ABBA's New Album: Voyage

I'll just cut right to the chase here. I love ABBA. They're on my top 3 list of favorite artists of all time and they're one of a handful of bands I've listened to where I enjoy a vast majority of their songs.

Back in high school (when I was more self-conscious), I had a couple of songs that I would classify as "guilty pleasures." "Dancing Queen," with its bouncy piano, carefree string section, and uplifting chorus topped that list.

Until I got to college, "Dancing Queen" was all that I knew from ABBA. Sometime during freshman year, this came up when I was talking with my friends, and they played "Mamma Mia" for me. After that got stuck in my head, I did what I often do in those types of situations and I began going through ABBA's whole discography. This ended up being a drawn-out affair because pretty much every song I listened to was really good, so I would just sit there and listen to the entire thing before moving on.

Fast forward to a few days ago and I see a post by the official ABBA Instagram account announcing a project called Voyage. There was a site where you could sign up to be notified about the unveiling of the project as soon as it happened. I signed up, of course, but a dentist's appointment prevented me from being able to see the announcement live.

The project ended up being a new album, which I had heard rumors about for the last year or two, but it seemed to keep getting delayed. Now, however, it's official: ABBA is back with a new album coming out on November 5th of this year, along with a performance in London featuring holograms of the members along with a ten-piece band backing them.

And on top of that, two songs from the album have already been released.

These songs prove that ABBA hasn't missed a beat. "I Still Have Faith In You" is a grand, orchestral number. It starts slowly with a piano, some strings, and, of course, Agnetha and Anni-Frid's vocals. A rolling snare drum begins the buildup before the song explodes with a definitive statement: "We do have it in us." And, of course, they're right.

"Don't Shut Me Down" is a more upbeat song with very full lyrics, featuring lines with lots of words that all flow perfectly together. I think this would be considered a more "classic" ABBA song.

In their own way, each song sounds like it could have been plucked off of the Super Trouper album from 1980, which is fine with me because I think Super Trouper is a great album.

It may have been 40 years, but ABBA sounds as good as ever. If "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down" are indicators of what can be expected from the Voyage album, then November 5th can't come soon enough.