Abba - Voulez-Vous. Is it an underrated album?

I then "upgraded" to this record player that had speakers that could clip onto the top of the turntable when not is use as lids. It was stereo as well!! However there was a design fault and all LPs seemed to play slow on it, a while later I found out there was a strip of plastic which rubbed against the turntable if too much weight was put on it, once I trimmed that down it played normally. Oh the joys of cheap record players..

 

I ‘upgraded’ to this. Because we weren’t well off, I had to have a lot of my stuff from the catalogue. They seemed to specialise in Fidelity equipment. For years I thought the brand was high quality. I was probably into my twenties when I realised they were ‘budget’ priced.

 

Is it underrated? Well, what rating are we looking at? On rym, it's rated 3.53/5, behind Super Trouper, The Visitors, The Album and Arrival, in that order from highest to lowest. But they're all rated very close to each other--Super Trouper is 3.60/5, so they're all within about a hundredth of a point from each other. For rym, that seems reasonably respectable.

 

Vooooouuuleeez-vooooooussss.

 

Same, in fact I think my father had something similar to the above.

 

It was amazing in 1979 when we upgraded to this. Bought in Woolworths.

 

Posh.

 

It’s my perspective, really. Even though Voulez-Vous did extremely well (in the UK), I don’t think it’s spoke of with the same reverence as Arrival, The Album, Super Trouper and The Visitors. It’s kind of the forgotten ABBA album in my eyes. I mean, it’s probably not, but I thought it deserved a thread just to make doubly sure.

 

Nice to see someone praise SUPER TROUPER so highly. I agree. For me, every ABBA studio album up to ST has moments of greatness but no small amount of fluff (imo). VOULEZ-VOUS is no exception for me. I was living in Mexico at the time the album came out and their Spanish language version of "Chiquitita" blasted out of every radio and window for what seemed like months

Although I've owned every ABBA album at one time or another, in my advanced years I've consolidated my ABBA CD collection down to the two target Greatest Hits and the original West German versions of SUPER TROUPER and THE VISITORS. No overlap (I think) and I've always got rips of my favorite album tracks that aren't represented on the hits collections.

 

It could be that it's seen as a jumping on the disco bandwagon album. I like a lot of disco, so it doesn't bother me, but some Abba fans might prefer their Abba straight. I always liked Lay All! Your Love On Me and preferred the track VV to Angeleyes. I think most people preferred the latter.

 

Angel Eyes by Abba was in the charts the same time as Angel Eyes by Roxy Music. That must have been awkward.

 

Wonder how many people bought the wrong one by mistake?

 

I think Angeleyes is a bit weak compared to their most recent singles. Abba could be a little shrill at times and I think they were here.

 

I agree. Some good ideas in there, but not one of their best. It works well within the frame of the album, but a single? Not in my book. You can also hear that this was one of the early songs on the album - what emerges as fully fledged funk/disco on the title track, is less fluid on "ANGELEYES". (To a certain degree, this also applies to "AS GOOD AS NEW", but that song is so great a less than funky rhythm track doesn´t detract from the song at all. So fresh.)

 

Nope. I'm not having that. Angeleyes remains one of my favourite Abba singles. Voulez Vous got more airplay and consequently Angeleyes tended to get a bit overlooked when it came to compiling the hits.

As for the album, for me it just does not hang together very well. Away from the singles, the deeper cuts I think are poorer than those on the previous two albums and those that were to come on the next two. Both Lovers & If It Wasn't For The Nights are a bit shrill. I've never been that fond of I Have a Dream or Chiquitita (which sounded like writing to formula to me, a Fernando re-run). As Good As New should probably have been a single though. And I hate that cover. It was everything I loathed at the time and still do. Plastic showbiz glamour. Middle class Euro sophistication. Bow ties. Ugh. They knew better.

So...not underated, no!

 

Same here, Ah-ha-ha!!!

 

Wish I’d done this as a poll now...Would have been interesting to see what songs got the most votes.

 

Cue... another poll. I´ll be there to share my prejudices. (Have to warn you, though, that I do love "CHIQUITITA", though I tend to play it less often than the other tracks. I consider it a classic ABBA song - lovely structure, great elements add up to a very good song. Having said that... Perfection - of a kind - is something you don´t need to hear that often. Same with Cliff´s "MISS YOU NIGHTS" and "WHEN TWO WORLDS DRIFT APART" - I love and admire the songs, but I can´t hear them too often. I don´t want them to lose their impact.)

 

I quite like the cover, particularly the shade of blue, which is matched by Agnetha's dress. In the pictures where she's holding what looks like a lightsaber, she looks like a character from Star Wars.

 

That's how I feel about "I Have A Dream".
The album is masterful, but "I Have a Dream" is my least favorite ABBA song. I find the sitar cloying, it lacks personality, and any song that uses that much children's choir is no good.
But it's the only dud.

 

I don’t think I Have A Dream is quite as draggy as Chiquitita, but I wouldn’t break my neck to hear either of them.

 

"The Piper" ?

(* fixed )

 

Janne Schaffer plays an electric sitar.
(from the very expensive Complete Recording Sessions book )

 

My favourite ABBA album. I think Super Trouper is their worst.

 

That is a very interesting version !
Many of those elements were used live on the '79 tour version of the song ...

Not live. surprise.

I always feel sorry for their loyal sidemen, who were all excellent musicians and played on the recordings, but who had to travel from Sweden to the various tv appearances and do "the miming thing" for a few minutes, but not get to do their thang ... The real live gigs were few and far between ... Any other temporary help could've been hired to pretend to play music on television but ABBA always took their people along.