Thank you for the music, ABBA!
By the time I discovered and fell in love with ABBA and their music, they had already split up. But, thankfully, they had belted out so many memorable pop songs by then that it kept me dancing on their tunes all through adolescent and teens.
Now after almost 40 years, the Swedish pop band have reunited for one last time, releasing their 9th studio album — Voyage — “and they plan to unveil digital avatars — dubbed ‘ABBAtars’ — at a concert in London in May, resembling their 1979 selves.”
Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid — forming the acronym ABBA — are now in their 70s and the fact that the ladies can still sing well enough to work on an album is unbelievable.
The voyage begins
The 10-track “Voyage”, which released recently (November 5), is a dream that most ABBA fans had given up on long ago. The sound is unmistakably ABBA — and “trend blind”, as Benny and Bjorn recently said in an interview. The fact that they have not attempted to experiment with any musical trends that gained popularity in the last four decades or tried to be more contemporary, is the very reason that their sound is still uniquely theirs.
They just picked up where they stopped, and that’s the best thing about this new album — it’s just like the old ones, very much similar to “The Visitors”, their last studio album released on November 30, 1981! And, frankly, that is what their loyal fans, like myself, have been waiting to hear for so long. Their sound has influenced pop music ever since, so there really is no reason for them to be influenced by what came later on.
“Voyage” is a reunion in the real sense — a reunion of the band members themselves, and their musical reunion with their fans. It has their quintessential charming melodies that range from soaring to soothing, from sweet to bitter-sweet, with traces of musical arrangements giving a nod to their classic numbers.
“We don’t have to prove anything, what does it matter if people think we were better before?”
— Benny Andersson
Like earlier, the lyrics are penned by Bjorn and Benny and the singing is done only by the ladies this time. The vocals of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad have always been one of the hallmarks of their sound, and though slightly more mature this time, they can still sing like no other.
Talking about the origins of the album in an interview on BBC, Benny Andersson said: “At first it was just two songs, and then we said, ‘Well, maybe we should do a few others’.”
They eventually recorded 10 tracks, one of which, “Just a Notion” is actually a reject from the time when they were working on the album “Voulez-Vous”, in 1979.
The first two releases I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down seem to be the best, and reflect why the band enjoyed global domination from the mid-seventies to the early eighties. The rest of the tracks are unmistakably ABBA, but I really haven’t listened to them much to know where they stand with me.
I find Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s Swedish accents coming on too strong at places. And this could be the reason that I have to make an effort to understand the lyrics. But I am sure, like always, the songs will grow on me with time.
But the best part about their reunion and new album is that they don’t have to prove anything. It really doesn’t matter what people today think of their latest album, because they are ABBA and they will always remain ABBA, their songs forming part of their fans’ memories of growing up.
Like Benny Andersson says: “We don’t have to prove anything, what does it matter if people think we were better before?”
Yeah, he is right. Nothings matters, except the fact that ABBA came together once more and we, the fans, can relive a musical part of our past again. All we’ve ever wanted from ABBA was to ‘hear you sing once more like you did before’.
You can also read this story on my website. And to check out more of my writings, come over to ambreenarshad.com
