ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2023-24

^ Totally agree about Voyage.

I still Have Faith in You and Don't Shut Me Down are clearly the stand out tracks. ABBA albums for me always had the Good, the Bad and The OK.

I have never been a fan of "ABBA lite" acts. As for Steps the only song that sounds vaguely ABBAish is The Last Thing On My Mind and then just the chorus.

Good assessment, Joseph. And what's interesting about ABBA albums is that everyone seems to have a different view on which are the best, the middle ground, and the also-rans. I think Voulez-Vous probably generates more diversity of opinion than the others. Everyone seems to have a different ranking.


That stripped back mix is fascinating. The lead vocal is superb. And you really get to appreciate that lovely little harmony on the why I freak out / he worries line. 

Ok, I think “we” can say in general no other act compares to ABBA, some got close and some so far away, but many were of the same genre.
Steps were and did some great tracks, One For Sorrow being one of them, yes they may well be all in a similar vein, and perhaps they didn’t evolve the way ABBA did, they stuck to their own formula, and very successful they were to fact they have just celebrated 25 years together and last year had another number 1 Album, albeit another Greatest Hits,
Others, must include, whether we like or not , Boney M very successful and one of UKs best selling singles ever intact 2, Rivers of Babylon and Mary’s Boy Child, their success was relatively short, but similar genre.also number 1 albums...
Brotherhood of Man , a marmite group, did they copy , of course they did and got 3 number ones off the back of it in the singles chart, any good albums eluded them, think they didn’t trouble the top end ....
Bucks Fizz, 3 UK number ones, top 10 albums, and still going strong, albeit under a new name The Fizz
Others , THe Nolan’s, The Dooleys, many more I guess that all fall into that ABBA genre, they werent alone in the type of music that appealed, even the likes of Erasure in the 80s touched on those catchy MOR tracks albeit 80 synth.
So although unique in so many ways, all the above had a certain theme and some were far more successful than others.

It struck me yesterday driving home from work, how much the Voyage songs suit ABBA as they are now. There was a modern song on the radio, couldn't tell you who it was or what the song was, and I thought "can I imagine Agnetha and Frida singing this"? and I really, really couldn't!! My point being, it confirmed for me that if ABBA had come back with either modern type songs or, let's say, a DQ or KOF type song, it wouldn't have felt right, if you know what I mean? I think that is one of the reasons that Voyage is climbing in my favourite album chart!

Anyway, on the subject of have Benny and Bjorn's songwriting abilities diminished, absolutely NOT! Almost 60 years of tunes, not everything was going to be perfect lol! Was interesting to see the number of people involved in the list of 2023 Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year!! Not that easy for just two people to write a full album by the looks of it!

Regarding the engineering/producing, this did initially for me seem 'different', but I wonder if that could be more due to the systems we are all listening on? I have recently only just bought a stereo system and definitely sounds different than on You Tube and CD!! And with headphones on, quite beautiful IMHO! And how lovely is it that an orchestra has been used!? Since ABBA's Voyage came out, I have been listening to more music and I have to say quite a high proportion of them are just voice (autotuned) and drum machines!!

I'm not someone that adores everything ABBA has put out, but credit where credit is due. And they could have just released the two singles, but I for one am so glad they didn't and that we got this gift, which was so unexpected after all these years.

What dawned on me today when thinking of Voyage album, is every song on the album has a cold ending apart from the only one from 1978. Which shows you how Benny’s production aesthetics has changed. I thought of Gemini’s first album where although it is a pop album, Benny & Bjorn were influenced heavily on their own work on Chess, with theatrical songs and theatrical style productions, an example is Too Much Love Is Wasted which has verse, chorus x2 then an abrupt end with no instrumental break or repeat of a chorus to fade. Goodness knows what the reaction would be if that was an Abba album, though their second album was more of its time, and if it was released alongside Michael Jackson’s Bad or Madonna’s True Blue it would have more held it’s own.

Foreverfan - regarding ABBAish acts. I never liked Brotherhood of Man. They tried so much just to be like ABBA. Bucks Fizz were better. I am not a fan bit like their When We Were Young.

Boney M did some great songs. My faves Daddy Cool, Ma Baker and Rasputin (those last two basically the same). Belfast was an odd song. A song with references to the Northern Ireland Troubles set to a Europop disco beat!

I like a lot of Erasure songs. I noticed though that after their ABBA covers EP, which got to #1, their career just tanked.

I prefer cold endings to fades too. But on a couple of ABBA songs - Chiquitita and The Day Before You Came the instrumental and close ending is the best part of the songs.

That’s odd. I’ve just checked it and it wasn’t showing as locked. I locked and unlocked it to test it. Can you try again?

My total sales estimate for GOLD is
6,242,000 - 6,245,000.

Since Streaming allowed in 2016 or 2017, "sales" for GOLD have increased. Roughly 3/4 of its "sales" these days are Streaming equivalent. Gold has roughly been selling 4000 a week (1,000 in real sales) for well over a year now. Very consistent weekly sales.

This is in complete contrast with Voyage which is almost all real sales - and those are almost non-existant now.

Album sales are very low now. In the autumn of 2021 some huge big sellers. Ed Sheeran getting to #1 on 150k sales, ABBA with 200k first week sales and Adele on 250k opening sales. Last autumn Taylor Swift debuted on 200k sales. Albums now can get to #1 on 10 to 20k a week.

Adele and Ed's 600k total sales for current albums are way down on 3 million plus of their last ones.

So ABBA getting for Voyage 200k in first week and about 460k in total is quite some achievement. And as mentioned earlier these are almost all real sales.

Finally, don't compare Voyage's sales with Arrival or Super Trouper they were decades ago. Compare it to the rivals now. It has done very well. It was released 15 months ago. I am not expecting it to keep selling. ABBA's previous albums which debuted at #1 from The Album onwards were not selling 15 months after release. So Voyage no longer selling but has done great.

Maybe others who have been to the Voyage show can confirm - or disagree with - Tinneke's view that the reception to ISHFIY and DSMD has been lukewarm compared with their heyday hits on Gold. But I think most fans of hit-making groups aren't particularly interested in their favourite group's album tracks, for example. For myself, I love Karen Carpenters voice, and the instrumental arrangements of Richard Carpenter, but I have little or no interest in their albums. But I do have a compilation album of their most successful or prominent songs. Perhaps most fans - of any group - are at this level?

I went to the show for the 2nd time for my birthday. It was a Monday evening and I can confirm the new songs received great reception, especially I still have faith in you.

Joesph.... just let it go......

Personally, luckily I have a good imagination, so it wasn’t difficult to believe everything in front of me was real (being honest, in the back of your mind you know it isn’t).. but just suspend belief , and take in the spectacle, emotion and everything that goes with it..... I remember having wet eyes, not sobbing, lump in the throat and a smile/ grin for the whole show, it is amazing...

Nobody will notice if you have a tear or two, everyone is wrapped up in what’s in front of them, I honestly wouldn’t have known if Agnetha was in the seat beside me..lol

Waiting for set change and I’ll go again....

I thought DSMD was bit flat too, I’m looking forward to seeing it again to see if I still feel like that. Performance wise it’s a bit Under Attack 1982 I felt, I think they just stand and sing, though in the chorus build up they twirl about a bit. Hopefully I was wrong. Thing was, a chap collapsed at the end of ISHFIY so I was distracted a bit.

I haven't seen the show yet but from what I have read from people who have been is that ISHFIY got more of an applause/reaction than DSMD. Maybe it varies from night to night.

I would imagine both songs along with other non Gold songs such as The Visitors to be well less received than the big hits as the show is more of a Greatest Hits show for casual fans. That's my assumption anyway.