ABBA Voyage: The 10 songs - What do we know so far?

Just a Notion a demo from 1978.



I am not sure if the Bumblebee song is the same as a similar titled track from around that era.

Both from ABBA Undeleted track from 1994 box set Thankyou for the Music.


Ode to Freedom - a comment on Sweden's lack of lockdowns over covid?

A reconstructed version of Free As A Bumblebee, with some added instrumentation.

It's encouraging to hear such an optimism from a chart expert. I was under impression that the best chance to reach No.1 is in the first week, thanks to advance orders (which are said to be a new record for Universal). But it's probably true that it's mainly the fans, who pre-ordered the album, while the general public will wait until it actually reaches the shops, so there is a chance of prolonged successful chart presence.

I don't quite know what I'd like to hear from their Voyage album, other than expecting something that's not an older person's attempt to to recapture the style of their musical heyday. But I think they're well aware of the futility of trying to do a sort of Arrival Mk. 10.
Here are three ideas that appeal to me - and probably way wide of the mark of what they actually recorded:

A wonderfully tuneful ballad, deploying Agnetha and Frida's voices in a similar way to those of Elaine Paige and Barbara Dixon in I Know Him So Well. I can imagine their respective voices moving in and out, singing counter-melodies against each other, and singing in unison at the end.

A song with all four of them singing together throughout, maybe sometimes in four-part harmony.

A sort of 'jazzy' (for want of a more apt word) loose-limbed, bright, spacious, airy, uptempo track.

Anyone any good at trying to work out which song Agnetha is holding the lyrics to in this screen shot? Again not very clear but I can’t marry up the title with any of the 10 tracks. Could it be one of the three tracks rumoured to have been held back?

That photo is not the original songs. Agnetha has mask around her chin.

Alan -- ABBA's 'Voyage' Album was not finished until a Week before they 'announced' it! Benny has said so,
in a recent Interview. I just wish, that it was longer than the 37 Minutes, that is its 'rumoured' length. I'm 
not greatly keen on 'Just A Notion', as I feel that it is rather bland. However, we will see if ABBA have made
it stronger, in their Re-Recording. It is 'Bumblebee', that I worry about! It seems, that it really is a Re-Recording
of 'Free As A Bumblebee', and that 1978 Demo is so awful, that I struggle to see how ABBA may have made it
any better! Why ABBA would wait 40 Years, and then put any weak Tracks, on a 'Come Back' Album, I just do
not know. It is like shooting yourself in the foot. We will see if the 2 Songs have been improved.

I wouldn't be surprised if they held back a few new songs for 2022. Remember there were 5 singles off voulez vous! 

Does anyone know who the bassist guitarist is on the 10 new ABBA songs

The credits on the two singles don't list a bassist. The bass on DSMD sounds like a synth to me but the bass on ISHFIY sounds more organic. It's really lovely. With advances in sampling and synthesized sounds, I suppose it's possible that Benny played that line too. 



www.discogs.com/ABBA-I-Still-Have-Faith-In-You/master/2284585


www.discogs.com/ABBA-Dont-Shut-Me-Down/release/20111902/image/SW1hZ2U6NjU0MTY1OTQ=

This is from an ABBA Group on Face Book. It tells us more about 'Voyage'.

In a long interview in Swedish paper Expressen Bernard Löhr, who has been working with Abbas' music for 15 years, talks about the secret details behind the new plate.- They said it was nervous a couple of weeks before that Thursday, Benny and Björn were both nervous, he says.What can you tell us about the new album?- It is a fairly wide disc, it is quite a lot different but there is a bit of each. There are some ballads, some pop songs, but I do not want to say too much, they have to tell it themselves.He goes on to say that Abba has a kind of veto rule which means that if someone in the band does not like the song, it is deleted.- One of the songs has been remade several times. It is the final song on the album and is a kind of anthem. It is called "Ode to freedom". The name has been circulating on the internet, so I can confirm that.It is also known that it is a Christmas song on the record. In an interview with Radio Tyresö, Bernard Löhr said that it is called "Little things".- It is very simple, in terms of recording it did not take that long. There are only two voices, some keyboards and stuff. There are not even drums on that song.When "The winner takes it all" was released in 1980, it was speculated that the song was about the divorce between Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, something that was later also confirmed.- Björn wrote it about us after our marriage fell apart. The fact that he wrote it just when we divorced is touching in fact, Agnetha Fältskog told Expressen in 2013.Will there be something similar on the new album?- There are such pieces in the whole thing, I think, absolutely. There are some sad songs, but many happy ones too, of course.The sad songs?- They perhaps reflect something, but still with some kind of positive turn at the end.There is still a lot of work for Bernard Löhr before he finishes his own contribution in "Abba Voyage", but even if the decision is not his, he is clear on one point:- It would be fun to do more.- It's fun that everyone thinks it's so fun. It is not something that has to be squeezed out, but it is sitting there in some way.

It would be fun to do more.- It's fun that everyone thinks it's so fun. It is not something that has to be squeezed out, but it is sitting there in some way.


That last sentence gives us all hope that there may be more to come !!!