Voyage - official reviews (and your predictions).

69 percent for RateYourMusic and Metacritic. I think some critics might be complaining too much about filler tracks, sterilised mixing (with due respect to Bernard Lohr) and a rather conservative musical arrangement when trying to compare Voyage to The Visitors, but they'll always note it to be catchy and a tad bit consistent. For other critics in worst cases they might expect disco, only to find their tracks resembling a more rockier and balladier arrangement (with JAN and Faith in You) and calling it their nadir when they probably never took the time to acquaint themselves with ABBA as they were before their disco era.

Good reasoning there, Liebezeit.
I think you might well be right with those responses. 
We'll know in a few days' time!

If I may give my ratings, these would be it! I love every single ABBA song recorded, but this would be if I think critically.

Ring Ring – 6,8/10
Overall this isn’t a bad album at all, but I don’t often find myself wanting to listen to many of the songs on it. ‘Love Isn’t Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough’ and ‘Disillusion’ are two of the few gems on the album, but the rest can be a little bit boring to listen to at times and I’m not talking about ‘I Saw It In The Mirror’, I actually like that one. There are days on which I really feel like hearing this album though!

Waterloo – 7,8/10
I really love this album. I am a fan of romantic and happy songs, such as ‘Honey, Honey’ or ‘Gonna Sing You My Love Song’, but I also enjoy the songs that are more on the “glam-rock” side, such as ‘Watch Out’.

Abba – 7,8/10
There are many songs that I love on this album! It is a combination of something in between romantic, country, happy and glam-rock again. Not all of the songs are perfectly my style, but most come quite close.

Arrival – 9,8/10
Nearly perfect to me. Even though it is an overrated song, ‘Dancing Queen’ is always a top favorite to me, and there are some romantic songs, happy and sad, that I absolutely love on this album. ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ is one of my all time favorites.

The Album – 8,5/10
As I’m not so much of a fan of music with darker undertones, ‘I’m A Marionette’ doesn’t speak to me very much and I think it would’ve been more fitting in one of their later albums. The lyrics and meaning behind it are so well done, but it isn’t for me. The rest, however, sounds happy and is fun to listen to. ‘Hole In Your Soul’ is a really nice song, and then you have some romantic ones like ‘Take A Chance On Me’ as well.

Voulez-Vous – 10/10
I love every single song on this! It’s happy and well written, with meaning. It’s not one-sided topic wise and has much variety music wise as well. There are songs to dance to, songs to cry to, songs about heartbreak and about love. Many of my favorite songs are from this album.

Super Trouper – 8,5/10
I feel as though this album made a small bridge to the darker undertones of ‘The Visitors’ with some of its music and I think it is an amazing album for the variety that it has. Although I can’t pick a favorite song, I’d say that the ‘The Winner Takes It All’ is definitely one of my all time favorite ABBA songs and ‘Super Trouper’ is somewhere up there with it.

The Visitors – 8,3/10
Despite the fact that the lyrics and everything about this album is genius, the darker undertones of the album aren’t for me. Then again, I do really like ‘One Of Us’ and ‘When All Is Said And Done’, as well as some others and even though it doesn’t suit me personally, I can really appreciate how great the album is.

Voyage – Pending, but with what I’ve heard so far, I’m predicting something like a 9,5/10.

Nice to see that your review score exceeds your earlier prediction, Liebezeit!

So, the Sydney review of 2.5/5 (i.e. 50%) would've made Livingstoneagle spot on!
Now we have Rolling Stone, too, which gave 4/5 so 80%. 
These two average out at 65% which is Foreverfan's prediction!
My initial feeling when fans started reviewing the songs was that the critics would probably love it, too.
However, the Sydney review punctured my confidence a little so it was a big relief to get the Rolling Stone score.
I expect now that it will probably end up in the 60s, but will need a few more reviews to be sure.

The mirror gave 5/5.

NME - 3/5 - 60 percent - www.nme.com/reviews/album/abba-voyage-review-3086633
The Irish Times - 5/5 - 100 percent - www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/abba-voyage-exquisitely-familiar-songs-from-one-of-the-greatest-groups-of-all-time-1.4717127
The Arts Desk - 5/5 - 100 percent - theartsdesk.com/new-music/album-abba-voyage
The Independent - 5/5 - 100 percent - www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/abba-voyage-review-album-b1951484.html

Added and averaged, 85.5 percent or approximately 4 stars so far!

Interestingly enough, this review indicates that ABBA has up the ante of their strangeness. No ratings; the often repeated refrain here is "Who says that in a pop song?". I'll stop here for a while and let the others do the calculations if they should find another review to average on.

www.newstatesman.com/culture/music/2021/11/abba-voyager-review-strange-psychodramas-deadpan-humour-and-sexy-grandparents

The reviews in Dutch newspapers are better than I expected. Here's one from newspaper Trouw.
www.trouw.nl/recensies/voyage-is-klassiek-abba-en-met-hoorbare-liefde-gemaakt~b18f2530/

Voyage is 'classic Abba' and audibly made with love

Breaking news: the first Abba album in forty years is released today. Voyage turns out to be a worthy goodbye to one of the most popular bands of all time. Pop music is getting old. The founders are dead or in the winter of their lives. This offers space to look back, to think about their (musical) legacy or to say goodbye.
Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac sell the rights to their songs. Rob de Nijs, Elton John and Paul Simon say goodbye to their fans with a tour and Paul McCartney, Velvet Underground and The Bee Gees look back on their glory days in documentaries.
ABBA says goodbye in style. With a new album and by becoming immortal. Voyage, their first record in forty years, will be accompanied by a concert series in London next year. The four seventy year olds themselves will no longer take to the stage; they are represented by avatars called ABBAtars.

With that comes a real farewell to one of the most successful pop groups of all time. The two couples (Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad) scored hit after hit with songs such as Dancing Queen, Fernando, Money, Money, Money and of course Waterloo, their breakthrough in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1974.
Hundreds of millions records sold and two broken marriages later, the band quietly disbanded in 1982. In the 1990s, a new generation discovered their timeless songs. First through ABBA Gold, the compilation CD with all the hits that became one of the best-selling albums ever. The album is still in the UK charts after a thousand weeks. Then through the musical and film Mamma Mia!.
There was no reunion. Even a lucrative offer – reportedly $1 billion – was turned down. Until the band members themselves hinted in 2018 that they were working on two songs: I Still Have Faith In You and Don't Shut Me Down.
The first is the opener of their ninth album Voyage, which can be heard from today. A select group of journalists were allowed to listen to all ten songs once at the record company last week, after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Voyage's first impression: classic ABBA. In about half an hour we hear all the ingredients that made the group so successful. The songs are written and produced by Ulvaeus and Andersson, Fältskog and Lyngstad sing together, this album also shows their love for good melodies, catchy hooks and classic pop structures, graceful strings and a richly orchestrated production.
I Still Have Faith In You immediately sets the tone. Lines like "There was a union/Of heart and mind/The likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find" could apply to a love affair, but just as easily to ABBA themselves.
It seems they are looking back on their own past full of nostalgia, pride and appreciation in other parts of this album as well. Or with empathy and compassion, as in I Can Be That Woman, which is about the low points in relationships.
Musically it is still 1981, as the outdated Just A Notion already proved. Also Keep An Eye On Dan, with its somewhat thin vocals, is a filler, and the synthesizers in Bumblebee come straight from the eighties. On the other hand, there are excellent additions to the oeuvre such as the almost Irish When You Danced With Me, No Doubt About It and I Can Be That Woman.
The expectation that ABBA could also cause a furore in the singles charts in 2021 is unrealistic. Pop music has changed too much since then. Fortunately, the four have resisted the temptation to desperately connect with today's sound with the help of contemporary producers, and so they have not tainted their oeuvre.

Voyage is an album audibly made with love that feels like a welcome encore for the fans.

I wouldn’t listen to the Guardian. They’d probably give a bad review to anything that isn’t gangs from the streets of London making drill music, whilst extolling the virtues of lockdown. Hopefully their biased opinion won’t be deemed reputable enough to be included on Metacritic. Seems totally ridiculous to be bashing the record for resembling their older work (which is what everyone wants) rather than trying to sound modern

On the whole the reviews seem decent though

Article and review from Algemeen Dagblad.
www.ad.nl/show/nieuw-album-abba-is-gelijk-platinum-gebeurde-voor-het-laatst-bij-marco-borsato~a83d8aa3/

Even Adele's new album doesn't bring as much excitement worldwide as Voyage, the first ABBA album in forty years. "This is beyond The Beatles and The Rolling Stones."

They had to wait 35 years for it, Helga van de Kar and Anita Notenboom, founders of the only official ABBA fan club in the world. Since the beginning in 1986, they now experience for the first time that their idols release new music. "We never expected that to happen again", says Van de Kar, who saw the number of members of the fan club rise explosively in the past month. "We were around 2100 members for the last 10 years, now we are already over 3100."

Notenboom vividly remembers how she heard about the plans in 2018. "A friend called me and the first thing she asked: Are you standing or sitting? But yes, the ABBA members are of a certain age, it could also be very bad news. Then she told me that there would be new songs." Van de Kar: "We were on the phone all weekend."

ABBA last released an album, The Visitors, in 1981. A year later, the four band members went their separate ways, after which ABBA lived on as a strong, very recognizable brand. "This band can afford not to release anything new for forty years and attract all this attention worldwide with one announcement," says Dennis van Tetering, who is responsible for the catalog department at record company Universal Music, all music that is older than a year and a half. "They came with their announcement and that same day it was worldwide news. In the Netherlands it was a topic in two newsreels, RTL Boulevard, Jinek and Op1. That never happens."

The launch of the Voyage album is for Universal a so-called 'high security release', which in short means that it is accompanied by a lot of secrecy. "Internally we received a link to the music that was valid for 48 hours, journalists had to come to the head office for a review to be able to listen to the album once. That happens for a reason, it's been a long time since we launched an album at this level."

This "level" includes, among other things, that Voyage is already platinum at launch today; more than 40,000 copies have been sold in advance, with only three known singles. While we now live in a time of streaming. "That last happened to us years ago with Marco Borsato. The excitement about this day is beyond anything, even The Beatles and The Rolling Stones."

Yet nowhere is the enthusiasm as great as at the ABBA fan club based in the Netherlands, which organizes an annual members day and is the only one in the world to have received the official predicate from the band itself. "The cover of ABBA Gold even shows our address," says Helga van de Kar. She and her colleague Anita Notenboom are in Hilversum at the headquarters of Universal to listen to Voyage with the music journalists.

A special and completely unknown reward after 35 years of dedication to the fan club, because there was never new music. "We only started in 1986 when the existing fan club stopped", says Notenboom. "We didn't want to miss those ABBA days, so we continued the fan club. Initially mainly to follow the band members with their individual projects."

The first listen leads to happy faces on the two. "Great," says Notenboom. "Wonderful," says Van de Kar. "The magic is still there, you can hear they've grown." Which song charmed them the most? Notenboom: "Keep An Eye On Dan. I can see us singing along en masse on the next fan club day."

REVIEW (3/5)

The old ABBA sound is still good enough after 40 years

What does a band that hasn't released new material for forty years sound like? As if time has stood still, that's how Voyage, ABBA's latest album sounds. The Swedish quartet has remained completely themselves and that is the best they could have done. Not all ten songs are equally successful, but this is exactly what you could wish for: vintage ABBA.

In the run-up to the album launch, the band already released three songs, the last of which - Just A Notion - was an old song that could not withstand the test of criticism forty years ago. In 2021, the cheerful song is one of the best on the album, just like Don't Shut Me Down, another already well-known song.

On Voyage, ABBA does make a mistake every now and then, but the Swedes don't slip. The rather long-winded opening track I Still Have Faith In You and Bumblebee, a mellow mixture of Fernando and I Have A Dream; you can miss them but they don't get in the way much. That only applies to Little Things, a much too smooth and cringe-inducing Christmas song that derails towards the end with a clichéd children's choir.

The strength of the album is its continuous recognizability, which has not lost its strength in 40 years. The biggest earworm is Keep An Eye On Dan, a not too complicated synthesizer song that ends with the well-known piano intro from SOS as a wink to the past.

It becomes most sensitive on I Can Be That Woman, a very quiet piano ballad in which the voice of Agnetha Fältskog has the leading role. The song about a woman who sings about the quarrels with her partner may be a bit melodramatic; of its kind but it is absolutely spot on. It is commendable that ABBA did not fall into the trap of forcing its own sound to 2021. The old sound is still good enough even after forty years.

De Volkskrant (3/5)
www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/zeventigers-bjorn-benny-agnetha-en-anni-frid-maken-met-voyage-een-onmiskenbare-abba-plaat~b5eff979/

Seventy year olds Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid make an unmistakable Abba record with Voyage

Only once did reviewers get to listen to Abba's new album, Voyage, before it was released today. So this isn't much more than a first impression, but the nice thing about this first Abba album in forty years (which the band announced will also be their last), is that the ten songs immediately sounded so familiar that it took no effort at all to establish that on Voyage ABBA does exactly what could be expected on the basis of the three songs that have already been released.

I Still Have Faith In You, Don't Shut Me Down and Just A Notion sounded like unmistakably Abba right away, and so do the other seven songs. Structure, chord progressions, harmony singing and production: it seems as if nothing has changed in forty years. The ease with which Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid – now in their seventies – actually keep everything the same, even makes you wonder why they haven't visited the studio together more often in recent decades. For the joyful jubilation, which belonged to Abba, dominates here too.

Not that all songs have the same hit potential as their early work. The new singles already proved that. More than a week at number eighteen in the charts was not in it for the new songs. You can safely call them flops hit-technically.

But things would have to go crazy if Little Things didn't become a hit. Accompanied by Christmas bells, the ladies sing about Christmas stockings in a ballad that is ideally suited for the month of December.

It is a better song than the overly forced and too long I Still Have Faith In You, that opens Voyage with some difficulty. Another highlight is the song I Can be That Woman, sung by Agnetha, with a dark tone. 'I am not the woman I could have been', she sings on an arrangement that works better than the next one Keep An Eye On Dan, with old-fashioned synths and a disco beat. Too bad, the tendency to want to cram songs just a little too much. As a result, details such as subtle references to old ABBA hits (note some intros and outros) are less noticeable. But when the ABBA chorus goes full steam ahead in the uptempo No Doubt About It, you know you're dealing with a genuine Abba earworm.

Ladies and gentlemen, Pitchfork. 7.4 - higher than Drake's Certified Lover Boy and Ed Sheeran's Equals!





pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/abba-voyage/