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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bobby Morrow, Mar 8, 2018.

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  1. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    It says something about the quality, imo.
    Fans of the music probably don't like to part with the cd's and I suspect, especially in these days, many of these are serious about their collection, like us freaks. ;)
    Vinyl probably shows up more often because it sold in the gazillions back then.
     
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  2. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    When I do see the vinyl in charity shops it's usually in great condition. I played mine to death.:D

    Other than Abba Gold (occasionally), I haven't seen an Abba CD in years.
     
  3. Suspicious Minds

    Suspicious Minds Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium
    VV was in my parents' LP collection. I liked it as a kid and I still think it's a smasher! Still my personal favorite - with Arrival and Super Trouper. VV is a disco pinnacle!
     
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  4. Suspicious Minds

    Suspicious Minds Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium
    PS (and slightly off topic)

    I never understood why some music critics tend to downplay ABBA's music. It's f* brilliant! Says a guy who likes rock 'n roll, rhythm & blues, country & western, rock, punk, soul, reggae AND - yes - disco.
     
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  5. siveld

    siveld Forum Resident

    I bought the cassette when it came out in 1979 and still have it. I love the album and thought it should have done much better chart-wise. I think it made
    number 5 in the Australian charts. To me it only has a couple of weaker tracks, If it Wasn't For The Nights and The King Has Lost His Crown. Everything
    else to me is classic ABBA. To me it is the best ABBA album of all, and hence, yes it is under-rated.
     
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  6. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    It’s funny how Voulez-Vous is often seen as one of Abba’s lesser albums... Here it spent a month at #1 eventually becoming the 5th biggest selling LP of 1979. Yet it’s still seen as a ‘flop’ somehow.:D
     
  7. elgreco

    elgreco Groove Meister

    Over here in Holland it was a big seller too. Two of the singles, Chiquitita and I have dream, even managed to reach the top spot. So in that way Abba continued the series of #1 hits they had in the preceding years and VV wasn´t regarded as a drop-off.
    It sold as much as Arrival and Super trouper, and I don´t think it´s underrated. Some might say that the disco overtones on a few of the songs make the album more ´dated´, but I´m not so sure. Lay all your love on me from Super trouper is as clubby as it gets and it´s considered a masterpiece of songwriting by many fans. I do think that Super trouper and Arrival are better albums in terms of overall quality, but Voulez vous is definitely not a lesser album of theirs. Everything preceding Arrival is much weaker. But yes, I can see how Abba was taken for granted as a hit machine circa 1979.

    Oh, and count me in as another fan that never understood why Lovelight wasn´t on the album...
     
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  8. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    These are Abba’s UK album chart statistics according to the Virgin Official Hit Albums book. This edition was published in 2009 so they’ve probably sold a lot more since then.:) The 3 rows of figures on the right are, Peak Postion, Weeks at #1 and Weeks on chart.

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Jarleboy

    Jarleboy Music was my first love

    Location:
    Norway
    He, he. You do have a point. Somewhere. :wave:
     
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  10. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    It's obvious why you see more Gold (CD) and Greatest Hits (Vinyl). I'm sure the albums on CD were bought by the more dedicated fans given they came out after ABBA ceased recording. These remain in collections or go for sale online. Charity shops are pretty much a measure of titles that sold big to casual buyers.
     
  11. FKA002

    FKA002 Forum Resident

    I bought the CD Boxset "The Albums" last week-end in a record store, the casher put the CDs in their sleeves, and when it came to Voulez-vous, she said "Ah Voulez-Vous, their best album"
     
  12. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    Did your doctors visit go well?
     
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  13. Jarleboy

    Jarleboy Music was my first love

    Location:
    Norway
    It did, thank you for asking. :agree: It seems I may still be among the for a few more years. It was nothing serious, just some stomach troubles that wouldn´t leave. He thought I´d be right as rain in a couple of weeks.
     
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  14. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    I had something similar a couple of years ago. I went from someone who never had stomach ache to having it all the time. Never got to the bottom of what caused it, but it did clear up.. It's a worry though, isn't it? Glad you're not going to pop off anytime soon.. The Cliff thread would be devastated if you did.:D
     
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  15. bob60

    bob60 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    Actually, I consider @Jarleboy to be the Cliff Richard of these forums :D
     
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  16. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I wouldn't entirely discount charity shops (I have bought 10 CDs in the last week, and I don't suppose any of them were sold big to casual buyers), but what really surprises me is that they don't turn up in regular stores. It's not like they are really expensive online. Music Magpie sells the original Voulez-Vous for just over two Pounds.
     
  17. Jarleboy

    Jarleboy Music was my first love

    Location:
    Norway
    Good to know. :righton: No,it´s not nice, but it does pass. Eventually.

    He, he... No plans to leave this mortal coil as of yet.
     
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  18. Jarleboy

    Jarleboy Music was my first love

    Location:
    Norway
    He,he... Let´s try that premise:

    Old? Check.
    Single? Check.
    Written off by many? Check.
    Warm singing voice? Eh... Not exactly.
    Good looks and attractive manners? Certainly not.
    More than 120 hit singles?Maybe not.
    Good intentions toward the whole human race? In principle, yes. Well spotted, @bob60!:righton:
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
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  19. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I've got to agree with Jarleboy - I always loved that track - I preferred it to Take A Chance On Me when I bought that single in 78. It has a similar vibe to David Essex's Stardust which is a piece of melancholic beauty. I was always disappointed there's no studio version of the great Get On The Carousel on subsequent reissues of The Album. Maybe they didn't record one. I added a live rip to my custom version.
    Re Voulez Vous, I also customised VV - excised several tracks and added others to make it a pretty hard-core disco album. I like it the way I've got it, but I think the original album is sort of half-arsed. Can't tell you exactly what I took off or added because it's on a portable hard drive somewhere, but I know I gleefully threw out Chiquitita and I Have A Dream, added SNC (short version since the long version ruins it), Lovelight and the extended version of the title track.

    I had a stomach problem (nausea/acid/pain etc) for a year, the doc put me on PPIs which worked, but worried about long-term effects I gave up the pills after a year and stopped drinking black coffee for breakfast. Cured! Good luck JB. BTW have you heard the recent Go-Kart Mozart cover of Sir Cliff's :angel: Big Ship?
    Also, did you know that Agnetha/Frida sound quite like Anna von Hausswolff? :whistle:
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
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  20. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    I do agree about Chiquitta. To this day when I hear the strings on the intro my heart sinks. I know it’s a quality song/production/performance, but it just brings me down for some reason.

    I kind of agree with Benny and Bjorn when they said they felt they never got Summer Night City ‘right’. Certainly adding a long, slow, out of place intro wasn’t the way to go... The single version is the best one IMO.

    I can take I Have A Dream. Correctly released in December and therefore becoming the biggest hit from VV in the UK. Abba knew we buy any old schmaltzy crap around Christmas time.:D

    Re our poorly guts: I don’t drink coffee so I know that didn’t cause mine. I tried to consume more water, which I continue to do, and it seemed to clear up. Worrying, as like everyone, I’m surrounded by people who’ve had or have cancer. That was the first place my mind went.
     
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  21. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    I bought new Canadian pressings of the albums I already had because my UK ones were overplayed on a big suitcase mono record player with an arm the size of jupiterback when I first got them.
     
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  22. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I admire the craft but don't like to listen to it. I don't usually like children's choirs in songs, and yes - it is a guaranteed but somewhat cynical method of scoring a hit Xmas single. I don't care how cute they are, and yes it was for UNICEF, but they're not getting to me that way. I love Frida's voice, but Dream doesn't fit if you're making a disco album and the lyrics are just way too sugary.
    Abba liked to reach to all audiences though, but I'm entitled to edit out sacred cows to adjust to my personal taste.
     
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  23. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    [​IMG]

    This was my mid-70s record player. It played slightly too fast and obviously ruined everything it touched.:D
     
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  24. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    This was our one.

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member Thread Starter

    Yours must be better than mine as it has an extra button.:)
     
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