{"id":6357,"date":"2022-03-04T01:31:23","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T01:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=6357"},"modified":"2022-03-04T01:37:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T01:37:42","slug":"the-return-of-abba-a-review-of-voyage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2022\/03\/the-return-of-abba-a-review-of-voyage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of ABBA: A Review of Voyage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is no sound more special to me than the effervescent sweep of piano keys that marks the beginning of Dancing Queen. <\/em>Growing up, I was convinced that I would never hear anything more magical, more euphoric or more transporting than ABBA\u2019s discography. I was not wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, ABBA is more than just a band that took the world by storm after their debut in Eurovision in the mid-seventies. ABBA means lazy weekends with my dad. It means sparkling karaoke night-outs with my friends. It means freedom to dance like nobody\u2019s watching. ABBA is an invitation to the world of multicolor disco beams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog, Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you can imagine the utter astonishment that struck me when it was announced on Twitter that 40 years later, ABBA was making a comeback. Voyage, <\/em>a 10-track album,<\/em> was released on November 5 2021, making it their ninth studio album. I was skeptical at first. What was the need for a band as successful as ABBA to take such a big chance with their legacy? It seemed unnecessary. But in all honesty, ABBA could return with a song as perfect as The Winner Takes It All<\/em> and it still wouldn\u2019t resonate with fans in the way the songs on ABBA Gold<\/em> does. The stakes are too impossibly high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benny Andersson and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus, the legends behind the writing and production of ABBA, address this in an interview with The New York Times. Andersson says: \u201cWhat is there to prove? They\u2019ll still play Dancing Queen<\/em> next year.\u201d The pair goes on to explain how they felt no pressure to reunite. It was just something the two and singers Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad spontaneously decided to do when they realized how much they missed creating music together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voyage <\/em>was intended to be recorded \u201ctrend-blind\u201d, and that is evident. It sounds like they never left! Ulvaeus explains how \u201cIn contemporary stuff, there\u2019s nothing to feel I could hang on to, nothing I could emulate. We decided early on that we\u2019re not going to look at anything else. We\u2019re just going to do the songs, the best songs we can right now. That meant writing lyrics I could get some of my thoughts of these past 40 years into, and add some kind of depth that, hopefully, comes with age and that makes it different from the lyrics I wrote 40 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The album\u2019s opening track and lead single I Still Have Faith In You<\/em> gives us a sense of what this album has to offer. The song is upbeat and catchy, but Lyngstad\u2019s aged, slightly weary vocals give the songs a more bittersweet feel. The track, which centers on friendship that has matured through heartbreak, starts off slow-paced and dreamy, and gradually progresses into something more loud and vivacious. She sings warmly: \u201cWe do have it in us \/ New spirit has arrived \/ The joy and the sorrow \/ We have a story \/ And it survived\u201c. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Shut Me Down, <\/em>the other dual single alongside I Still Have Faith in You,<\/em> features lead vocals from F\u00e4ltskog and is one of the most critically acclaimed off the album. Its cheery and light-hearted melody beautifully combines with its meaningful lyrics. It follows the story of a woman confronting her partner. She says: \u201cAnd now you see another me, I\u2019ve been reloaded, yeah \/ I\u2019m fired up, don\u2019t shut me down\u201d. <\/em> It\u2019s fun, free but a tad bit forgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a Notion <\/em>and No Doubt About It <\/em>were arguably the strongest off the album. They embodied the classic, unapologetically ABBA sound that I had no idea I had been so desperately craving. So it came as no surprise to me when I found out Just a Notion<\/em> was actually an unreleased record that was initially recorded in September 1978 for their album Voulez-Vous<\/em>. It\u2019s fast-paced and buoyant, completed with Lyngstad and F\u00e4ltskog\u2019s signature jarring vocal delivery. The songs are elevated by Andersson\u2019s generous and powerful use of piano and synthesizers. Keep an Eye on Dan <\/em>is the epitome of a fun pop song, ending with a piano bit that references SOS<\/em>. I noticed Bumblebee<\/em> bore a slight resemblance to Fernando<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though there isn\u2019t an objectively bad song on Voyage<\/em>, there were a few tracks I found slightly underwhelming. When You Danced With Me<\/em> was too blatantly Celtic-themed for my taste. Little Things<\/em>, with its Christmas-y sound and children\u2019s choir, feels out of place and overflowed into overly-cheesy territory. And thirdly, I Can Be That Woman’s <\/em>strange family drama lyric could have been saved by a catchy tune, but unfortunately it was not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album concludes on a strong note with Ode to Freedom<\/em>. The goosebump-inducing orchestral piece reinforces the theme of the passage of time. The voices, older and mature but not lacking in passion and emotion, further reinforce that theme. It\u2019s majestic and nostalgic, somber but hopeful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chantel Mager (V), co-leader of the Music Appreciation Club explained how she enjoyed listening to the album but \u201chonestly, their comeback was more noteworthy than the music itself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I enjoyed Voyage. <\/em>It is a more mature album without the disco appeal of ABBA\u2019s greatest hits. Is it life-changing? Definitely not. However, we still do have the old albums to treasure. It may not be something I\u2019ll find myself continuing to fall back to, but it does brilliantly showcase the Swedish group\u2019s talent while remaining true to self. While it\u2019s hard to deny that the album doesn\u2019t capitalize on nostalgia, I do believe it proved to be worth the wait. It\u2019s no wonder Voyage<\/em> has already gone Platinum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no sound more special to me than the effervescent sweep of piano keys that marks the beginning of Dancing Queen. Growing up, I was convinced that I would never hear anything more magical, more euphoric or more transporting than ABBA\u2019s discography. I was not wrong. To me, ABBA is more than just a band that took the world by storm after their debut in Eurovision in the mid-seventies. ABBA means lazy weekends with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":6360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[430],"class_list":["post-6357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-03-at-8.35.41-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6359,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions\/6359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6357"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}