Elisabeth Vincentelli is music editor of Time Out New York. She has also written for the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly among many other publications. She grew up in France and has loved Abba since watching them triumph at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.
This sensitive, smart, tiny book is amazingly comprehensive,
dealing with everything from recording history to the gay following
the band developed. Vincentelli, an astute critic and a rabid fan,
is just the writer to grasp the many-layered experience that is
ABBA.
*Newsday, 4/11/04*
Vincentelli is an intriguing sociologist (calling Abba one of the
few band to link ‘European drag queens and Midwestern housewives,
New York hipsters and Japanese students') and a funny critic (‘Lay
All Your Love on Me,' she says, ‘may well be the gayest song ever
recorded by two clean-cut heterosexual couples').
*The Boston Phoenix, 7/8/04*
With Elisabeth's personal anecdotes thrown into the mix of ABBA's
history, quotes from contemporary critics and musicians, and
analyses of the songs that make up ABBA Gold, it's hard not to read
the entire book in one sitting. And for me personally, Elisabeth
Vincentelli is the kind of writer I aspire to be- full of musical
knowledge, yet passionate and personal about the subject she takes
on.
*Cha Cha Charming, June 2004*
Vincentelli's study of Abba Gold is a valiant effort.
*Record Collector, October 2004*
The idea was simple: to ask a group of authors to each write a book
about a classic album. What emerged became Continuum's 33 1/3
series. Without guidelines or rules, each author embraced their own
favorite album and chose exactly how they wanted to write about
it.As a result, each book is by turn anecdotal, obsessive,
technical and personal, but always passionate.
*Swell Music, December 2006*
The author doesn't mind telling you that her favorite song EVER is
Abba's "SOS," which is admirably candid (although wrong--"Knowing
Me, Knowing You" is the peak of Abba-ness), and she totally gets
the blissful unhipness that makes the band beloved by everyone from
"European drag queens to Midwestern housewives."
*Austin American-Statesman, 10/17/04*
Throughout her meticulously researched, song-by-song exploration of
Abba's most famous moments, Vincentelli examines with insight, wit
and unabashed fanaticism everything from "Knowing Me, Knowing
You"'s domestic drama to, well, the shoulder pads, tights, and foil
shirts worn in the "Voulez-Vous" video. In the process, she not
only makes a compelling, sincere case for all things Abba but also
for pop music itself.
*San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5/19/04*
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