CD Album Box Set[10 CD]

Greatest pop group of all time and it's all here.

All LPs are packaged in a sturdy box and sound great!

Great box set for the price you get the whole abba collection on vinyl

We absolutely love Abba. Definitely a pleasurable addition to my vinyl collection.

Great music set!

A quick disclaimer, I have been an ABBA fan since 1979, when I was 11. I grew up when records and tapes were the only way to buy music, and after that I became a devotee of Compact Discs (which I still favor over vinyl, but that deserves a whole explanation that does not apply to this review). I have every one of my original ABBA records, still in pristine condition (even the two Greatest Hits albums, and the Spanish ‘Gracias Por la Musica’), not to mention all the 45s that were released, and quite a few vinyl compilations. So, why bother buying this boxset? Because I wanted an update, and these mixes are newer. Also, while I cannot be certain, ‘Put On Your White Sombrero’ has never before been released on vinyl, that I know of. It debuted on a CD boxset in the 90s. Other than buying ‘Voyage,’ back in 2021, and recently the Ring Ring, Waterloo and Voulez-Vous half-masters, I have not bought an ABBA vinyl record in about 25 years! So, this was nice.The good: the sound of the music is excellent, as expected. Newer mixes mean more bass. Since I own the three half-masters I mentioned above, the sound of the albums in this box-set is quite comparable, though the half-masters sound even better. Each album cover in the box-set identically replicates the original Polar Music releases, down to the inner sleeves. This is lovely. And the 10th disc includes B-sides and extras, though it falls short. Songs like ‘Cassandra’ and the ‘Medley (Pick a Bale of Cotton, On Top of Old Smokey and Midnight Special)’ are missing, so they picked what to include that would fit on one extra record and left a few out. Ironically, they included the image of each 45 on the inner sleeve where these songs have been originally released (minus ‘Sombrero’) and ‘Cassandra’ shows up on one of them!The Bad: the pressing! (or ‘depressing,’ as I dub it). It seems that once millennials ‘discovered’ vinyl and created a trend that has used record sellers gingerly ripping you off, where a decade ago they could not even give these records away…), no one can seem to press records the way they use to -- meaning: good. I do not understand what is so hard about it. After all, we lived nearly 100 years with records being pressed just fine. Suddenly, no one can pull this off? I have heard horror stories about vinyl pressings these days, from holes that are not centered, to records having two A sides! I have avoided buying the Carpenter’s box set because the reviews have been horrid, with people actually returning them.When it comes to the ABBA Box set, the pressing is faulty. There is a low white noise hum that should NOT be there. Some low-end turntables will make this sound sometimes, but mine is top of the line and does not. In this case, this sound in inherent in the pressing of each album. I can play my older ABBA records and they sound pristine. Before and after each song, you should hear NOTHING. That is not the case here. You clearly hear it before the songs begins, and in between each song. Now, the ABBA half-masters I bought recently are pressed differently and, I might add, beautifully. Before and after each song there is pure silence. Not here…. Also, as many have stated, there are scratches on each album. I daresay not from the sleeves, as some think, but from the actual pressing. These are feathered scratches, which do not affect the actual sound of the songs, but depending how the light hits the surface of the vinyl it almost seems like someone had some greasy pizza before sticking the records into the sleeves. I can almost hear some people going, “Are these records new???” They almost look dirty, but clean them as you may, it will not come off. How come we never had these issues back in the day, I ask? I even found some fine string of vinyl left over from the shoddy cutting (one of the ABBA records in the set had that...I just gently pulled it off). The only record in this set that is spared is 'Voyage,' because it was a new album added to this set, and a different pressing.So, I cannot give this release 5 stars, because of these issues. Again, the sound of the songs are great, if you can put up with the low white noise hum at the beginning and between each song on each album. Some are better than others. I found Voulez-Vous to be much better, while the ‘Extras’ disc among the worst. Is this set worth buying? Absolutely. Could they have done better? Absolutely.

Not that I'm a huge ABBA fan but I liked all their albums and thought why not buy the entire box. Well, the mastering is fantastic, these albums never sounded better! Kudos to the engineer, these albums sound fantastic for that desire for Kitch pop music from way back when, you couldn't go wrong with this box. What an honest to goodness Suprise!

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