ABBA’s reunion disappoints, though there is a unicorn among their new offerings.
Their reunion disappoints, though there is a unicorn among their new offerings.
L ike the Eagles’ 1994 reconciliation tour, the reunion of Swedish pop sensation ABBA was a highly anticipated affair. Thanks to Mamma Mia!, my generation, notoriously a pessimistic and troubled lot, had been known to find euphoric escape in the songs at karaoke bars, college house parties, and in the depths of TikTok. Many weary, deflated souls, craving a spark of jubilance after a tumultuous year, hoped that the sequel would reinvigorate them. Following its long hiatus, the quartet, wrinkled and weathered from elapsed time, prepared a seemingly competitive comeback. Presenting a virtual holographic performance and celestial graphic design, the band teased a journey into uncharted territory with Voyage.
Catching their big break after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, an international songwriting competition in which they debuted “Waterloo,” ABBA invented a spunky musical style, complete with glam rock-infused costumes, that was a smorgasbord of techno, pop, disco, folk, and other genres. With incandescent, surround-sound harmonies, electric accompaniments, and unforgettable refrains (as in “SOS” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimmie!”), the original repertoire represented sublime craftsmanship, and it maintained its staying power decades after the ensemble’s retirement. However, while we must give the band credit for trying to be innovative long past their heyday, Voyage fails to build on ABBA’s legacy.
With its sampler tunes, “Don’t Shut Me Down” and “I Still Have Faith in You,” Voyage brought back the intoxicating blend of Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog’s now seasoned voices, satisfying our appetites for a moment. But the rest of the album, more like an epilogue than a euphonic triumph, felt a bit like defeat. Falling short of potential, Voyage evoked a longing for what could have been.
In some ways, Voyage resurrected ABBA’s ironclad songwriting formula and techniques that catapulted them to fame, but something fell flat. It’s not that the tracks were hard to listen to. Most were just slightly underwhelming. I missed the original discography that gave you goosebumps, arresting the senses with ominous, atmospheric synthesizer sounds and layering voices into oblivion with lush chord progressions sung by Frida and Agnetha. In many minds, the new ABBA faced the impossible task of beating themselves.
“Don’t Shut Me Down,” featuring a special Agnetha solo that encapsulated the nervousness of potentially getting rejected by a crush, almost reached “banger” level, but the chorus didn’t achieve a wall of sound after building up to it, leaving unresolved tension. There was no equivalent in Voyage to the upbeat “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” the seductive “Lay All Your Love on Me,” or the heartbreaking “The Winner Takes It All.” It could not replicate the wedding-reception anthem “Dancing Queen,” a sophisticated composition of musical sorcery that springs you out of your chair whether you consent to it or not.
Many of ABBA’s additions were slower and more reflective, a noted departure from the dynamic, punchy hits of previous albums. Given that, over the past half-century, the two pairs married, split, and then parted ways as a group, there was presumably enough emotional baggage and accumulated wisdom to channel into powerful, melting ballads that pondered on lost dreams, regrets, and the mystery of life, but those were missing. Falling short of their old catalogue’s universal relatability, the songs that approached serious ground didn’t amount to poignant, heart-stirring, or hypnotic. Instead, they were bizarre at worst and a bit annoying at best.
Taking the sometimes strange, uncomfortable themes of their matured midlife albums (e.g., “The Visitors”) perhaps a bit too far, “Keep an Eye on Dan” flirts with a divorcée’s conflicted feelings for her erratic, abusive ex-husband and the pain of moving on when she shares custody of her young son with him.
Reminiscent of their old song “I Have a Dream,” ABBA recruited a children’s choir for the Christmas song “Little Things,” which conjured up a bit of sweet innocence but felt like a lullaby out of an episode of Sesame Street. “I Still Have Faith in You” peeked into the band’s identity questions, making an honest plea to fans to give them a chance despite their prime being well in the past. Frida warbled, “Do I have it in me? I believe it is in there.” But while the message was sincere, I didn’t notice until the third or fourth listen because of the droning melody.
The one unicorn in the bunch was “When You Danced with Me.” Inspired by a trip to Kilkenny, Ireland, by ABBA’s co-songwriter Björn Ulvaeus, the number married the Irish jig with techno in a mood-shifting treat that was loaded with bittersweet nostalgia. Like many Celtic folk songs, it was jovial and colorful on the surface but pensive and sobering underneath. Rhyming “You’re just here for the music, that’s all, or could it be? You miss the good old times when you danced with me,” the listener experiences the perspective of a girl awaiting the return of her old flame who abandoned her for the city. Clutching to memories and the hope that just maybe, nothing has changed, the girl is all of us trying to figure out where the time went. ABBA, it seems, was trying to figure that out, too.
While I can understand disappointment, I can’t understand the criticism that Voyage wasn’t “modern” enough. What we needed was a real revival to heal our hardened hearts in 2021, not an expletive-laden EDM assault on the eardrums with a Cardi B collaboration. After ABBA’s peak in the 1970s, it was a gamble to hope that Voyage would take them to new heights. Alas, the new album did not top precedent, but it was still touching to see the four musicians come together again after 40 years. Given that they’re in their 70s, there likely won’t be any more. We were lucky to see an ABBA homecoming in our lifetime. Voyage didn’t have to be groundbreaking; the classics, I’ve concluded, are enough to keep us warm. The legacy of their genius has been left unscathed, but sometimes, it’s better to quit while you’re ahead.