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Post by Alan on Sept 6, 2023 15:12:25 GMT
There was actually a video message from Agnetha in the Lorraine feature. Someone’s presumably recorded it on their phone from the TV. Her message is at 2:40.
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Post by Alan on Sept 6, 2023 9:18:04 GMT
I think once is enough for that! Seems very far removed from the real person. I’d rather it look a bit more like her.
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Post by Alan on Sept 6, 2023 8:54:03 GMT
Having sat through Lorraine, I’m reminded why I never watch ITV.
A visual message from Agnetha was unexpected, but we only got a few seconds of the video.
Full video on YouTube from 10am.
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Post by Alan on Sept 5, 2023 15:36:22 GMT
Bizarrely, Ross King’s segment is “Live From Hollywood” so seems odd that the video is included in that. Unless, of course, it’s been produced by an American company. Some stills from the video:     Guessing there was no inspiration from this…  (“Tiger” sequence from ABBA-Dabba-Doo!) As I suspected, it makes sense of the picture disc design. In a way it’s not unlike how the ABBATars were used to promote the Voyage album and I Still Have Faith In You. As with Voyage, where the ‘Tars were used for alternate artwork and a picture disc, here we get similar with a picture disc. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2023 14:40:27 GMT
The transcript of Agnetha's interview on BBC radio (31-08-2023) with Zoe Ball can be found here :
There’s also the interview itself, this one provided by our very own The Rubber Ball Man: |
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2023 12:43:26 GMT
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. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 3, 2023 9:29:24 GMT
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.
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Post by Alan on Sept 2, 2023 18:59:19 GMT
I think I'm guilty of a couple of things. Going by the title, I allowed myself to go on a flight of fancy that the title meant the song might be an introspective, reflective ballad on the meaning of life. All haunting and angsty and deep and stuff. That's what I'm mostly drawn to I guess. I think many of us thought this. The artwork of the single, with its sepia tones and a strong, realistic photo of Agnetha suggested exactly what you describe. And above all, that title. I was expecting something much deeper than what we got. I know “I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed” isn’t that popular but something along those lines, even if she didn’t co-write it. That’s the highlight of “A” for me, simply because there’s more of her in that than in any other track. I know she didn’t write the lyrics but I would hope she had some input on what she wanted to say in it. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 2, 2023 13:11:32 GMT
You are stuck in the past. Vocal manipulation is common these days. That doesn’t mean we have to like it, and have every right to say we don’t. Someone on another forum said “Shame about the vocal processing but everyone does that these days” as though that makes it OK. We have to accept it. Er, no we don’t! If this is the way it’s going, I’ll be listening to even less new music than I do already. And I’m absolutely fine with that. I’ve got about 18,000 songs on my phone (OK, so a lot of duplicates). More than enough there and some I’ll probably never listen to again. I therefore certainly don’t need to waste my time listening to modern, fake vocals. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 2, 2023 8:31:51 GMT
According to the latest fanclub magazine Agnetha's song is accompanied by an animated video so I assume that will be released shortly. Guessing that will explain the picture disc design (which on its own seemed a bit bonkers!). Presumably they can’t use the Agnetha-tar so have had to resort to animation instead. What I’d like to see in that is Agnetha through the ages, all the various looks she’s had over the decades (so the picture disc design would just be one of them). I’m thinking of something like George Michael’s Shoot The Dog (ignoring the political stuff in that).  |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 18:34:54 GMT
Mrs Mangel - now there's a blast from the past! 😁 I’ve just been trying to think when she said that, and I believe it was Des and Daphne’s wedding where they eloped, thinking that Des had broken his arm on his buck’s night. He hadn’t, so in true Neighbours style they were contacted in time and then married properly. evilincarnate mentioned Lou Carpenter earlier so I must have late 1980s Neighbours lodged in my mind forever! |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 18:20:39 GMT
Not aware of any code, bjorenny. I saw that when I ordered. Even though she’s changed record companies, it appeared to have remembered my log-in from ten years ago. Doubtless someone, somewhere, has a code but I doubt it’s widely publicised. If you haven’t actually ordered yet, prepare yourself for the postage costs. All going well until that point, but they don’t reveal that until the last minute, which is after they’ve sucked you in with what appear to be fairly reasonable prices! (As with the evening of the live stream on 2 Sept 2021, I got a bit trigger-happy with my order. Wed in haste and repent at leisure, as they used to say. Or was that just Mrs Mangel?) |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 15:43:45 GMT
Clearly not an unpopular comment at all, evilincarnate, as you have six likes for it! 😀 |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 12:45:36 GMT
Looking forward to this immensely, not so much the bits where that shady geezer is running around trying dodge Lou Carpenter from Neighbours… Tom Oliver plays quite a few characters in the film but my favourite is the taxi driver who just rambles on and on (“Tightest pair of white slacks” etc). I like that there’s humour in it and ABBA were fine with being the butt of a joke. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 12:41:14 GMT
Nicked from another forum:
“6th April 2024 marks 50 years since ABBA won Eurovision.
It’s a Saturday. There are no performances of ABBA Voyage or Mamma Mia! scheduled for that day.
I know there’s something going on….”
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 12:35:22 GMT
I was thinking that about some of the photos too, HOMETIME, especially the leaning on the piano one. I even put that on one of the posts but I quickly edited it out as I wasn’t sure. Oh well, at least they’re photos we haven’t seen before. |
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2023 12:28:51 GMT
Well Richard and Johnny, It is not forgettable. it says more about you 2. A shame really. Everywhere the reactions are positive but not here on this sour forum. That’s not true though is it? Joseph mentioned that he’d seen someone refer to the song as “horrible” and that word wasn’t used on here, so clearly reactions are not positive “everywhere”. Some people make the mistake of believing that you have to like everything an artist does to call yourself a “fan”. That isn’t the case at all. Stop trying to shame this forum and the people on it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 20:25:17 GMT
By the way, have you noticed that I Should Have Followed You Home seems not to have been remixed? All other songs have A+ behind them but ISHFYH doesn't. Or is it just because there is a text "feat. Gary Barlow" in the brackets behing the title of the song and so they forgot to add A+ (also in brackets) behind it? On the tracklisting on SuperDeluxeEdition, that song does have the A+, so I’m guessing that what you saw must have been an error? I’m assuming the re-ordered A+ tracklisting is for vinyl timing purposes to accommodate the additional track (so that the the two sides are as near to equal length as possible). Also possible that some of the tracks are of different lengths to the originals.  |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 20:20:54 GMT
Another new photo:  Colour version of the album cover shot:  |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 18:01:03 GMT
Nr. 1 iTunes UK and the Netherlands, nr. 4 Sweden, nr. 3 Germany It means so little though. Hardly anyone downloads anymore (well, legally anyway). |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 16:24:50 GMT
Yes, that bit fills me with dread, Michel. It was Elofsson’s subsequent comments that give me a bit of hope. Not much though. At least it is her original 2012 vocals, however they’ve been processed, rather than new ones. Usually re-recordings offer new lead vocals and they’re rarely - if ever - as good as the originals. |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 15:51:20 GMT
Not sure about the album… I picked up on this in the BBC online interview…
Referring to Back On Your Radio, the track used to test it:
"We started to listen and I just felt, oh, this is incredible. How can Jörgen do this with my voice?" said Agnetha. "It's the same singing, so I don't know how he's done it. It's like the song has new clothes."
This suggests it’s the original vocals but processed… not sure I’m going to like it.
There is some hope though… "Elofsson's production does the unthinkable - filtering her voice through vocoders and Auto-Tune and a myriad of contemporary digital effects. “We've been very careful with those kinds of things," he says. "We wanted to treat her vocals like they're holy, so when we use those things, it's more for effect.”
The single is OK. I’d have preferred natural vocals.
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 13:50:28 GMT
I'm not in a hurry to pre-order and I'm definitely not going to buy multiple copies of this as I did with "Voyage". At the most I'm going to get the standard CD, depending on what the reimagining sounds like. I already have three copies of "A" (the standard CD, the deluxe edition and the Japanese SHM CD). I wasn’t going to but I read the other day that the original “A” vinyl now goes for hundreds. Not seen that for myself, that was a comment on another forum. It’s ridiculous really, it was readily available in shops at the time. I tend to limit it to things I’m really interested in though. The picture disc design is a bit silly, but I don’t have a “crystal clear” vinyl as ABBA haven’t done one yet. The CD single only in bundles should be a rarity, but depends on how long these bundles are available for. |
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 12:34:41 GMT
Just spent £74 on the standard CD, the crystal clear double vinyl and the picture disc. As it’s a bundle, the CD single is also included.
I will resist the white vinyl though, as that was done for Voyage (and also Arrival in the coloured vinyl albums box).
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 12:10:14 GMT
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 12:06:04 GMT
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Post by Alan on Aug 31, 2023 9:52:27 GMT
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Post by Alan on Aug 30, 2023 17:49:23 GMT
It would seem that there are two vinyl editions: single LP on white vinyl, and deluxe double LP on crystal clear vinyl.
I’m assuming listings will go up on Amazon etc once the interview/premiere of the track has taken place tomorrow.
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Post by Alan on Aug 30, 2023 15:26:42 GMT
CD and white vinyl artwork. Looks like there are more photos.   |
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Post by Alan on Aug 30, 2023 13:26:27 GMT
Single artwork:  |
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