have your existence around the child that you share. And the very moment when you leave the child and leave, I think many people recognize that. I myself have been through it, of course, it comes from it.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 2, 2021 13:22:20 GMT
I notice that the first A in ABBA on the record label is white. I spotted that on a couple of the items in the Voyage shop and wondered if it was just a website error. I wonder if it signifies anything? Is it to be read as A Voyage? Could it be that the white A is to represent the A-Side perhaps? Is there a white B on the B-Side?
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Nov 1, 2021 19:36:26 GMT
The UK chart video has been updated, including the new songs and some errors removed.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Oct 25, 2021 16:18:23 GMT
I’ve had an email a minute ago saying that the order has been dispatched. So it should come within the next couple of days. I think that should be the same for everybody else in the UK.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Oct 10, 2021 16:07:43 GMT
Anyone see this? Extended remix of Don't Shut Me Down Looking again at Voyage website, you can buy Abbatars tickets, pre-order album and listen to the singles. You can buy the singles but have to search the website. The focus is sales for show and album - not singles. Unfortunately this brilliant remix has been blocked or copyrighted. So annoying. Just as it was going to reach 1 million views.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 3, 2021 21:29:17 GMT
There’s a brilliant MPH Extended edit of Don’t Shut Me Down.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 3, 2021 19:42:47 GMT
Ignore the thread “The new ABBA'S sing, it's beautiful” created by gabrijoan82. There’s a dodgy spam link in it
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 3, 2021 17:30:40 GMT
A round-up of the seemingly 20,000 different versions of the album: Vinyl (8) - Standard black Green - official store White - official store Orange - Amazon Yellow - HMV with alternate ABBA Tar artwork Blue - independent stores Picture disc with ABBA Tars Picture disc with album artwork CD (7) - Standard CD Deluxe box with ABBA Tar cards, stickers and poster Agnetha ABBA Tar cover Benny ABBA Tar cover Björn ABBA Tar cover Anni-Frid ABBA Tar cover HMV exclusive with all four ABBA Tars on cover (B and B in profile) Cassette (6) - Standard cassette Cassette with alternate ABBA Tar artwork Agnetha ABBA Tar cover Benny ABBA Tar cover Björn ABBA Tar cover Anni-Frid ABBA Tar cover Singles (3) - Don’t Shut Me Down CD (awful “hand” artwork) I Still Have Faith In You CD I Still Have Faith In You 7” (black vinyl) (All singles are one-track only) Have I missed anything? Ming-boggling indeed. Is there anybody who bought all of them? :-) I was quite determined to support the release as much as possible (at the time we thought there would be just a single or two) but honestly I haven't expected this. I still pre-ordered quite many - the coloured vinyls (not all of them though), the picture discs (thank you, The Rubber Ball Man for the link to the french site) and two versions of the CD. Oh, and the singles. After all, I have many of the classic albums in far more versions than this :-) I’ve bought all the Vinyl, Singles and CD’s (Except the CD exclusive). I didn’t get the cassettes as I have no interest in that format. There was quite an impulse yesterday that led me buying all that. I didn’t want to leave it too late incase everything had sold out, and resold on ebay for ridiculous prices (which is happening now.) I wasn’t interested in the T-shirts either. I’ve also noticed that the everything is limited to 3 per customer. It’s really not fair, as this is giving an opportunity for the greedy pigs to make a profit over inflated prices on ebay. But then, some customers may intend to buy more than one set for collector purposes or to give as a gift. ABBA didn’t make the UK charts. However, I Still Have Faith In You is No.8 and Don’t Shut Me Down is No.10 in the UK Downloads charts. What everybody needs to do is replay the new songs over and over again on Spotify or YouTube for it to stand a chance to compete against Ed bloody Sheeran.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 2, 2021 23:43:23 GMT
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 2, 2021 21:00:23 GMT
It’s so bloody annoying that the two picture discs have sold out immediately. Ugh. They will probably go onto eBay for ridiculous prices like the Summer Night City RSD release did. If you didn’t know, Amazon is releasing Voyage on Orange Vinyl. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09DYX3WQJ?tag=sdepcw-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1And indie stores are releasing Voyage on blue vinyl. You might be lucky to find it in Vinyltap.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 2, 2021 20:49:26 GMT
Do you think that I Still Have Faith In You and Don’t Shut Me Down will chart by tomorrow, in the short space of time?
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 2, 2021 18:22:48 GMT
Has anyone been able to buy anything from the ABBA Voyage site yet? It’s always clogging up.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Sept 2, 2021 9:49:51 GMT
ABBATalk have posted a picture of the holograms. This is exciting.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Aug 26, 2021 9:19:28 GMT
Brilliant news today. Can’t wait to see what ABBA Voyage really is. Meanwhile, Chiquitita, The Winner Takes It All and Super Trouper have been remastered.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Aug 17, 2021 20:49:29 GMT
Three more videos have been remastered. Fernando, Money Money Money and Take A Chance On Me.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Aug 12, 2021 12:44:04 GMT
Now Waterloo, SOS and Mamma Mia have been remastered.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Aug 8, 2021 15:52:27 GMT
Christmas has come early. It looks like Happy New Year has been remastered to 4K on YouTube today. Awesome!!!
So it’s the 2nd video that’s been remastered after Dancing Queen. Hope there’s going to be more to come.
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Aug 8, 2021 11:35:39 GMT
Here’s the Australian Chart History video. It’s a really interesting chart run.
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