ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2021 Sept - Dec

Hi everyone,

It is fantastic to read these heart-warming posts from people all over the world in these last few days before the release. I am 57, a fan since January 1976 and childishly excited in anticipation again.

As a teenager, I had a few friends who were (kind of) fans with me but nobody bought ABBA's albums like I did. By 1980 they had drifted away. Of course I like other music too but have never wavered from loving ABBA. They sort of saved my life when I could escape from other unhappy things going on in my life into their music. And I have since bought and grown to love a lot of things done by the members, especially Krisina and BAO stuff.

Benny is a genius and takes inspiration from so many other types of music and therefore ABBA always have a certain operatic quality to their melodies.

It is nice to be a member of this forum and read the comments from everyone and know that we are all ABBA fans and enjoy going through this together (even if online).

Martin

The Album was the first of those that I experienced in real time. My brother had bought Arrival (his first ABBA album) at the end of 1977 when I was five, and I remember being a bit disappointed that The Name of The Game (the current single) wasn’t on it. He got The Album not that long after it came out in the UK and the earlier albums plus Greatest Hits (excluding Ring Ring which wasn’t available) throughout 1978.

Voulez-Vous was therefore the first album that involved a slight wait, though some of the tracks had been premiered via either Mike Yarwood or ABBA In Switzerland. When I hear the intro of As Good As New now, it can still take me back to that first listen, it just sounded so different to what they’d done before. Obviously as a kid, time goes slower but it never seemed like we were waiting an age for a new album.

I was 10 when The Visitors came out (we acquired Ring Ring at some point before that, which bridged a gap) and at that age I was much less subjective (which perhaps explains why I don’t dislike any ABBA song). It just seemed the norm really, there would be an ABBA album every year (or nearly so). 40 years away in 1981 to me would have seemed like a thousand years. My parents and brother are gone but somehow ABBA are still here!

If so, it's a repeat of what happened with "The Album" - I got the cassette weeks before the vinyl came out in the UK. It's difficult to imagine this happening for "Voyage", unless one vendor has slipped up. Do we know in which country it has supposedly occurred? For nostalgia's sake, I have ordered the standard "Voyage" cassette from HMV, but I doubt that I will get it early, as they'll send the vinyl, CD and cassette together.

In the Netherlands, a 100-page glossy magazine has been released to celebrate ABBA's comeback and the release of the "Voyage" album.
www.soundz.nl/product/pre-order-abba-the-comeback-special/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0pal35738wIVGKp3Ch2ueQAiEAAYASAAEgL5WvD_BwE

Well, this is only my second post but we’re on the verge of a historic event this Friday and I am as excited as I was back in 1981 when ’The Visitors’ was released and I was 21 years old. We have been conditioned for 39 years that Abba would never release any new music and never reform and we all accepted that. Then a miracle happened. I will never again believe that never means never! Let’s not forget all the millions of people around the world too who have passed away in the past 39 years and will never hear what we are privileged to hear this Friday, including some of my personal Abba friends that I had back in the 1970’s here in London who are no longer with me.

Mozart is as popular today as he was 400 years ago and I believe in 400 years time Abba and the Beatles will still be remembered and listened to. The reason being that their music is timeless and touches the soul like very few other musicians of this era does. I love both Adele and Ed Sheeran but Adele has to seriously start changing her musical style if she wants to be remembered in 40 years time, otherwise they’d be mass suicides if this melancholy, depressive-ridden theme continues for the next 40 years. I love her voice and saw her at the O2 Arena a few years ago. Ed’s music is brilliant but it is very time specific and will be easily dated in 10 years time. Calvin Harris music is already dated in my view. Abba, however, are in a league of their own and transcends time, style and fashion and that’s why I feel they will be listened to in hundreds of years time.

Regarding the epic battle ahead, Abba are pitted against the two most popular musicians in the world in the next few weeks. I feel the only serious chance they have of reaching No. 1 is in the very first week of release due to the exceptional competition. Somehow I feel they will make it. Ed’s fanbase is much narrower than Abba’s, appealing to a more limited age range whereas everyone from 5 - 100 listens to Abba and their target audience is wider. However, what matters is sales and/or streaming from what I understand. I still feel they are popular enough to override Ed’s second week’s sales although this depends, in part, on how big a first week sales he generates - and it will be massive.

Each Abba album is a work of art, an event of importance. I remember how joyous every album was on its release and the critical reviews in the media. This one will be too. Maybe it is Abba’s parting gift to us but never say never in this world.

Regardless of the chart position, now is the best time to release to get those Christmas gifting sales.

Gamleman

You are right about focussing on charts. If ABBA didn't have such a stunning chart history we wouldn't be as interested.

I am not so concerned with chart placings of other artists I like.

That said, Mid Week's just out. Ed Sheeran only on 84k. I know it's only Friday to Sunday sales. But I am confident ABBA will outsell him and land that 10th No. 1 album in the UK. They will easily sell 150k.

I'm not on Facebook either, but one Instagram fan account reports that it is all about posting reactions while listening to the album.

Varied yes, but I'd put a question mark over "immensely", and "uniquely different' is hyperbole. B&B have always worked as pop 'craftsmen', squarely using means already formed, tried and tested, and have looked to create a fresh-feeling synthesis, which they're still doing, as evidenced by the fact that some in here have been playing the "spot the influences/(self)references" with these new tracks (Just A Notion pretty squarely recycles the boogie feel earlier given a spin-out on things like So Long and Why Did It Have To Be Me; DSMD carries echoes of One Of Us, while its lyrics hark back to the scene-setting fussiness of The Day Before You Came; ISHFIY's dignified, bittersweet sweep recalls the mood of 'deep' reflective tracks like My Love, My Life, One Man, One Woman and I Wonder). ABBA are—to use a line of that great philosopher Father Ted—a great bunch of lads, but they've never been in the business of producing "uniquely different" songs.

I am of course looking forward to Friday. And the date cannot be changed. Suspect picked to capture the Christmas sales and showcase their first Christmas themed song. Had it been released in January could have been the number one album of 2022. Abba have been chart champs in the UK in 3 years ...number one album for the year in the UK 1976 Greatest Hits, 1977 Arrival and 1980 Super Trouper. Missed out in 1978 because of Saturday night fever and Grease ..Two soundtracks. But number 3. So biggest selling album by a single artist in 1978.

There'll be some good stuff on there almost certainly, but it's a big ask that all of the tracks be brilliant (after all, out of three songs so far released, we've had one thoroughly heartening return to near-top form, one enjoyable but lightweight glam-boogie pop-rocker, and one curate's egg on the over-cooked side, which features a lot of windy lines that don't ultimately add up to much (Bjorn, mate, we don't need to know what material a bench is made out of; just get on with it!).

Well, that 'something exciting' on the ABBA Facebook Fan Page turns out to be them wanting people to film their reactions to the new album as they are listening to it for the first time. Who would want to be bothered with filming themselves and giving a running commentary in the middle of something they've been waiting 40 years to experience? Not me, that's for sure, apart from the fact that I would never film myself, let alone submit the video to the Internet.

Does anybody out there know either of these two things.

Little things is going to be a Christmas single release, but when will they release it? One week before Christmas maybe?

Happy New Year coloured vinyl 7", I haven't heard anything at all about this release this time around. It was due to be issued every Christmas on different coloured vinyl, but everything has gone quiet over this realease.

I wondered if they would do tv ads. Did it just show the avatars spinning and play snippets of DSMD and ISHFIY like the online teasers we are used to?