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36th out of 94 books
—
16 voters
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Abba Gold (33⅓ #7)
By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the Thirty Three and a Third series explores critically acclaimed and much-loved albums by famous recording artists.
Paperback, 131 pages
Published
March 31st 2004
by Continuum
(first published February 2004)
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One does not write an entire book dedicated to ABBA Gold unless one is the kind of person prone to sentences such as:
"And so I should admit that 'SOS' is not only my favorite ABBA song, it is my favorite song of all time, encapsulating everything that makes pop glorious, everything that makes life worth living." (Page 56)
And one does not read such a book unless one is prepared -- nay, eager -- for such sentences.
"And so I should admit that 'SOS' is not only my favorite ABBA song, it is my favorite song of all time, encapsulating everything that makes pop glorious, everything that makes life worth living." (Page 56)
And one does not read such a book unless one is prepared -- nay, eager -- for such sentences.
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Got it from Diana! For some reason, I thought the 33 1/3 series was stories based on the record...but it's actually the story of the record in the case of Abba Gold and to be honest, a bit trivial. If anything, it just got me to want to listen to Abba more. It also bugged me that she constantly pointed out that most critics hated on Abba and compilations are never considered real "albums". Love Abba for Abba, and listening to Gold is probably 10 times more amusing than reading about it...more
The opening and closing sections of this book were pretty remarkable, as both were mini-treatises on the way that music is perceived, especially the more pop-centric tunes. However, as I am not an avid ABBA fan, the middle felt like a bit of a strain to get through. Still going to get through the entire series one of these days.
I'm working on a pitch for the 33 1/3 series of a Scandavian pop record, so I thought Elisabeth Vincentelli's take on Abba Gold would be an interesting read to gain perspective. It was.
Vincentelli does a good job of cataloguing each Abba hit (and there were many) and does a fair job of shooting down the critics (Robert Christgau gets mentioned here a few times) but she spends an awful lot of time mentioning where each Abba song or record charted. That's not irrelevant but gets tediou...more
Vincentelli does a good job of cataloguing each Abba hit (and there were many) and does a fair job of shooting down the critics (Robert Christgau gets mentioned here a few times) but she spends an awful lot of time mentioning where each Abba song or record charted. That's not irrelevant but gets tediou...more
god i love abba.
i wasn't so fond of the writing in this though. she seemed to constantly be trying to convince the reader of abba's worth, when so much more information could have been packed in. every single chapter and nearly every page however, is full of debating against the non-existent protester. whatever. still liked it. still learned a few things.
i wasn't so fond of the writing in this though. she seemed to constantly be trying to convince the reader of abba's worth, when so much more information could have been packed in. every single chapter and nearly every page however, is full of debating against the non-existent protester. whatever. still liked it. still learned a few things.
Despite doing lots of research, I felt like I didn't actually learn much reading this book, which is too bad, because ABBA gold has some of my all-time favorite songs on it. But the song-by-song description (when and where it was written, who performed on it, what the working title was, how bored Agnetha looked in the video) wasn't enough to keep me excited.
i learned that yes, i am willing to spend ten american dollars to learn more about a band that never really had any respect and probably never will as a legitimate musicians.
if you are slightly obsessed with music,
get your hands on at least one of these books, soon.
if you are slightly obsessed with music,
get your hands on at least one of these books, soon.
A pretty good 33 1/3 book. Not a great one (Black Sabbath, Celine Dion). But not a terrible one (Afghan Whigs).
Please note that this rating is entirely based on my opinion of the quality of the book, and has no relation to my feelings about ABBA.
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