ABBA blog

Thoughts and observations on the Swedish foursome

So long to the ABBA album

published June 05, 2015

In my last blog about the revised and expanded edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, which can be pre-ordered here, I wrote that I was about done with alternate mixes from the 1975 ABBA album sessions. I'd temporarily forgotten about a couple of reference discs of mixes that I had yet to familiarise myself with, so it wasn't until today that I finally moved out of GlenStudio, figuratively speaking.

I think I've now heard enough alternate mixes from the ABBA LP to be able to assemble an alternate version of that album, save, perhaps, for one or two tracks. Would it be as great as the album we all know and love? No. Would it be interesting to hear it? If you're an ABBA fan who's lived with these songs for years and years and years - decades, in some cases - yes. Not every alternate mix is radically different to the ones we're used to, but all of them are different enough to tell us something interesting about ABBA's creativity.

So, even while I'm still in the early half of the group's career, I'm finding so many new things to write about in ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions. I don't know how to phrase this in a modest way, so I won't even try: If you're an ABBA fan, you won't want to miss this book. Pre-order your copy here.

carl magnus palm abba author historian expert

This picture, originally posted on ABBA's official Instagram page, was taken earlier today, as I was listening to alternate mixes from the 1975 ABBA album at the Polar Music offices in Stockholm, Sweden.