You Owe Me One, I Am the City and Cassandra really do not reach the lofty heights of Under Attack and The Day Before You Came for me. Definitely sounded regressive after the stunning Visitors album.
You Owe Me One was the last Abba song I got to hear after tracking down the 7” Under Attack single at a record fair back in the 90’s. It isn’t one of their greatest and I thought it was pretty weak. Cassandra is a nice sounding song and is definitely album track worthy. I Am the City is a strange one. I am not super keen on the song but when it came out of More Gold I was struck by how fresh it sounded for something recorded in 1982. I wondered if it had been remixed for the release but apparently bootleg versions sounded the same.
In addition to the tracks that have been mentioned, I'd add: Kisses of Fire, The King has lost his crown, Me and I, On and on and on, Soldiers, When all is said and done, One man one woman, Slipping through my fingers, That's me, My love my life, Lovers live a little longer. Ultimately it depends if you like your Abba uptempo or downtempo, electronic or not! You Owe Me One is an acquired taste. Benny and Bjorn apparently have gone off it. I don't mind it - the layered vocal lines are good. Fun fact: the introduction recycles the chord change from the start of the original unreleased mix of Does your mother know (as performed on the Swiss 1979 TV show)
Listening to Frida singing about a man looming over her and being vaguely threatening before it giving way to a bouncy chorus is so unsettling- yet it somehow works. Love it!
It speaks volumes about the quality of The Visitors when Should I Laugh Or Cry was only a B-side and not even on the album. It really is their masterpiece.
How could I have forgotten 'Should I laugh or cry' on my list? Yes, it's a gem. The style disconnect between verse and chorus echoes that of 'Just Like That'...which B&B won't release because they say that the two bits don't fit together.
B&B cannot be trusted with their own music- they don’t like Just Like That and they don’t like Summer Night City!
They’ve no problem with SNC as a song, but they’re not fans of the finished studio version. They still did it live in 1979 and again in 1981 for the Dick Cavett special
Been listening to ABBA nonstop today in preparation for tomorrow and I've re-fallen in love with Eagle. What an underrated bop.
my favourite song!! Their album openers are consistently good: Ring Ring Waterloo Mamma Mia When I Kissed The Teacher Eagle As Good As New Super Trouper The Visitors all flawless
Does "I've Been Waiting For You" constitute as a deep cut? "Our Last Summer" resonates with me more with every passing year too. I am the world's worst strum-along guitarist, but the way some of these simple chord arrangements ring out make me weep/gasp in equal measure.
Another 'deep cut' I'd put on the list is 'Put on your white sombrero', which was left over from the Super Trouper sessions and not released until 1994. Benny and Bjorn apparently remembered the song as a joke when the master tape was unearthed in the early 90s but changed their mind when they heard it. The harmonies are heavenly, and it's mind-boggling that it wasn't at least a B-side. It's clearly related to 'Cassandra', which came a couple of years later, but, much as I like 'Cassandra', it feels stronger as a song to me.
I love that photo. They look like your teachers and parents who “want to talk to you about your grades.”
Listening to ABBA Gold and now wondering: was the 1992 release remastered? Wikipedia says the 1999 reissue was the first to be remastered, but then discogs says this: https://www.discogs.com/ABBA-Gold-Greatest-Hits/release/2112290
