ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2021 Sept - Dec

My overall take by now.
ISHFIY – first I heard it with tears in my eyes, though I don’t know why since I’m not that fan who had been dreaming about their new album for years, I was (and am) just happy ABBA existed and gifted us with so beautiful music. So it is just the power of the song.

WYDWM – nice, but I’m not fond of country/folk tunes, not my thing. I guess it might work as a single only if ABBA is mostly targeted at the UK market.

LT and BB – lovely songs, BB is very touching.

DSMD and JAN are great, I like them very much. Strange, but JAN is more of a Christmas song to me than LT. I can see the mall decorated green and red with crowds shopping and JAN playing in the background.

ICBTW is one of my favorites. I’ve already commented on it, same feelings. Impressive and constantly playing in my head.

KAYOD – classy, going to be another earworm. SOS at the end makes me think this is a sequel of that '75 story.

NDAI – whoa! That’s the song that surprised me most, I didn’t expect such a speed! The least viewed one on youtube, but sooo dynamic. And! It is here when I can feel how ‘undercover’ campaign does work! I can see only young Frida singing like that. Awesome.

OTF – at first listen sounded like a mess, but now I like it, there is something hypnotizing about it, and… after the above song I can’t stop singing the line as ‘Ode to Frida’ 

The only weak point of the album for me is all those ‘bows‘ and déjà vu moments like DSMD vs. Felicita, ICBTW vs. Listen To Your Heart, SOS, Tchaikovsky, etc. BUT. Taking into account the huge amount of music written by now I think we can hardly judge by this indication. Idk whether it is a total music crisis or not, but when hearing almost each new song I can actually say, ‘I’ve heard it somewhere’. Samples won over the music world.
Speaking globally, I can’t say if any of the 10 will shake the Gold. Say, in 40 more years lol. ABBA Gold tracklist is not perfect imho anyways, I would easily change IHAD for Eagle without hesitation. So time will show.

This is why I always buy from shops. for me perusing a record shop and picking the vinyl of the shelf ,
having a coffe somewahe and examening the cover art
is part of the joy of buying vinyl.

Me too, and that’s why I bought the yellow vinyl that way, but the green, white and orange variants can’t be bought in a shop. And you’d need an independent shop near to be able to get the blue.

I suppose that’s an option. I kind of want to open it so I can check the inner sleeve. I remember when I ordered Agnetha’s A album from the official store, it arrived with a ripped edge on the inner sleeve. I sent it back two or three times before I got a decent one (I think that was 180g vinyl though, so was just too thick and heavy for the inner sleeve to take). The cellophane wrap was so tight it had already given the sleeve ring wear.

I’ve already emailed my local independent record shop to see if they have the blue, but they don’t stock it. If I do buy that, it will be on inspection only! The yellow I bought from HMV was fine.

I wouldn't find this acceptable either. Items should arrive undamaged and extra care should be taken in the shipment of cardboard vinyl sleeves. I ordered the orange vinyl from Amazon FR and the yellow vinyl from FNAC FR. Luckily both arrived in impeccable condition.

For those who don't know this excellent YouTube channel: here's a very thoughtful and insightful review of Voyage. F.e. I didn't know that the end melody of Little Things came from a ringtone, composed and released by Benny in 2005.

I think I prefer the original, without the choir!

Yep. There was a report of a review that 4 Voyage tracks could post it onto Gold.


But only if you extend the playlist.

Sticking to 80 minute format I would only expect Don't Shut Me Down. In my view at expense of Voulez Vous.

I Still Have Faith in You
Keep an Eye on Dan
When I Danced With You
Do Doubt About It

could all make it to More Gold re-vamp.
Other changes too. MORE GOLD had a crap tracking order!

Both Gold and More Gold are at the maximum CD length of 80 minutes (the format they were created for). I don’t think you can remove tracks from an album (and add others) and still give it the same name and artwork, as it effectively becomes a different compilation. Unless I’m wrong on that?

As Gold is mainly concerned with UK top 10 hits (with just Summer Night City giving way to Thank You For The Music), there’s only really Don’t Shut Me Down that would be allowed in. The 1992 version of Gold is shorter (thanks to edits of The Name of The Game and Voulez-Vous). If they reinstated those edits and edited another track, there might be room for Don’t Shut Me Down to be added at the end.

Personally though, I think both albums should remain untouched. A new compilation, possibly, but not revisions of old ones.

I was only referring to a review and posted on here about tracks appearing on Gold/More Gold.

In that light I made my comments. It's all "if"
I do think DSMD is worthy of Gold status. I do understand people thinking that tracklist is unchanged.

Personally, I think track list for More Gold is far from satisfactory. Maybe that albumn could be re-vamped as Gold 2. It is not iconic like Gold.

ABBA Voyage and Adele 30 will be the two consistently high selling CD's in the run up to Christmas. Both are more suitable for gifts than perhaps any of the other releases. Ed Sheeran is possibly more niche to people of a certain age. Plus, if there is a Christmas lockdown (heaven forbid) CD's are easy (and cheap) to post considering they would go as Large Letters rather than parcels. So, I don't think Voyage will disappear off the charts this side of Christmas.

I love how she seemed to be telling the boys off

^^^^ Agree with all that's been said, utterly charming...

Now what are the odds of those two unfinished tracks being finished !!!!!

That Deluxe version is looking more promising  in May........

Hey! we may even get JLT...lol....