ABBA - Voyage

Hope not, Free as a Bumblebee isn’t one of the most inspired jettisoned tracks of theirs.

Under My Sun/Rubberball Man was a strange write off. No idea if they reworked that into another track.
 
The lyrics are indeed absolutely amazing.

I always loved their phrasing choices, even when it's technically not quite correct, or just sounds a little bit off - there's something still so beautiful and poignant about the words they choose. That was really more noticeable on some earlier stuff, but the lyrics to the new ones are just a masterclass in storytelling in song.
 
Under My Sun/Rubberball Man was a strange write off. No idea if they reworked that into another track.

Bits of it were reused in Under Attack. Rubberball Man must have been fairly well advanced when they scrapped it, as it has a full orchestrated backing track...it just lacks finished lyrics. They must have concluded that Gimme Gimme Gimme had more potential, and they only needed 1 new song for Greatest Hits vol 2.
 
Bits of it were reused in Under Attack. Rubberball Man must have been fairly well advanced when they scrapped it, as it has a full orchestrated backing track...it just lacks finished lyrics. They must have concluded that Gimme Gimme Gimme had more potential, and they only needed 1 new song for Greatest Hits vol 2.

I think bits of it were also used in the Saxophone version of Just Like That which thinking about it got repurposed in Under Attack.
 
I think Knowing me Knowing you is maybe the quintessential Abba song - the strange mix of Despair and Euphoria in the production and words , the way those vocals carry such depth of Sadness and Hope .. I wonder if any music critic at the time realized the utter genius of this .. I actually cannot believe they weren’t taken seriously during their imperial phase
 
I’d struggle to pick a favourite ABBA song but Knowing Me Knowing You would possibly be the one - The wonderful storytelling lyrics combined with a strong melody and driving production topped with some sublime vocals and harmonies from the girls makes it a near perfect song that I love today as much as I did 35 years ago.
 
It's impossible for me to pick one. It'd be easier to just reject the 5-6 songs I don't like and keep the rest.

By album though, avoiding the big hits, top picks would be:
Ring Ring / He is Your Brother
Waterloo / What About Livingstone
ABBA / Bang-a-Boomerang
(zany happiness!)
Arrival / When I Kissed the Teacher
The Album / Move On
Voulez-Vous / As Good As New
Super Trouper / Our Last Summer
The Visitors / When All is Said and Done
(although the entire album is only a heartbeat behind)
 
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