68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What EXACTLY you're getting with this complete boxed set, January 7, 2006
This review is from: Complete Recordings (W/Book) (Audio CD)
As a long time fan of Abba, I purchased the original import releases of all of their albums years ago, along with Greatest Hits volulme 2 for Gimme Gimme Gimme and Summer Night City. Then, I had to supplement. I bought More Abba Gold to get "I Am The City". I bought the "Thank You for the Music" boxed set to get a whole load of previously unreleased tracks. I RE-bought the domestic release of Voulez Vous to get the original version of "Lovelight." I bought the Definitive Collection to get the 12" of Voulez Vous. Now-I've gotten rid of ALL of that, because it's ALL on here, and the remastering sounds better than ever, even on their very first albums.
As for the packaging-the CDs are made to look like vinyl LPs, and they are black coated, so the bottoms of the discs look like Playstation 1 games if you've ever seen one of those. The box itself is a soft velvety sky blue with a pull off top. Inside, there are slots for the 9 CDs, 2 DVDs, a hardcover book of liner notes for all the CDs, and a hardcover booklet with lyrics for every single song on every disc. There are actually MORE slots than components, so the box is bigger than it needs to be, but you can at least space your discs apart to get them out easier. Each of the 8 ABBA albums comes in mini cardboard record sleeves, with the art work from the original LP on front and back. Inside, each disc is in a clear plastic slip case, and there's a single sheet insert with the track info for that disc. Unfortunately, since this box is set up so that each of the 8 albums includes all the bonus tracks recorded at the period of that album's release, the original artwork on the disc sleeves does not list the bonus tracks, so you either have to remove the insert or use the hardcover book to reference them.
The ninth CD is all the bonus material, unreleased tracks, long versions and extended versions. And here's where you find the only two big disappointments. A previously unreleased alternate mix of Waterloo is included-but as the liner notes state, it's mastered from vinyl because the original master couldn't be found-and it sounds like it. But the BIGGEST disappointment is that for the first time ever, the long version of "On and On and On" is included-but a stereo master was unavailable, so a MONO source was used. And considering this is such a clean, bass heavy dance track, the mono is painfully shrill and dull. Bummer. This version features an added bridge of lyrics and an extended fade at the end. Maybe someday a stereo master will be found, and we'll have to do supplementing once again with a future "Ultimate Abba Collection with one previously unreleased track!"
And don't forget-unless you have an all region DVD player, you won't be able to play the 2 overseas DVDs.
Bottom line: hardcore fans should not HESITATE to get ALL their Abba all in one place.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We need a clarification from the sellers about which edition this is., December 9, 2005
This review is from: Complete Recordings (W/Book) (Audio CD)
I think that it's important for all the sellers of this 9-CD + 2-DVD set to clarify about which pressing that they're offering:the European import with PAL format DVD's or the Canadian pressing with NTSC format DVD's.As for the CD's,fan feedback on the official ABBA website has been quite favorable concerning sound quality.As for the DVD's,they're a not quite complete collection of the group's promo videos("When I kissed The Teacher" from "More ABBA Gold" is omitted for unknown reasons).As for the live performances from the "Dick Cavett Meets ABBA" T.V. special,only 5 of them are included,because,supposedly the rest no longer exist in Swedish T.V. archives.Actually,the complete performance was once released on Japanese VHS(By "Shochiku Home Video") as part of a program called "Dancing Queen",so the footage defintely DOES exist.And as for the CD's many fans are still frustrated by not getting a complete release of the widely(but poorly) bootlegged song "Just Like That"(though an excerpt appears as part of "ABBA Undeleted").
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flash: Universal almost gets it right!, April 26, 2006
This review is from: Complete Recordings (W/Book) (Audio CD)
The remastering of ABBA's music (supposedly from original analogue tapes) on this mammoth box set is the best I've ever heard - there is a transparency and depth missing from even the recent 24-bit remasters (I think a different process and source materials were used). So if you want to hear ABBA at their best, this set provides the goods; however, you will be paying inflated prices for the packaging and dvd add-ons. The box itself is a nice idea, but the sleeves don't fit smoothly into the moulded plastic grooves, and if you want to view the album titles printed on the spines then the discs will fall out as you remove the sleeves from the box (a stupid design mistake). The faux-velvet coating on the box is extremely vulnerable to scuffing (and the colour should have been darker to appear less cheesy and mask fingermarks, etc). The dvd component feels like an afterthought: "The History" documentary was first released with ABBA Gold in 1999 and is inessential, and the obviously truncated Dick Cavett special seems even worse than the prospect of its complete exclusion (it's a lousy performance by a group at the end of its tether, and the omissions make it feel very choppy and unsatisfying). It's great to have all the videos, including The Last Video, on the one disc, even if there's no annotation or pics on the sleeve.
So, in summary, this is a set for fans willing to overlook its shortcomings. The sound is fantastic, which is ultimately what matters most, and bar one or two unreleased or omitted tracks or remixes you get everything ABBA actually completed and released.
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