Voyage

This week we'll take a bit of a break and look at something that's very connected to the past that many people had been waiting ages for.

For a variety of reasons, some being personal with band members gone through divorce the Swedish super group ABBA decided to call it a day in 1982 following the release of The First Ten Years, a double compilation album that had some new recordings on it such as Under Attack although a studio album was attempted but aborted.

ABBA were rather like the Beatles were in their heyday a group who had a broad range of fans and whose music could cover schlager to rock via folk music so they were in many ways everyone's band who realized recording in English rather than their native Swedish was a gateway to world-wide acceptance.

Initially as we got through the eighties that universality of appeal lead to a bit of a backlash with people seeing their music as "cheesy" pop but the appearance of Abba-esque, a four track EP of covers by the English synth duo Erasure in brought their music back into the public consciousness which was matched with the compilations ABBA Gold and More Abba Gold plus a the four cd set Thank You For The Music in 1994, the first time their music had been given that deluxe series treatment beyond a limited Readers Digest set in 1981. 

Roll on to 2021 and a new album that had started life as an attempt to produce a couple of new songs for a virtual reality tour that featured 3D avatars of the band emerged.

There are a variety of variants issued of the album numbering 33 all told. That cover is from the tri-fold "Softpack" version I own while the regular cd has a slightly different one. 

Just a Notion, the single from it issued October 22nd  has a start point of being a uncompleted 1978 tune that had new instrumental backing on it where it was originally included as a demo on that 1994 box set while I still Have Faith In You plus Don't Shut me Down came from 2018 originally intended for a BBC/NBC tv special that was cancelled.

In recording the album the band kept to the original synthesizers and mixing consoles of the early 1980's to keep the original sound while purposely being out of tune with 2021's trends so no duets with people such as the rapper Stormzy or multi artist collaborations.

It is and feels several plays later just like a modern Arrival album just evergreen timeless Abba that the odd quirky turn of phrase with its mixture of thoughtful ballads and more uptempo songs.

It also only plays for a modest 37 minutes and 11 seconds which is just long enough matching the norm of albums of the late 1970's and 80's to enjoy with a side change for those who bought the lp version and cassette versions.

I love it.