Voules-Vous
$12.99
That it took nearly a year to record Voulez-Vous is an indicator of the creative and personal constraints in which the four members of ABBA found themselves at the end of the ’70s. Their sixth album coincided with the marital split between Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus and the massively shifting currents in popular music, with disco, which had been on the wane, suddenly undergoing a renaissance thanks to the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever.
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- Reviews (2)
Description
That it took nearly a year to record Voulez-Vous is an indicator of the creative and personal constraints in which the four members of ABBA found themselves at the end of the ’70s. Their sixth album coincided with the marital split between Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus and the massively shifting currents in popular music, with disco, which had been on the wane, suddenly undergoing a renaissance thanks to the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever. Thus, about half of Voulez-Vous shows the heavy influence of the Bee Gees from their megahit disco era. This is shown not just in the fact that the backing track for the title song was cut at Criteria Studios in Miami, where the Bee Gees had cut Main Course, Children of the World, and most of the rest of their disco-era music, but through the funky beat that ran through much of the material; yet the album still had a pair of soft, lyrical Europop-style ballads, “I Have a Dream” and “Chiquitita,” both of which proved as popular as any of the more dance-oriented songs, and were reminders of Fältskog‘s and Ulvaeus‘ roots, in particular, in popular folk music during the mid- to late ’60s. Those two songs, plus “Angeleyes,” “Does Your Mother Know,” and the title cut, were all Top Five singles in England, although only “Chiquitita” and “Does Your Mother Know” were Top 40 hits in America, where the album’s sales peaked at a modest 500,000 or so.
m1-agency –
Am I really giving an Abba album three stars? Yes and er well no. The albums original nine tracks make up my favourite Abba long player. It was way ahead of it’s time, both technically and musically in 1981-82 so five stars all the way. But…what a let down this deluxe edition of Abba’s final album is.
I had great expectations that the last pieces of unreleased material from the Abba catalogue, that we know about at least, would finally see the light of my cd and dvd player’s laser. If ever there was going to be a chance of that long sought after, holiest of Abba’s most Holy Grail, “Just Like That” to get an official release this was it. Not to be. Yet again we have to be content with a few minutes of the intro and chorus contained towards the end of the 23 minute medley of out-takes “Abba Undeleted”, first released on the ” Thank You For The Music ” box set in 1996 and given minimal reissues since then. It’s such a shame that Benny & Björn still feel the track is not suitable for a complete official release. The version of “Just Like That”, recorded and released by Gemini (a Swedish brother/sister duo) on their out of print debut album but currently avilable here ” Best of Karin & Anders Glenmark /Gemini” is what Benny & Björn consider the finished song and as such are reluctant to release the Abba version. Most of the Gemini tracks were produced and written by Benny & Björn and are great examples of what kind of songs they would have recorded had Abba continued. Frida recorded a very different version of another Gemini track “Slowly” for her first album after Abba were placed on indefinite hiatus. “Just Like That” is the only track from Abba’s final recording sessions yet to be released in full. Those final sessions, were initially for their ninth studio album and when those plans were shelved, it became a greatest hits double album and two new A & B singles sides. Those four *new* songs are included as bonus tracks in this deluxe edition of “The Visitors” along with a fifth track from those final sessions, “I Am The City”, first released on the 1993 compilation ” More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits “. It’s great to have these five tracks finally together on one disc but to not release “Just Like That” is a HUGE disappointment. Agnetha has been quoted remembering it to be a good song and hoped it would get a release. We continue to wait.
m1-agency –
This is a review of the ABBA “The Visitors” Deluxe Edition which includes a remastered CD of the album and a DVD with a few songs & interviews. I remember back in the early ’80’s when I bought the vinyl record. No one could know at that time it would be their last. At that time I didn’t think the music was as catchy & uplifting as previous albums. The tone in this album is a little too serious and in retrospect must have reflected the group may have known the end was near. 30 years later my original feeling holds. There are a few songs I like, “One of Us”, “The Day Before You Came”, “When All Is Said & Done” but the rest not so much. Actually the middle song mentioned was not on the original album and was a bonus track. I have read the nearly 100 reviews of people on this site and the consensus is this may have been their best album musically and from an innovative standpoint. This may well be true. Perhaps looking back maybe I have less enthusiasm knowing now this was the last album and it made me sad it was over and maybe a little sore so I can’t separate that. The disappointment I stated in my title is moreso with the DVD included. I have all the deluxe editions and this one to me the makers mailed-in. I don’t know if ABBA had much input on what goes on the DVD’s? Maybe it was Polar & Universal Music that made all the decisions? What has struck me is there is absolutely no consistency to the deluxe edition CD/DVD combos. They weren’t released in order and some DVD’s contain alot of content including entire TV shows they did and others next to no content with only snippets from TV shows. I’ll get back to that shortly. In my opinion, “Voulez Vous”, “ABBA” & “Arrival” had the most content with complete TV shows and were very good. “Voulez Vous” especially was well done and looked like they made a maximum effort. There is alot of content and the menus were cool and in-motion. Outstanding. “ABBA: The Album” & “Super Trouper” had very few songs and mostly contained interviews which are interesting to see once but its the music you really want.