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After a couple years of abundant ABBA releases, where do we stand today? Basically, I feel kind of tired and bored of the same old songs being recycled in the same old ways. In fact, in a recent call with a friend, I was asked when was the last time I intentionally listened to a series of ABBA songs. Thanks to iTunes, I can actually look back to see when was the last time I played anything by ABBA, and all I can find are the times when I set the iPod on random play and went to sleep listening to the iPod and the odd ABBA song popped up. So why haven’t I been in the mood to hear ABBA?

Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m a little tired of the songs. They just don’t feel fresh and they always sound the same. When I look to my Roxette collection by comparison, I have several different versions of the same songs. Whether it is the album version, a remix version, or even a demo version, there’s more than one way to enjoy a Roxette song.

Roxette’s recent box set has put me back in the mood to listen to their material, where I had been kind of not in the mood to hear their music for a long time as well, but that was largely due to lack of any activity since the last time Roxette put out new songs. After enjoying the box set and the wonderfully generous opportunity to hear an unreleased demo every week for two months on their website, I also took a look at the Roxette songs on my iPod and saw that I only had the albums on the iPod. I was missing the wealth of material Roxette had hidden away on their singles. So I systematically went through all my singles and added another 76 songs to my iPod. All of these being b-sides, remixes, and demos. All these songs I forgot I already had. And that’s in addition to the songs on all the albums. In total my iPod contains 399 Roxette songs and I can still add a bunch more if I decide to add the audio from the 3 concert laserdiscs I own. Granted a number of the songs here are sourced from bootlegs, but by comparison, those bootleg demos are largely outnumbered by officially released ones. And I know I’m missing a couple of the early singles as I didn’t start collecting those until Roxette were into their fifth album.

So with Roxette, you have a wealth of opportunities to enjoy the same songs in different ways. Take “Listen To Your Heart” one of their biggest songs which has recently gotten global attention through the cover version by D.H.T., I can play the album versions, a single version which fades out with Marie’s vocals instead of the instrumental bit at the end, there’s also an acoustic version recorded in the Abbey Road Studios, and I have a Spanish version. Not to mention a really nice Per-sung demo that’s quite a bit mellower than the big monster power ballad the song was in its finished state. And I don’t even have the US made radio mix where a saxophone was added to the song (so if you have or know anyone that has a copy of this, I would love to get a copy of it.). So there’s a good opportunity to enjoy the song even if you get tired of the version that makes the greatest hits compilations.

ABBA on the other hand, are only represented by 148 tracks total on my iPod. And what you find in terms of comparison to Roxette is rather meager. Just take a look at the latest round of remastered albums, the tiny handful of bonus tracks are actually pretty representative of all there is. The record label is hard pressed to provide bonus material because there just isn't any the Björn and Benny will let the public get their hands on.

Björn and Benny are infamous for their opinion that there should only be one version of their songs, as if to say this is the perfect vision of our song as we intended it. Granted this leaves lots of room for people to reinvent the songs in various cover versions, but they lack two factors that make ABBA wonderful, and that’s the vocal talents of Frida and Agnetha. Sure there are a couple of “official” remixes such as Voulez-Vous, but it’s really little more than an extended version of the real song. There’s the American remix of Ring Ring, but you can only stand hearing that one so many times as it’s a bit harsh on even ABBA loving ears.

Universal could do wonders if they’d be able to convince Björn and Benny to allow remix artists play with the ABBA catalogue. It would be interesting to hear the songs be given a fresh interpretation with the original vocals intact. This wouldn’t cheapen the originals in anyway as the remixes tend to usually find new audiences who in turn look to find the originals to see how it was originally done.

Personally I’d love to see if an unplugged style version of the songs could be done with the original vocals as it would give the songs a whole new flavor. But really there are a number of ways to exploit the ABBA catalogue in new and creative ways that are far more interesting in the latest collection of “Number Ones” or budget title of the week. My personal favourite is the re-issue of the 20th Century Masters collection in new environmentally friendly packaging, which consists of a digipak style packaging with a biodegradable tray. Imagine that, packaging that’s just as recycled as the songs on the CD it contains!

Ryan