ABBA Album: “ABBA in Concert”

Wow! I purchased this dvd as an impulse buy before reading any reviews. Before opening it I browsed here and after reading the reviews I almost returned it. I'm glad I didn't! This DVD is a spectacular, enjoyable time capsule that captures one of pop music's greatest groups at their pinnacle of success. Those reviewers who pan the sound quality don't realize that this is the raw sound captured live at a concert. Too many of today's artists either can't sing or overdub their soundtracks after the fact to enhance the sound quality of their recordings. Abba, in releasing this disk, has rightfully chosen not to.

What is this DVD? It is a re-release of a documentary film done about the group's 1979 tour of the US and UK. When reviewing it, you must take it for what it is. It was done before even vcr's. The documentary producers didn't film every minute of the concerts from five different cameras. They captured what they wanted to make a compelling documentary. And they succeeded wonderfully. It is important, though, to remember that 1979 music video style was very different than today. The filmmakers could never have dreamed of 5.1 audio...they produced for 2" mono speaker in the average 1980 tv set.

The first third or so shows the group traveling, hanging out, eating meals, and warming up before a show. Abba songs are the soundtrack, but they are not shown as full concert pieces. The behind the scenes part is great watching of the late 70's lifestyle. The rest of the disk is concert footage, and although it would have been nice to have two hours of a full concert, history has left us with about 7 or 8 songs. Extras include additional songs captured on film but not included in the original documentary.

The video quality on this disk is spectacular. It was obviously done with film as the quality is comparable to a film of the same vintage. It is notably better than many newer concert dvds I own, including Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance." The camera angles are often not what a more modern concert video would show, but they make for an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

Audio I'd rate as good. When evaluating it, again it is important to consider the source. Abba preferred to make music in the studio and make it perfect. When old music is remastered for modern re-release, the engineers have access to the original studio tape. This was a live concert. There are no redubs or overdubs. Concerts also, in my opinion, are NOT in general enhanced by surround sound. When you watch a concert live, the speakers are at the stage in FRONT of you, not behind you. I've found that 9 out of ten concert videos are much better in stereo mode than in surround. This one is no exception. The surround tracks are presented in dolby and dts but I agree that the mix on these is distracting, with loud crowd ambience detracting from the music. Played in dolby 2.0 mode, the sound is superb. This makes sense, because it is probably how the original movie was recorded and meant to be heard. When considering the audio, it is important to put it in context...this is a 25 year old documentary audio soundtrack master. There is only so much restoration can do. That being said, the audio 2.0 track is as good as any other live recording of a similar age. There is no hiss, noise, or other distractions. Comparing it to modern 5.1 soundtracks is an unreasonable expectation.

To summarize, this is a terrific production. The group gives a great show and they seem to be having a great time entertaining enthusiastic crowds. Video is superb and audio is excellent in the 2.0 mix (I'd recommend not using the 5.1 mixes). This dvd is a thoroughly enjoyable trip back to ABBA's heyday.

I have have been a ABBA fan since 1974. It would be very easy for me to say great things about this long awaited DVD. When you wait so long for anything new that is available from a group that split-up 22 years ago..ANYTHING is a blessing.

This DVD though is a pretty poor. To be honest, they did not have much to work with. The original footage was designed for a limited television program and was edited very tightly. The sound on the DVD is pretty bad as well. I realize that it was a live concert, but the sound was better on the original TV produced version. All the new sound enhancement did was to make the sound extremely uneven and sounding like someone is turning the volume up and down at different intervals. I am surprised that this DVD was allowed to be sold because of the awful sound quality. With all the technology availabe today ... a MUCH better job could have been done than was shown in the end result. A person could have re-worked the original sound better on their home computer with very little expertise.

The only plus to this DVD are the bonus tracks. Let us all hope that when ABBA THE MOVIE makes it out on DVD, we get a bit more attention to the sound than we got on this one. Someone really dropped the ball here.

MOST OF THE SHOTS HERE ARE FROM WEMBLEY STADIUM, ALTHOUGH SOME ARE ALSO FROM THEIR TOUR IN THE USA. IT IS AN EXCELLENT ALBUM, BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THEY HAD SOME SOUND PROBLEMS AND UNFORTUNATELY DID NOT RE-RECORD THE SECTIONS ON THE FOLLOWING NIGHTS. THERE WAS ALSO AN ABBERATION IN THAT BENNY MIXED THIS DVD, INSTEAD OF THE REGULAR SOUND TECH, AND THAT SHOWS CLEARLY IN THE DIMISHED QUALITY OF THE SOUND, AND THE TOO HIGH LEVELS FOR THE AUDIENCE CLAPPING AND CHEERING. I FIND THAT IF YOU SHUT DOWN THE BASS COMPLETELY, ON THE SONGS "SUMMER NIGHT CITY" AND "DANCING QUEEN" THEN IT ALMOST IS NORMAL ABBA QUALITY. IT IS ALSO UNFORTUNATE THAT THE NORMAL STEREO CHANNEL DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY ON THE RECORDING, AND IT DEFAULTS TO SURROUND SOUND 5.1 WHICH ON STEREO SPEAKERS IS SOMEWHAT MUDDLED. I WISH THEY WOULD RE-RELEASE THIS WITH A PROPER REMIX AND WORKING SOUND TRACKS FOR STEREO.

I have have been a ABBA fan since 1974. It would be very easy for me to say great things about this long awaited DVD. When you wait so long for anything new that is available from a group that split-up 22 years ago..ANYTHING is a blessing.

This DVD though is a pretty poor. To be honest, they did not have much to work with. The original footage was designed for a limited television program and was edited very tightly. The sound on the DVD is pretty bad as well. I realize that it was a live concert, but the sound was better on the original TV produced version. All the new sound enhancement did was to make the sound extremely uneven and sounding like someone is turning the volume up and down at different intervals. I am surprised that this DVD was allowed to be sold because of the awful sound quality. With all the technology availabe today ... a MUCH better job could have been done than was shown in the end result. A person could have re-worked the original sound better on their home computer with very little expertise.

The only plus to this DVD are the bonus tracks. Let us all hope that when ABBA THE MOVIE makes it out on DVD, we get a bit more attention to the sound than we got on this one. Someone really dropped the ball here.

I just bought my copy of this DVD the other day and have had no problems with the sound. I was hesitant to purchase it due to the bad sound reviews, but it sounds just fine on my surround sound system. I am disappointed that some of the songs were cut short, but if you only like ABBA then you'll regret not buying this while it is available, especially at this price. I'm sure it won't be too long before it is sought after on e-bay at greatly inflated auction prices.