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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 13:56:03 GMT
“2CD format is packaged as a hardcover media book with a 28-page illustrated booklet including liner notes and unseen band images.”
Unseen as in never before used? I suppose they’ve got to try and sell this somehow but that’s getting desperate.
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 13:51:29 GMT
Not really surprised, johnny, no. Though that link you’ve posted - I am surprised there don’t appear to be multiple vinyl variants available (yet). The vinyls appear to have different authentic Polar labels across the sides from the various different eras. A nice touch, but if the only thing remotely interesting about this is the labels then it really is a sorry state of affairs!
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 13:05:51 GMT
I don’t care how many vinyl variants or even CD versions of this are made available, I won’t be getting it! The only thing that could tempt me is if it’s discovered that a rare or unavailable mix has mistakenly made its way onto it. Very unlikely but not impossible (I’m thinking of the Andante Andante mix that turned up ten years ago).
There could be a DVD with the upscaled videos though, and I Still Have Faith In You. They can keep the lyric videos though.
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 12:58:38 GMT
As a reminder, the very similar track lists of both Definitive and Essential. Essential merely removed the two Definitive bonus tracks but added four tracks for which videos were made. This new compilation removes those four tracks along with Thank You For The Music, On and On and On and The Visitors. It adds the five Voyage tracks and Hasta Manana.
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 12:45:17 GMT
Eagle was a Polar single, johnny, but Lay All Your Love On Me wasn’t. I don’t think Hasta Manana was a Polar single either. Not sure why that’s included. Otherwise looks like an update of Definitive/Essential, with some tracks removed and Voyage ones added.
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Post by Alan on Sept 4, 2024 11:38:20 GMT
If that artwork is real, it looks like they’re drawing inspiration from the 1982 compilation. Bit of a pity they aren’t using the same photo. No need for five tracks from Voyage. No Doubt About It wasn’t a proper single and Little Things could have been left off. Well, I guess that’s it then, no more previously-unreleased music. Not this year anyway. Sounds like they’re basing it on Polar singles, hence Love Isn’t Easy but not the other two justabba mentioned. Do we have a track list?
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Post by Alan on Sept 1, 2024 15:42:34 GMT
When I first heard Arrival in late 1977 aged 6, I hadn’t heard any of the tracks before and I wasn’t aware of what had been singles (or even necessarily what singles were!). I don’t remember thinking that those three tracks were anything that special. I took the ten songs as a whole and (being as this was the first pop album I had ever heard apart from a cheapo ABBA soundalike album) liked the ten tracks equally. I’m not sure I fully learnt what the three singles had been until The Singles in 1982. The previous Greatest Hits albums were unreliable in that sense, being as they included non-UK singles and even album tracks. I think I could only do these kind of polls if I’d heard every song an equal number of times. I’d be too tempted to rank the singles lower due to over-familiarity with them. For that reason it’s good that rickyrocknroller can get past that!
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Post by Alan on Aug 21, 2024 16:53:13 GMT
And of course the good old “f*****g in the moonlight” in one line of Summer Night City. There were actually two promos of the Summer Night City single on Epic as, when it was discovered, they did an earlier fade (3:34 cut to 3:10) to avoid the profanity (it only sounds like that once, and it’s near the end).
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Post by Alan on Aug 21, 2024 11:41:08 GMT
Yes, good video, lamont. The completist in me remains irritated that this is the only song from Voulez-Vous to have never had a visual performance. As Good As New was performed on the 1979-80 tour but I don’t think any footage survives of it.
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Post by Alan on Aug 21, 2024 11:35:52 GMT
Not just music, voyage2. It could affect all forms of art and media. In future we won’t know what’s real and what isn’t.
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Post by Alan on Aug 21, 2024 11:33:59 GMT
That’s a good trailer! I like to see live footage sync’d with studio recordings. I almost forget that live footage exists for some of those songs as I rarely watch it other than The Movie.
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Post by Alan on Aug 20, 2024 15:38:22 GMT
What about a half speed master edition and box set of singles for the Gracias Por La Musica album it got a Deluxe Edition no reason why it shouldn't get a Half Speed Master I supposed the half-speed remaster isn’t out of the question but I’d be surprised, considering it didn’t get the coloured vinyl or picture disc treatment in recent years. A singles box and picture discs are unlikely as it was just original Polar singles (with one or two exceptions) which were reissued in these sets.
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Post by Alan on Aug 20, 2024 15:32:34 GMT
That's exactly what I thought the lyrics were, so I'm glad I'm not the only one 🙄 I hadn’t noticed it but I only heard it the once. Listened to that bit and it’s unmistakeable! What exactly is it meant to be, a person’s name? I find these things really creepy. It’s bad enough when they’re all still alive but imagine these being “released” when they’re gone? Electronic music can sound cold due to the lack of real musicians, but at least you get human vocals. With this it’s all fake. I definitely don’t want to hear anymore of them. Real ABBA (indeed, real anything) or nothing for me.
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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2024 21:35:26 GMT
It’s a passable soundalike of Agnetha but it doesn’t bear much relation to ABBA. It sounds like one of her early 70s solo recordings translated to English.
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Post by Alan on Aug 19, 2024 11:32:09 GMT
If we get nowt then at least there is the reissue of Happy New Year on coloured vinyl. Not as exciting as new material, but better than sod all - which is what we have up to now. I don’t generally collect those but there will be the coloured vinyl box/picture discs/half-speed thing for the ABBA album next year, possibly as early as April. It will complete the set. After that though, there’s absolutely nothing to predict with any certainty.
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Post by Alan on Aug 18, 2024 12:01:01 GMT
Has everyone given up on the 2 unreleased Voyage songs seing the light of day? I think if there’s going to be a release of any kind then it’s got to include one or both of them. You mentioned The Definitive/Essential Collection. Neither of those (particularly the second incarnation) were successful the first time so I don’t see those happening unless the two unreleased tracks were included. Someone else mentioned the Thank You For The Music set from 1994. The main selling point of that was the unreleased stuff on it (as well as unavailable b-sides), so again a similar collection would have to provide something new.
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Post by Alan on Aug 17, 2024 20:05:14 GMT
…I would expect the label push hard and release ANYTHING, even if it was yet another coloured vinyls box set. Good point. I’m glad you mentioned that. I don’t think many of us would welcome another such set, but it again begs the question: why did they do that in a random year? The coloured vinyl album box was in 2020, followed by the picture disc issues in 2022. It seemed an odd thing to do, as either or both of those could have been saved for 2024. My thinking at the time (particularly when the picture discs arrived, which was post-Voyage) that they were clearing the decks. Getting them out the way as they had much more important releases planned for 2024. Equally with last year’s The Visitors issues. They were already two years late with those, and had done Ring Ring earlier in the year. Why rush them out? To leave just the Waterloo one (arguably the most boring of the series so far) for this year made no sense whatsoever if nothing else was in the pipeline. Perhaps it’s not too late?
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Post by Alan on Aug 17, 2024 13:45:13 GMT
Michal, I admire your optimism! I think the boat’s sailed on that though. I agree, it has been the dullest of major anniversary years. At the start of the year we thought we might have plenty of exciting releases to look forward to. In the end there was nothing (the Waterloo releases were part of an ongoing series that’s become increasingly tired and, even for that, weren’t particularly interesting).
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Post by Alan on Aug 12, 2024 19:35:57 GMT
Oh. Marc appears to have deleted his profile. That’s a pity. From an historical context, his posts were interesting. I had no idea until quite recently that Björn, Benny and Agnetha were photographed together in the 1980s (apart from the This Is Your Life appearance). As jj says, that news never made it to the UK. This was in the era when ABBA was a dirty word. Only mention them if it was unavoidable (ie. one of them was promoting a solo project, but even that was rare). Frida would have had a very good reason for missing it. In later years we were more used to Agnetha missing a reunion. Here’s another photo from then anyway.
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Post by Alan on Aug 8, 2024 20:37:41 GMT
Am I alone on thinking ISHFIY and DSMD could have been released much earlier? The songs would have done better too without knowledge of an album about to be released. Hometime -:I agree about releasing both songs on the same day wasn't the best of ideas - (nor releasing them on a Thursday). Not sure… they wanted maximum impact on pre-orders for the album. Also, extremely heavy hints were being dropped about a full album long before the official announcement, so the option of pretending there were just the two songs was not really possible. Also there was a very long gap between the two singles and the album. If it was, say, a week, I’d agree that it might have had an impact. But two months, definitely not. I’m in favour of the decision to release both songs on the same day. Releasing separately may possibly have helped achieve a higher chart position for the first one, but would probably have had the opposite effect on the other. The way they did it meant a top 20 placing for both. I’m not so sure about a Thursday though. They perhaps thought that a Friday release would allow time for rips from YouTube, or that a Friday evening live stream would have a smaller audience. The novelty value of an ABBA return had worn off by the time of the third single. Just A Notion isn’t a great song but I doubt anything else would have done any better. Its purpose was to promote the upcoming album, and it achieved that. I concur with HOMETIME - this song seemed to get more Radio 2 airplay than any of the other three singles. It was always being played! Little Things was the only real mis-fire. It neither became a novelty hit nor promoted its parent album. Björn really did disappear up his own backside if he thought those lyrics were a good idea. No Doubt About It was NOT a single. It was merely released to radio for promotional purposes, so I don’t count it. Again though, it failed to promote its album.
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Post by Alan on Aug 8, 2024 18:15:46 GMT
ISHFIY and DSMD were the best choices for singles, and I haven't changed my opinion on that. I agree. I Still Have Faith In You was too good for it not to be a single. It was perhaps overshadowed slightly by Don’t Shut Me Down but it was the right choice. Plus, we wouldn’t have had that video without it being a single. Third single I’m really not sure about though. There’s such a huge gulf between ISHFIY & DSMD and the other eight that any of them would be a let-down as a single. Is it just me that can’t stand No Doubt About It? It seems to be the one song from Voyage that’s constantly going round in my head, but that’s not a good thing. Too fast and too short. And the “hey” cheerleader bits irritate me to death. No criticism of Frida, she does a good job of it, but the song isn’t that good. I’m not keen on When You Danced With Me either.
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Post by Alan on Aug 1, 2024 19:24:33 GMT
To clarify, jj, I was not blown away by it. The first time (May 2022), I was a bit underwhelmed, but I was seated on one side of the arena. The second time (January this year), I was stood right at the front (slightly to the right, so was directly behind Benny). I enjoyed it much more the second time, my only real criticism being the songs performed behind the curtain, though being closer to them highlighted the imperfections. I’m going again on 7 September, and again intending to be stood at the front. A real plus point was that there was no overcrowding, there was plenty of space. I could look at them and imagine the performance was just for me! That will probably be the last time I go though, unless there is a setlist change (which I’ve talked myself out of happening!) A major issue with ABBA songs for me is that I’m way too over-familiar with the big hits. The album tracks and non-international singles therefore are the highlights for me. A show of album tracks I would love, but it’s obviously not commercially viable and would make it a dull show for the masses.
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Post by Alan on Aug 1, 2024 16:12:15 GMT
Wow, johnny, don’t hold back! 😆 Following on from what jj said… 99% aren’t hardcore fans, but most likely the ABBA Gold/Mamma Mia! crowd, so will be easier to please than people like us. I didn’t expect to be blown away by it.
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Post by Alan on Aug 1, 2024 15:59:19 GMT
I’ll probably end up eating my words if it happens, but I don’t see a second venue happening anywhere. I still think they’ve bitten off a lot more than they can chew with this and it could still be a very long time before they see any profit. If it was really that easy, why aren’t other acts doing it? I know Kiss have talked about it but so far nothing’s happening. ABBA have the mass appeal that made it more viable, but I still don’t believe set changes and other venues are even remotely in the pipeline. jj mentioned in his review in another topic how, at times, some of the ABBATars looked better than at others. I noticed that too. It would suggest to me that it was worked on over a considerable length of time and that perhaps technology improved enough to make them more realistic. But if that’s the case, why didn’t they go back and re-do some of the sequences where they don’t look as good? Answer: probably not even remotely financially viable to do so. And therefore a setlist change is even more unlikely.
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Post by Alan on Jul 25, 2024 17:14:57 GMT
Not sure if I was aware that the dreadful Coca-Cola tie-in of Slipping Through My Fingers in Japan was part of a generic series including The Nolans, The Doobie Brothers and two acts I’ve never heard of. This is from an eBay listing. Not sure if it represents the full series or just some of them, though the listing claims it’s the full set. This was a low point for ABBA, though I’m guessing the price was right for Stig. I wonder if the other four acts were afforded an accompanying compilation album?
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Post by Alan on Jul 7, 2024 17:07:56 GMT
The article incorrectly states My Love, My Life as being a Warner compilation. It was actually Sony. Just two Warner-era tracks appear on the compilation (and one of those was from the album of children’s songs, with her son).
Of the other two mainstream Agnetha compilations, That’s Me was Polar/Universal and My Very Best was again Sony. Warner haven’t co-ordinated any Agnetha compilation, but contributed to all three of the others. All three of the current major record companies have therefore collaborated on Agnetha compilations.
This contrasts with Frida, where Warner (the current owners of Parlophone/former EMI label) have yet to collaborate with Polar/Universal. Frida has never recorded for CBS/Sony.
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Post by Alan on Jul 6, 2024 15:11:28 GMT
Was “Agnetha and Frida Leave” a translation of the headline? Leave what? Polar Music? If so, that’s correct. Neither recorded for the label again prior to Voyage. Agnetha moved to Warners and did two albums in 1987, so this article was largely just speculation.
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Post by Alan on Jun 28, 2024 17:06:18 GMT
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Post by Alan on Jun 28, 2024 16:10:54 GMT
Guessing there are no overdubs on what you have, abbafan09? I suspect the reason they’re so reluctant to release them officially - claiming they’re not good enough quality - is because they know we’re so used to the heavily overdubbed audio in ABBA The Movie and might be disappointed with the actual recordings.
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Post by Alan on Jun 28, 2024 14:15:24 GMT
Taylor Swift was because of her recent/current tour. Not sure what Beyoncé and Celine Dion coverage you’re referring to but as I’ve said before, there was nothing UK-related about ABBA getting this award.
It seems like it’s open-season on attacking the BBC and anyone seems to find any stick to beat them with (I’m talking generally, not specifically this forum). They’ve been extremely supportive of ABBA in the past and were involved in the recent “Against The Odds” documentary. In any case, other broadcasters did cover it so there was no real need for the BBC to.
The BBC is a major contributor to the EBU’s funds, so perhaps ABBA’s apparent snub of Eurovision this year didn’t help. And it was a snub. We’d have expected Björn to appear if nothing else, as he never seems to miss a media opportunity!
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