yes. It was the first time ABBA had been digitally remastered. Anything prior from they were taken from various LP and single cutting tapes. Michael Tretow handled the remastering for Gold, More Gold and the Thank You For The Music. The 1999 reissue was remastered by Jon Astley. The 2008 and 2014 reissues were remastered by Masters of Audio. They’re the same as the CSR boxset.
They’re *really* hit and miss. 92 Gold is probably the best remaster, but it contains the radio edits of Voulez-Vous & The Name Of The Game. 99 Gold restored the full versions of VV and TNOTG but the mastering is very lifeless. Hardly any bass and some very strange EQ choices. Lots of compression and noise reduction used. Also has a dodgy fix on Dancing Queen at 2:06. 2008 retains the dynamics but is very loud and uses the infamous distorted tape for TNOTG and has the bad fix on DQ. This is the same for the 2014 3 CD release. The one good thing about the 2014 reissue is that it sounds the best on streaming. The volume boost really helps. But for CD listening, stick with 92.
Listening to the studio albums for the first time in full, starting with Arrival. But I've now fallen down a rabbit hole trying to find out what the "best" remastered versions are, with no one being able to agree! And do we know which remasters are the ones on Spotify etc?
I definitely prefer Sombrero to Cassandra. It's such an odd song but I just adore it. Should I Laugh Or Cry is easily my favorite ABBA non-album track. Utterly incredible.
I’m not sure about Spotify but if you listen to the individual albums on Apple Music, unless specified as a deluxe edition, they’re the 2001 remasters. Here is my list Spoiler Ring Ring - 2013 deluxe edition Waterloo - 2014 deluxe edition ABBA - 2012 deluxe edition Arrival - 1984 Polydor The Album - 2001 Astley remaster (at a very large push. None are acceptable) Voulez-Vous - 2010 deluxe Super Trouper - 1986 US Atlantic The Visitors - 1982 Polar/Polydor
So, on this evening on ABBA's glorious return, let's attempt a Top 10.... 1 Dancing Queen 2 Knowing Me, Knowing You 3 The Day Before You Came 4 The Winner Takes It All 5 Super Trouper 6 Angeleyes 7 If It Wasn't For the Nights 8 One Of Us 9 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 10 The Visitors
Talk about Sophie’s choice….. 1. The Day Before You Came 2. When All Is Said And Done 3. Summer Night City 4. Under Attack 5. I’ve Been Waiting For You 6. Angeleyes 7. Knowing Me, Knowing You 8. One Of Us 9. Should I Laugh Or Cry 10. Honey, Honey. Of course…. this changes about seventeen times an hour. I’ve never been able to decide my all time favourite ABBA track. The only reason I put Day Before… as my #1 is because I’ve been hammering it relentlessly this week. One of the things I love the most about More ABBA Gold is the sequence of Honey, Honey and The Visitors. It’s phenomenal to think they went from a fun bop like Honey Honey to a dark, brooding anti-Soviet bop like The Visitors in 7 years. The progress is WILD.
Watching all these ABBA clips, the YouTube algorithm has once again brought me here: A camp as tits performance that should be far more iconic than it is.
