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There was a time when I dismissed Abba as 70s fluff but I have grown since then. I have never ventured beyond the greatest hits album I have, but what is on there is perfectly written and arranged pop songs with a great “wall of sound” type recording.
Last winter I was out shoveling snow on an especially cold morning, generally cursing weather and work and life itself, and a car drove by with its windows down blasting Chiquitita at top volume and it instantly improved my day.

Anthony Flack wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 8:26 pm

zircona1 wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:33 am And I admire how they said "no" to a multi-million $ reunion deal.

In favour of a multi-billion $ Dorian Gray computer hologram fuckery show? It seems the only reason they turned down a reunion was because they believe their wizened appearance would be too tragic. Which is vain and silly.

I think it's more about printing money without worry of an expiration date.

ABBA...not much bad to say about ABBA. Great productions, arrangements and singing, and they look great too. Some of the B-Sides are pretty much throwaways, but I think it's gonna ben hard to come up with endless bangers, I guess.

Most surprising I think is how good the lyrics are generally. Much better than they have to be, for sure. Lot's of wonderfully melancholy songs about being an adult and not getting what you want...even Dancing Queen makes a point that this is the kind of thing you can do when you're 17....and that's her, and not you, you sad old fuck. Later spelled out more explicitly in Slipping Through My Fingers.

zircona1 wrote: Mon May 13, 2024 8:22 am I was referring to something I read many years ago where they turned down a ton of money for a reunion tour.

Yeah but since they subsequently went and did something far more tawdry instead, it now seems like their principal objection to reuniting was not selling out but looking wrinkly.

Not crap, you complete nimrods.

Anthony Flack wrote: Mon May 13, 2024 3:23 pm

zircona1 wrote: Mon May 13, 2024 8:22 am I was referring to something I read many years ago where they turned down a ton of money for a reunion tour.

Yeah but since they subsequently went and did something far more tawdry instead, it now seems like their principal objection to reuniting was not selling out but looking wrinkly.

So, Benny, Bjorn....
let me offer you a ton of money for taking a break from sunbathing naked on the the Stockholm Archipelago and go on the road with your ex-wives.
or......
let me offer you a magical ATM that requires that you do nothing and allows you to continue plugging in the holes in your wine collection, ad infinitum, while your avatars present you forever young and beautiful, resplendent in bejeweled catsuits.

NC, but three or four songs at a time is all I can cope with

Well, I guess if you were feeling charitable you could say it wasn't vanity that stopped them from reforming - although they did make statements about not wanting to "spoil" their fans' image of them in their youth - but simple laziness, mutual loathing and general lack of interest. But we can agree it wasn't out of any particular aversion to making a shitty cash grab, despite how it looked at the time.

The only thing more embarrassing than Gen X-ers pretending they like shit like Lizzo to be down with the kids is Gen X-ers pretending that ABBA was something worth appreciating.

All Blonds Bastards Are.

Being a 70s child I have a certain sentimental attachment to Abba.- Even if judged objectively I think they had at least enough good songs - including a few great ones - to justify owning a compilation by, which is more than I can say for any other Eurovision winner. N/C.

My grandparents would often play the live Abba DVD in the car on long trips when I was a kid. My grandpa who introduced me to Neil Young sang the Abba songs with such fervor that I can't Crap Abba.