by Stella Eihausen, Year 11
Let me begin by saying that I never in a million years would have thought that the beloved and iconic band, ABBA, would be releasing new music 40 years after their disband in 1982. As ABBA is my favorite band, you can assume how beyond excited I was when I heard that they were releasing a brand new album. The first time I ever heard ABBA was when I was 3 years old and my parents introduced me to one of their favorite bands from their youth. My mind still swirls in memories of listening to the songs “Should I Laugh Or Cry” and “Like An Angel Passing Through” from The Visitors album throughout the numerous road trips, vacations, and cooking sessions my family and I have encountered together.
So clearly, I am a HUGE fan of ABBA and their announcement of a new music release felt as if my very own fairy godmother had bibbidi bobbidi booed her way into making a dream of mine come true.
If you are not too familiar with the band ABBA, let me give you a bit of background info: ABBA is a Swedish Europop band with members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, that formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. The band started off as a Swedish cabaret act named Festfolk that quickly bloomed into a band named ABBA that became known for its melodic and catchy music as well as eccentric costumes. However, in 1982, the group disbanded after releasing their last album The Visitors due to various personal reasons, but mainly due to the divorce of both couples within the band.
And now in 2021, they’ve made, arguably, one of the most exciting and influential comebacks of the century. Voyage was released on November 5th, 2021 and that exact Friday, my sister and I sprawled ourselves in her room and together we listened and hoped that our beloved band would once again follow through and amaze us. Now the question is: did they?
Since I adore ABBA so much, I had a very high standard for this release. However, I think it is important to keep in mind that all members of ABBA are in their 70s and haven’t made music together in 40 years. Therefore, to be completely honest, I think that ABBA met my standard, but did fall short on a few songs. I truly fell in love with several of the songs from the Voyage album. Two of my favourites include “Bumblebee” and “Don’t Shut Me Down.” I find that these two songs really demonstrate ABBA’s ability to tell a very deep story even when coated with dynamic melodies. For example, in the song “Bumblebee” the speaker uses their admiration for the bumblebee in their garden to link back to climate change and the threat of bumblebee extinction. This is especially brought across in the lyrics “Feeling sad for those who’d never Hear the hum of bumblebees” which is sung at the end of the song. I find that ABBA does an amazing job bringing such an important issue into their story-telling while also having a beautiful melody and harmonies between Agnetha and Anni-Frid.
Secondly, “Don’t Shut Me Down,” which was released as a single along with “I Still Have Faith In You” in early September last year, was the song that made me even more thrilled for the upcoming album. The song mainly encompasses the group’s return and that they are “reloaded” as well as “fired up” to be back. The lyrics “Will you leave me standing in the hall or let me enter? The apartment hasn’t changed at all” suggest that although music has, of course, changed over the years, the band is hoping that fans will invite them back with open arms and see that their style hasn’t changed. The meaning behind the song is a clear link to ABBA’s comeback, but I also think that you can connect the song to your own personal growth as well as the past two years of difficulties with Covid-19. It’s as if you are saying, “Hey, I’ve made it through difficult times, but I’m stronger now, so Don’t Shut Me Down!” I find this to be very well perceived from the song-writers Björn and Benny and of course amazingly sung by Anni-Frid and Agnetha.
Now while I did love many of the songs from Voyage, in my opinion, ABBA’s triumphs from when it all started 50 years ago had an unbeatable energy that is difficult to match. The songs such as “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” “Super Trouper,” “Like An Angel Passing Through,” and many more are such timeless pieces that continue to be listened to and sung after so many years. Therefore, the songs from Voyage such as “Ode to Freedom” and “Little Things” disappointed me. Firstly, the song “Ode to Freedom” has a very tranquil instrumental background, however, I found the lyrics quite repetitive and a bit boring. Since it is the last song on the album, I had hoped that the band would have left with a bang, but instead I was left with a monotony of a song that did not leave much of an impression. In addition, “Little Things” was created as a Christmas song that I honestly felt did not match the energy of the rest of the album. I have to mention that there are some truly touching and wholesome lyrics in the song including “Little things like my gentle touch” and “Little things like your sleepy smile.” However, the very slow buildup made me lose my attention quite quickly and I thought the energy was far too different from the rest of the songs to have worked well together in the album.
While I have my own thoughts on this album, there are several other LGB students who have interesting perspectives on ABBA’s new music release. One year 11 student stated that she “generally loved the album” although there were a few songs she did not like, “for example: ‘When You Dance With Me’ due to the slow tempo,” and the song ‘Bumblebee’ which she viewed as a “flop.” She also mentioned that ‘I Still Have Faith In You,’ ‘Just A Notion,’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ are “undoubtedly the best songs of the album.” In addition, a year 12 student mentioned that they found ABBA’s new album as “a great surprise and that they have succeeded by continuing to do what has worked for them in the past!”
On the other hand, one year 13 student, who is also a huge fan of ABBA stated that the album “wasn’t love at first sight.” As she was describing her thoughts on the songs, “the image that popped up in my head was 2 grandmas singing at their friend’s 40th wedding anniversary party.” She did tell me, however, that she added a few songs to her playlist in hopes that she would begin to like them more after a while. This, in fact, worked! “I now love ‘Just A Notion,’ ‘No Doubt About It,’ and ‘Ode to Freedom,’” she told me. “Voyage is definitely my least favorite ABBA album but it would be unrealistic to expect them to recreate the absolute masterpieces that they made in the 70s.”
Overall, LGB students, including myself, have mixed perspectives on individual songs from Voyage as well as the album as a whole. However, to conclude, I think it is very important to mention the timelessness of ABBA. For instance, I unfortunately do not know that many people my age who are as obsessed with ABBA as I am. However, I am about 99% sure that every single person at our school has heard at least one ABBA song in their life. This one song is most likely either “Dancing Queen”, “Super Trouper”, or another one of the most famously known songs from the compilation album ABBA Gold and the world-wide known musical and movie, MAMMA MIA! This is all simply due to the fact that ABBA’s songs are catchy, well-crafted, and therefore ageless.
Finally, of course everyone has their own opinion on which songs from Voyage sound more like ‘the original ABBA’ from the 70s, but I truly find it amazing that the band has, for the most part, kept their distinct style and synth intact and have not conformed to any 21st century norms for music. I think this is the exact reason why ABBA will continue to be loved by generation after generation. Regardless of all the critics and reviews of Voyage and the rest of ABBA’s music, one fact will always stay the same: no matter how much time passes by, ABBA will forever remain timeless.
