Star Ratings for Voyage (album)

Apart from DSMD which is excellent and WYDWM, which we know is a verse and chorus to short but still catchy as hell, I rarely play the album these days, it's become a bit like Waterloo, Ring Ring and Abba, , ok albums but rarely played.. now is that because I played it to death initially ? And now need a break..... apart from LT ( divisive I know ) the rest are ok , 3 plus ratings... but something is missing if you know what I mean, perhaps to much is comparison to 40 plus years ago...
The desire to hear more is there of course, but will we ever get to hear it...

So therefore Voyage gets a 3...

I love every song on the album but 'Ode To Freedom' still needs to grow on me

Wow, Henry, you really have gone off the album since you thought an EP would have been better. I guess it's proof that everybody's opinions evolve constantly. And why not?

Having read the CMP chapter on the album, I have a slightly different view of the album myself. I still enjoy it and, for the most part, I tend to play it right through. I don't skip anything. I think it works best as a set. A highly personal opinion, of course. The song that has dipped most in my affections is Just A Notion. The full-group vocals of the verses sound a little untidy to my ears. The same problem arises with Little Things: Agnetha and Frida are not in the kind of perfect vocal synch that we'd have heard if the song had emerged on any of the previous albums. It might have been better to assign a single lead vocal. I don't hate any song on the album - my peeves are to do with the instrumentation. Flutes, especially. 

My favourite songs remain ISHFIY, DSMD, NDAI and OTF. The rest shifts around a lot more in my affections that they used to. KAEOD was my least favourite for a long time, but I like it a lot more now. JAN might have started off around fifth favourite for me, but has plummeted. WYDWM and KAEOD have risen. While the star poll doesn't cover half-points, I'd probably award 3.5 stars. But 4 stars doesn't feel overly generous, so that'll be my vote. Voyage still gets way more plays than the early albums. 

I can't see your vote on the poll results.

I have given the Voyage Album four stars I too play the album all the way through every time I play it. I don't think there is a week song on Voyage. All four of Abba were in there 70's when this came out. they are not going to sound as they did. So this was the best they said they could come up with. and I still enjoy playing it too.

Four stars for me. I listened to it just yesterday. It is a fine album. Not up there with their original output but still very good. The only real problem I have with it is the lousy mixing. I miss the crisp, clear mixes of the old days with perfectly separated layers and the individual instruments and backing vocals coming from different chanels, creating a beautiful surround atmosphere. They were not able to recreate this and I guess the absence of Michael B. Tretow is much to blame....

^ Interesting point you raised.

I assume people's ratings are for the actual album not the clearer mixed version on youtube. Would that version increase ratings?

For me, ABBA's closest to 5 stars are The Visitors and The Album. I feel there's a big chasm on Arrival between the brilliant singles and so-so album tracks.

This reminded me of the very critical review in The Guardian.

On the lyrics to Ode to Freedom the reviewer is not impressed that there is no sharp definition.
She was very positive about the original 2 singles and asks an "if only" about if ABBA had just stopped there - which they could have done.

Of course once they recorded an album's worth of songs - and they were happy with them, then a release was inevitable.

But they could have stopped at those first two songs. It waw never the intention initially to record an album.

I'd like to hear earlier versions of Ode to. Perhaps also it could have just been an instrumentsl with a different title.

On Jude Roger's review she is spot on with Little Things, I Can Be That Woman, Bumblebee and Keep an Eye on Dan - but too harsh on When You Danced With Me and fails to mention No Doubt About It. The 2 star rating is a bit tough.

www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/05/abba-voyage-review-pop-back

Ok. So that's 3 stars for the actual album.

I have noticed less love for Voyage over time.

The idea that ABBA could (and some seeming to suggest that they should) have stopped with the first two songs is interesting. ABBA - and Benny above all - are known for rigid quality control. We've had forty-plus years of immovable stubbornness on the matter of Just Like That, which Benny refuses to release because it's "not good enough" (Agnetha and Frida have spoken separately of their love for the song, with Frida saying in the 90s that she'd happily return to the studio to fix what ever "the boys" saw as problematic). I'm convinced that Voyage met the approval of all four members. CMP's new book suggests that other songs were abandoned along the way because A&F weren't feeling them, so we have to assume that Benny allowed the thoughts/feelings/opinions of the others to play their rightful part. So ABBA themselves are/were happy with Voyage as an album.

The Voyage chapter as written by CMP might be frustrating in what it doesn't deliver in terms of detailed recording information, but it does seem to shed some light on Benny's and Bjorn's connection with, and attitude towards the songs. Little Things is a case in point. Benny presented it as a minuet. There was no apparent let's-turn-this-into-a-banger discussion; it seemed to be a case of "I like this, let's see if it works." Bjorn got the Christmas inspiration from the melody and Benny's response seems to have been "really? Well, if you insist." They are both 100% unbothered that it's not a rock-around-the-tree bop for office parties, and seem not to have imagined it as a single. So Universal might have been the instigators there. But my original point is that Benny is anal-retentiveness personified when it comes to their music. I imagine he'd have been the most likely to jam a platform boot on the brake if there was a whiff of doubt about the album. 

This forum would have been apoplectic with frustration if we'd heard that there were eight, possibly ten other newly recorded songs, but we weren't going to hear them. It's okay if Voyage doesn't float your boat. It doesn't make you a better or worse fan if you prefer the group's original output. I think our discussions here have been pretty objective, for the most part. I think it might be that, despite ourselves, we might not have come fully to terms with our heroes' ages. We might have liked a 21st century Voulez-Vous, but how incongruous would that have been?

I think that the relative looseness and corniness of the BAO material might have been a fairly big influence on the writing of this album. If ABBA had shelved Voyage, I wonder how many of the songs would be assigned to Helen Sjoholm and Tommy Korberg for a new BAO release? I can imagine pretty much all of them in that setting.

I am in the camp that it was the right thing to do for ABBA to release the Voyage album.

My main criticism is the engineering so that album lacks the classic clarity of ABBA's backing vocals and instruments.

The songs vary from very good to ok in my opinion but that is fine. I wasn't expecting another DQ, KMKY, SOS or the TWTIA or even a LAYLOM.

The Vistors was much criticised when it was first released because it was different.

Voyage is an older, smoother, nostalgic ABBA. Different to the other ABBA phases where songs were bright, sad, disco and even techno. It is as different to that era as the Visitors was to Ring Ring. It is an old, easy listening ABBA. They have not pretended to still be young.

Voyage is a good album. I can listen to it all the way through if it is the improved Dolby mixes.

Agree about the lyrics. The line "like fighters in the ring" in ISHFIY is nonsense and is the fly in the wall in an otherwise great track.

Totally agree with you about the lyrics on I Can Be That Woman and Little things too. I don't also like the vocals on those tracks.


Wide spread of opinion in the poll results so far. The 5 stars down to 2 stars matches UK press.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Independent, Daily Mirror
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Times, Daily Mail
⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Observer, Daily Telegraph, NME
⭐️⭐️ The Guardian

I can understand 3, 3.5 (if an option) or 4 stars. But 5 stars seems too generous andv2 stars too harsh.

I still find it hard to believe ABBA reformed in 2021 to compose and record " Voyage ". It is a good comeback album and a favourite of mine. For me the stand out tracks are " I Still Have Faith In You " and " Don't Shut Me Down " One a beautiful towering ballad, the other a catchy pop gem. " I Can Be That Woman " is another highlight. Agnetha really shines with her performance. "When You Danced With Me " and " Ode To Freedom " are polar opposites.

My ranking of the album,

10. " Little Things " Although the joint vocals are lovely, it remains my least favourite track.
9. " No Doubt About It " I have never really warmed to the song. However Frida's lead is amazing.
8. " Keep An Eye On Dan " Sadly, this has slipped down a notch in my ranking. Nonetheless a good pop song.
7. " Just A Notion " Another that has " taken a slight tumble ". A catchy tune but I have become a little bored listening to it I must admit.
6. " Bumblebee " A lovely song relating to the sad decline of our beloved bee.
5. " Ode To Freedom " Very regal and sweeping. A fitting end.
4. " When You Danced With Me " Typically ABBA with a jaunty vibe.
3. " I Can Be That Woman " A favourite of mine. Love Agnetha's reflective story-telling.
2. " I Still Have Faith In You " So poignant and beautiful. A standout !
1. " Don't Shut Me Down " A precious nugget of classic pop. An earworm !

" Arrival ", " Super Trouper " and " Voyage " are among my very favourites of all ABBA's studio albums. Pop of impeccable quality.

It’s hard to rate this album as I rarely listen to it. I can’t really compare it with other ABBA albums that I’ve known for most of my life. I’m still not sure I can even count it as a “proper” ABBA album. To me, ABBA remains 1972-1982. Voyage is an album created by the four individuals that were once (fairly briefly) ABBA. By the time Voyage was released, the four-year period where the four were sporadically working together was over, and Benny (in his usual grumpy style) wasted no time before telling us the reunion was over (save for the necessary/contractual obligation to appear together at the opening of the Voyage show).

I digress. Three years on:

1. Don’t Shut Me Down
2. I Still Have Faith In You
3. Keep An Eye On Dan (this one seems to be unpopular. Not sure why. I love it. I like backing vocals from the guys).
4. Ode To Freedon (could have been better though - I wonder what the earlier versions sound like?)
5. I Can Be That Woman (again, not as good as it could be but still…)
6. Just A Notion (I was never keen on this song but the 1978 vocals save it)
7. When You Danced With Me
8. Bumblebee (would have been OK had it not referred to climate change. We all know it’s happening, but pop songs are meant to be about escapism or relating to a personal situation)
9. No Doubt About It (not for me, can’t stand the cheer leader “Hey” vocals)
10. Little Things (might have been better stripped of the twee Christmas lyrics. A proper Christmas song should NEVER appear on a studio album)