ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2022 Jan - Apr

January 1 and I booked my hotel stay in London near the venue of the Voyage concert. I have tickets for the Sunday afternoon show. I dont have my plane tickets yet but that will have to wait. I want to see how this Omicron variant is going to play out. Seems to be wreaking havoc in schedules everywhere, even though its supposed to be mild but very contagious. I hope by May everything would have normalized. I hope to see and meet many of you on that week. Im thinking of watching Mamma Mia at the Novello theater also only to have something to do aside from visiting tourist sites (my first time in London).

You've got a good memory, Eddie. Yes, I think I wrote that about HNY in the 'Quality and Commercial Success' thread, in The Music section, from quite a while back. Although I don't regard the song as being confined to a narrow window of the year in quite the same way as a Christmas song is, it still has something of that feel to me. I do think HNY has a beautiful, poignant melody and would have preferred it with different lyrics.

Regarding 'fillers', I think it's something to be a bit 'touchy' about. For a start, as Tony, says, it's very subjective, anyway. And it implies something just thrown in there to make up the numbers. No self-respecting songwriter would do that.

Regarding Just A Notion, in my very subjective opinion, it's very good melodically - it's just that I would have preferred a different arrangement. 

Voyage has also been announced as the best selling vinyl album for 2021 with sales over just over 40 000 copies sold.

Onlyabba4meagain

Looking at the weekly sales there seems a big gap between the #3 and #5 and 6 albums. I expected them to be closer.


In year end chart, ABBA are indeed competing with Adele and Ed Sheeran. Only 32k behind Ed. He sold more in stream equivalents and I imagine downloads. It would seem ABBA sold more than him in physical copies.


Fillers
Filler and skipable to be are pretty much the same I don't think Universal would have put out an album of fewer than 10 songs. Yes, I know The Album and The Visitors had 9 each but they were longer.

Would JAN have been released if they had extra songs? I don't buy this "fan favourite" line. This was replaced with the argument it was showing what the concerts were like - old vocals, new music.

BB and LT have dull melodies and trite lyrics. The former is just so dull, the latter so cringy.

There are always conflicting views and opinions regarding ABBA songs. A particular favourite of one fan maybe the least of another fan and so on. I am beginning to understand all our personal tastes and preferences are different. Reading feedback from fans about ABBA songs that they love, like and dislike keeps the ABBAchat discussion forum alive. I may have mentioned this before but I found top 100 ABBA polls and megarates really interesting from an ABBA fan's personal point of view. It is a shame the old discussion forum regrettably closed in September 2014. I found that forum to be a source of curious and intriguing interest. Due to my " foggy " memory I cannot remember the name of the previous discussion forum. Another senior moment on my part ! The joys of becoming older !

It would be interesting to know which track Bjorn and Benny would take out if they had to remove one. I wonder if it would agree with what many think are the "filler" tracks.

Richard - I don't have to,nor does anyone, have to add imo. Because obviously this is what all these comments are.

Alan - if JAN was a late addition this gives weight to the argument it was a filler - and especially if the two rejected songs were before.

It's not about softening everything one says with an "I think" or "I feel" or "In my opinion". That can read as weakly apologetic. It's about context and when such an expression might be appropriate.

The Voyage chapter in the new CMP book should be pretty interesting. I wonder what the likely publication date is now?

Thought I'd have a crack at Voyage, i.e. my thoughts on the songs and maybe score the album out of ten at the end. Hope no one gets offended and throws their toys out of the pram; they're just my thoughts and impressions.

I Still Have Faith In You:

Majestic and moving with a delicate melody and a very impressive and touching vocal from Frida. Although I can appreciate it, I can see why others might be turned off by the musical theatre aspect of it. Don't get me wrong, it moved me immensely and Frida's vocal is one of her best but I feel my elation was more because this is AꓭBA after such a long, long time and I would have been emotional no matter what. A song all four should feel proud of.

When You Danced With Me:

Went straight into my Irish heart and made me think how much my mum would have liked it. Visiting her grave over Christmas I played the song on loudspeaker as I placed flowers. The "sun was going down, it was getting dark"! She'd have been amused and touched by my gesture. I was always going to love this song. I'm chuffed to bits AꓭBA recorded a song in this vein. Whether Irish/Scottish or Nordic...it has that Celtic feel which was always going to resonate with me. And didn't my ancestors come from Scandinavia anyway? It's all interwoven.

Little Things:

I like it...but I'm not mad about it. It has its supporters although you'd never think so going by some comments on here. However, I am unsure of the wisdom of putting it on the album at all. Perhaps it should have been a stand alone, one-off single? I'm usually all about cohesiveness so a Christmas song plonked into an album of non-Christmas songs? I'd like to ask Benny and Björn their reasons for this. However, contrary to bennybjorn, I think the song IS subtle and nuanced! Funny how people hear different things. ​

Don't Shut Me Down:

Absolute cracker. Love the slight crack/hesitancy in Agnetha's voice and what a beautiful voice she still has. Unmistakable and unique in pop. Would wake me from a coma! Well, The Third Voice would, for sure. This is top notch and without a doubt the shining star on the album. It has everything. It was during the original broadcast of this song that I shed a tear (or three!). How I wish I could relive that moment. I'd still been in shock during ISHFIY and it hadn't quite sunk in that AꓭBA were back and this was really happening. That chorus! Agnetha's story-telling. Björn's lyrics, Benny's music, Anni-Frid's backing vocals! The whole shebang! Joyous and exultant.

Just A Notion:

Liked it a lot at first then grew weary of it quite quickly. Now I like it again. Talk about fickle! I genuinely believe some songs need time to develop in your heart. This might be one. I could even grow to love it, who knows?

I Can Be That Woman:

This is taking a long time to develop into something I look forward to listening to. I like the tricky subject matter and Agnetha shines as always and there's that special magic when Frida joins in towards the end during the part we as AꓭBA fans all know! Beautiful. I hesitate to criticise the lyrics, it seems really cheeky as I'm not a lyricist and feel impertinent even doing so. This needs more time. Need to revisit.

Keep An Eye On Dan:

Simply adore it. Right off the bat, I was hooked. It gives me shivers down my spine. I'm even ok with the chorus now. It's sort of sing-songy, like a nursery rhyme, but one that expresses adult anxiety and trepidation. She knows she shouldn't feel like this but she can't help it. Mixed emotions, still in love with her ex (maybe?!), doesn't know quite how to navigate her feelings when her child is away from her and spending time with the estranged partner. I don't have children so it's a stretch for me to imagine having one and then splitting from the other parent and the complicated emotions that might arise from the situation regarding joint custody or otherwise. Just great, I don't quite know why, it just is.

Bumblebee:

How could I not love this when the subject matter is so close to Frida's heart? Plus, you can stroke a bee! A fuzzy, clumsy ball indeed. I can appreciate this might not float everybody's boat but I'm a romantic old fool who loves nature so I was smitten straight away. It's so heartfelt. Not to mention extremely topical. These are scary times!

No Doubt About It:

I like this more each time I hear it. A barnstormer. Frida is incredible. Her voice sounds untouched by time on this particular track. It's a given that Agnetha and Frida's voices have aged, and it's clear in parts but on this? Nah. Frida knocks it out of the park. I suspected as much. She's a very underrated singer. Marvellous lyrics, too. Bravo, everyone!

Ode To Freedom:

I thought this would immediately take up residency in my heart but it didn't, surprisingly. But it didn't take long! Oh, my silly, foolish heart melts when I listen to this. So Björn would like to write an ode to freedom that we all could sing? Well, he has. Sublime. Frida dominates but Agnetha's soaring vocals just behind her are GORGEOUS! A fitting swansong if this is to be it.

I'm guilty of being a skipper in the past but I learnt my lesson. I now believe an album is ideally meant to be enjoyed as a whole so I don't skip any songs (assuming I put the album on and wasn't just listening to one of the songs independently) and there's definitely no filler on this album.

I'd give the album a solid 8/10.

This guy is rather informative, seeing whether ABBA auto tune their vocals now, he reviewed ABBA performing Gimme Gimme Gimme in an earlier post.

I agree with this, well almost...3 top tier songs, 4 good to great, 1 OK, 2 skipable.

No Doubt About It is indeed s top tune. Some great lyrics too as BennyBjorn pointed out. That is in my Top 3 along with the first two singles - "faith" and "shut".

It’s fascinating to read the detailed reviews of Voyage. I actually feel rather envious that other people love it so much. I had hoped it would grow on me, but as I have now played it at least 50 times, I doubt I am going to be converted. The one thing that has gone up in my estimation is Agnetha’s vocals, which are still lovely. (I was always impressed by Frida’s Voyage vocals.)

I would say there are three good-to-great songs (ISHFIY, DSMD, ICBTW), two OK songs (NDAI, OTF), three weak songs (WYDWM, JAN, KAEOD) and two songs I don’t like (LT, B).

Perhaps it’s too soon, but I am interested to know how people rate Voyage compared with ABBA’s other studio albums. My list would be:

1. Arrival
2. The Album
3. Voulez-Vous
4. Super Trouper
5. The Visitors
6. ABBA
7. Waterloo
8. Voyage
9. Ring Ring