ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2022 Jan - Apr

I agree with Alan and add that I am at least glad that Agnetha continued her solo career from 1983 to 1988 and then again in 2004 (unfortunately the cover version of the song) and 2013. Frida 1982 to 1984, 1992, 96. Composition Slowly on Benny Anderson's album was pretty bad. Frida's general solo career was unfortunately less successful.
The songs on the CHess album had their potential, the Gemini project and some of their songs were good.
In conclusion, I want to write that Agneth-Frida's connection was unique and Benny's songs from 1983-88 were unfortunately interpreted by other singers with less vocal potential, and that's really a shame! The songs were, but without Agnetha and Frida. That's really sad.

Sorry, I didn’t mention that to get any sympathy but thanks anyway (I mentioned about my brother once before). I meant that there were no guarantees that all of ABBA would make it to this point (and indeed, that fans would - many wouldn’t have). At times I wondered if ABBA would have left it until it was too late.

As I say, completely irrational and there were many reasons why they didn’t, but 39 years (or 35 if we’re talking about recording)? All seems a bit of a waste, and I wish I didn’t think like that!

For 40 years, Of even solo projects, Chess and yes even Mamma Mia theater and film ETC, I lived in Hope of some sort or reunion/new tracks...so ever the optimist.
Now I'm older ..lol.. I feel I'm more of a realist... and apart from perhaps hopefully couple of tracks to come, I feel that Voyage is it, the end, and as hard as it is for me to say, as it should be... They are going out on a high similar as they arrived ( Eurovision ), as said in Waterloo, " the History Book on the shelf " , well this last chapter is a fantastic climax to their career and History will show as such..

So as much as I'd love more who wouldnt, I'm actually OK with this being the end, he says reluctantly... even though there's always hope !!!!

I am so grateful that we got another album. As decades pass most artists will pass into obscurity. A few will stand out Elvis, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Abba. Most Abba songs are well crafted. Anything else would be a bonus.

Yes, it's a pity they didn't record together over the years. It's a pity, too, that Frida and Agnetha didn't do an album together. Futile to think this way, of course, but still ... 'What if'.
I accept what Johnny says about Agnetha and Frida's vocals, so if they wanted to do a final 50th Anniversary album, I hope they're recording it now - or yesterday.

But I can appreciate those who accept that Voyage is it. I can accept it too.

I was disappointed with ABBA's 6 songs in 1982, their chart performances and the way they just fizzled out.

With Voyage, I like 8 of the songs, some are up to Classic ABBA standard. Voyage has been a huge commercial success.

I would like ABBA to go out on a high.

1982 was a disappointing year. Always thought Head over Heels was the wrong choice . The Visitors with a good video would have been my choice and I think it would have been top 10 if not top 5. And releasing Slipping through my fingers leading up to Mother's day could have scored another big hit. I do however like TDBYC but maybe not as a single. It has a sad, kind of haunted feel. Interestingly I heard a mix of Head over Heels intro with TDBYC and I thought that could have worked as a single. Seemed to lift TDBYC.

Personally, I would really prefer "Voyage" to be their final studio album. It was a very welcome one-off offering, but I don't want to see them continuing to work in their old age like some bands do (probably those that need the money). I wouldn't say no to another brand-new single though, just to wrap things up.

Looking at the songs they recorded in 1982, for me they ranged from among ABBA's best to among their worst. "The Day Before You Came" (I think the title is quite charming) and "Just Like That" are among my favourites and I also very much like "Cassandra" and "Under Attack" (apart from the voice processing). However, I would deem "You Owe Me One" and "I Am A City" to be near the bottom of ABBA's barrel and if this was the direction in which they were heading as a group, they did right to call it a day.

I thought "Head Over Heels" made a great single and had a great video, although the record buyers obviously didn't see it that way. By the way, from the fan reviews of "The Visitors" (to which I contributed a review), the ABBA Magazine decided that "Head Over Heels" was the fan-favourite from the album.

I wonder how many of us loved The Day Before You Came from the get-go? I certainly didn't. When I heard it for the first time, I seriously thought that someone at Polar and/or Epic had lost their mind. To be honest, I didn't "get" it until I saw the video and then - bam! - I was hooked.

It was (is) a mature song. Layered and intriguing, both lyrically and musically. Each of the four members brings something unique to it too. With ABBA songs, we often get hung up on the lead vocalist's performance and possibly a key instrumental figure. They become the focal points. With TDBYC, we get something new - ABBA in a whole new configuration of equals. It's like shifting sets on a stage. Benny's curling synth riff is a standalone piece. It's elegant and moody and scene-setting. Agnetha arrives in a fresh new role. Stripping away all that we know of her vocal talents and bringing humanity to this character. I was trying to figure out if we'd seen her before in other ABBA songs. She's not the devastated, tear-sodden victim that Agnetha's (too) often asked to portray. She's not the resigned and (sometimes) sarcastic survivor that we've seen Frida portray. She seems kinda shellshocked, maybe? Numbed? The only place I might've seen that woman before is in the acapella section of The Name Of The Game. Uncertain, wary, vulnerable. So Bjorn also brought something new to the table and it took some getting used to. And with no lyrics to sing at all (not even as a harmony), you'd think that Frida was somehow sidelined, but she brings the drama that Agnetha's role is forbidden to indulge. The warm throaty "aaaah" pads under the vocal as Agnetha narrates the banality of her day seems to hint at buried feelings. That crystalline operatic solo in the middle is Frida doing Agnetha's crying for her. The classic case of the voice being used as an instrument.

TDBYC is in my ABBA Top 3. The three same songs occupy the top spot on a rotating basis. It's possible that a Voyage track might get close to these but it's too soon to say. DSMD, ISHFIY and OTF probably have a greater chance of that kind of ranking than the rest of the album. The other 1982 songs are just not in the same league, IMO. I loved Cassandra at the time, but now it feels cluttered. There are some beautiful performances from all four but it hasn't stayed with me at all. JLT comes and goes in my affection and I still think that DSMD is a correction of all JLT's faults. It's the one Voyage song that feels like it could have come from those sessions. Under Attack is a good pop song that they seemed afraid to "produce" - everything is held back. Those leaked unmixed tapes show that the vocals in the chorus are far more interesting and ear-catching than the official mix suggests. And don't get me started on that horrible synth solo. If I'm honest, for all its flimsiness and daft hokeyness, I sometimes enjoy You Owe Me One more. It's unpretentious and silly and not trying to be anything.

I'm really curious about what kinds of songs were left off Voyage. I definitely want to get my hands on them but I hope ABBA are smart enough to control their release. If they're not singles, don't put them out as singles. Put them out as bonus tracks on something - a compilation, a deluxe Voyage, an anthology. As we've seen, singles are of limited importance these days.

Unless it was always intended, the Voyage album is the unexpected bonus that stemmed from all the difficulties and delays of the avatar project - a project with a heavy investment to make money, they hope.

It was the desire/felt need to record two new songs for the show that got all four back into the studio at all after decades of not doing so. Otherwise it likely wouldn't have happened.
But now it has, I agree with Alan and hope they will go on a bit more - for many of us, I'm sure, for a last, 50th Anniversary, album. With two unfinished songs there, just a few more to go. 
And I've read that Benny works in his studio most days...
So you never know.

Regarding TDBYC - interesting comments, Tony - l like the song much more than I used to, at least musically: a sort of Scandinavian syntho-blues; it has that feel for me, anyway. But I find the ambiguity at the heart of the lyric - and I assume it's intentional - strangely uninteresting. Did someone come into her life and transform it for the better for a while? If so, why dwell on dreary yesterday? And if not - if dreary yesterday has become even drearier today - then the title seems redundant to me. But I find it difficult to sort out in my mind, yet not in a particularly intrigued way.

ABBA Voyage has posted this on Facebook today, though article is dated 4 January:

www.timeout.com/music/how-abbas-virtual-concerts-could-change-the-face-of-live-music-in-2022?fbclid=IwAR0ItbXR5QZsY6Y_1Hlz5jxHY7hvczpB4EiM_n1GeMFATnyRFvpIiryJPeU

The key bit is:

“ABBA spent five weeks being filmed by 160 cameras for motion capture as they performed the songs that will make up the show’s 96-minute runtime. ‘That was with [choreographer] Wayne McGregor, who had some very basic choreography for them,’ Walsh recalls. ‘Wayne [then] extended and exaggerated all of their moves for the second shoot with younger body doubles. He gave them the same choreography in a sense but just made it much more complicated and much younger, I suppose.’ “

We knew about the five weeks and the body doubles, but it’s the choreography bit I’m struggling with. If ABBA were just doing moves given to them, and it’s all been extended and exaggerated anyway, why not skip that stage and give it straight to the body doubles? What exactly have they gained by ABBA doing it themselves? What’s the motion capture for?

I'm glad I'm not alone in preferring ABBA's darker side. That's not to say that the sheer joy of, say, When I Kissed The Teacher passes me by. It doesn't. In fact, it's probably the song that turned me from casual fan to full-blown anorak, but ABBA's world weariness and gloom are right in my wheel house. And they're very good at not laying it on too thick.

I saw Head Over Heels mentioned above and it reminded me that I had a reasonably recent rapprochement with the track. I got one of those multi-disc Electronic 80s sets. The Visitors opens one of the discs in predictably brilliant form but Head Over Heels is buried further in the tracklist among some of the era's well-known hits. But it surprised me by really jumping out as something fresh compared with the tracks around it. I really came to appreciate it all over again. Plus, hearing the Thompson Twins' "We Are Detective" made me think that they were listening to the ABBA track with admiration. If the timelines had somehow allowed it, I think that The Visitors album could have been a notch better (and darker) if TDBYC and Cassandra had been on the tracklist instead of HOH and TFTPOO. Those two songs could have been the A/B sides of a September single instead.

I was just a toddler when ABBA called it a day back in 1982, so I can see the period from a different perspective. I wasn't there to follow their progress while they were an active band. And as I discovered them as a teenager in mid-90s, even I Am The City was already there to enjoy. I can see why 1982 can bee seen as "disapponting year" when you were there to witness their earlier records come out. But having the advantage (??) of a distance, I don't see it that way.

The only 1982 recording I really don't like much is You Owe Me One. The others are brilliant in my opinion. I remember I enjoyed I Am The City from the first listen - the shared lead vocals, the magic of the two voices in the choruses - so unmistakably ABBA. I didn't know back then that it was a previously unreleased track from the 1982 sessions. For me it was just one of those brilliant songs by a brilliant group. It was later that I found out the story behind the song and now I see it as a step back from the style of The Visitors. Back from the gloom to the sparkling production, joint vocals, not so personal lyrics. I like the dark side of ABBA too (The Day Before You Came is one my absolute favourites) but I don't think that I Am The City was worse because it wasn't dark.

One of the things I don't like about "I Am The City" is I don't think we are hearing A&F's pure vocals and they are being processed in some way - not in ABBA's traditional way of over-laying the vocals but perhaps by computer technology of the time. Perhaps I'm wrong but in any case, this song seems to take the ABBA vocal sound to an extreme and to me it sounds almost like a spoof of an ABBA song. The same can be said of "You Owe Me One". But I can imagine that someone coming to ABBA after their heyday may be more accepting/forgiving of this.