NDIM 11.12.2021
ABBA's 'Voyage', The Beatles' 'Get Back' and the art of the reunion
I am glad that The Beatles never had that perfect opportunity for a reunion, the perfect storm of mood, locale, personal circumstance, money, and fan pressure that leads to bands thinking 'how badly could it go?' The answer, of course, is that it can go plenty badly and even tarnish a band's previous work and legacy. But there's always the temptation to look back and try to recreate the lightning in a bottle that happened the first time around. It's an artistic challenge, to extend one's previous work without ignoring the time that has passed since then, and like an elite athlete, there is also the component of ego, proving that one is still as fast, edgy, nimble, tuned in, and hip as before.
Two of the biggest events for the music industry occur this November: the release of ABBA's ninth album Voyage after a hiatus of forty years, and the release of Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back, a retelling of the Beatles sessions that led to the release of the album Let It Be. Using all of the documentary film shot by Michael Lindsay Hogg, Jackson rejects the idea that the Let It Be sessions were nothing less than a horribly acrimonious slog and attempts to present a familiar portrait of The Beatles working together on a musical project that didn't quite come together as hoped. It's not a reunion, of course, but it may be the next best thing--a chance to see a deeply revered band at work on a record that remains an outlier in their catalog.
ABBA is walking a fine line between nostalgia for the past and the realities of the present. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus assembled Voyage while planning their 2022 virtual tour where the band will be portrayed by youthful avatars. That presents a conflict right there, because a great deal of the music on Voyage is about finding strength and inspiration against the backdrop of time's insistent drumbeat. After all, the group's audience has grown older along with its members and has had a couple of difficult years, all of which make ABBA's return more momentous.
The Day Before You Came’, the last song ABBA recorded together prior to the release of Voyage in 2021.
When ABBA left us with 1981's The Visitors, they had taken a definite step in the direction of a more mature sound, with less of the pure pop and dance music they had become well known for. It was also one of the first albums to be digitally recorded and mixed, giving ABBA a modern sheen. Nonetheless, the group was superfluous as synth pop bands filled the airwaves with music that may have been influenced by their pop sensibilities, but which rejected their cornier aspects. Their legacy suffered through the decade until the nineties saw the release of ABBA Gold as well as a cultural shift (signified by Erasure's ABBA-Esque) and suddenly everyone was an ABBA fan.
As the years went by it seemed increasingly unlikely that ABBA would ever record or perform together again, especially after they turned down a very generous offer to reunite for a single concert. Yet here they are in 2021 with ten new songs and a record that sounds unmistakably like ABBA. For me it's a flaw that Voyage contains lots of the group's sad relationship ballads but no 'Voulez Vous' or 'Summer Night City' type of dance number, nor anything as upfront catchy as 'Dancing Queen' or 'Mama Mia.' But then again, the incredibly melodic sad song was always a major part of ABBA's allure--feeling good about feeling bad.
Voyage's opening track, "I Still Have Faith In You" features a supportive string arrangement bolstering Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s warm vocal, her voice instantly recognizable, as is the way it effortlessly combines with Agnetha Faltskog, rising to an overflowing peak: "We do have it in us/New spirit has arrived/The joy and the sorrow/We have a story and it survived". I mean, spin it how you like, the fact remains that in these few lines lie a wealth of joy, determination, and emotion that only the best songwriters or poets can achieve.
I've always considered the opening of Let It Be, the song "Two of Us" to be one of the unsung moments of greatness that Let It Be provided. The sentiment is a bit different than that of ABBA, but it's a statement of support, of solidarity, of committing to getting this music on tape: "Two of us riding nowhere/spending someone's hard earned day" John and Paul sing. "We're going home." The pointed middle section where McCartney sings: "You and I have memories/longer than the road that stretches out ahead" was certainly true at that moment in time, and can't we all relate to that idea, of knowing that a relationship or a lifetime has a finite period of time, and the greater part of it is behind us?
"Two of Us" is pretty jaunty on the original Let It Be where it was the lead-off track, but on the original Glyn Johns mix of the album, which the group rejected, it's much folksier and also a shade darker. You can almost hear Lennon and McCartney singing in an ever decreasing spotlight as the darkness encroaches: '"We're on our way home/we're going home."
ABBA's Voyage contains some solid tracks that sound very much like ABBA--"When You Danced With Me," "Don't Shut Me Down" "Just A Notion," "No Doubt About It", but the general air of celebration is taken severely off course by a couple of weird misfires. The third. track, "Little Things" is a mawkish Christmas song that might be a rejected number from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or some other show. It's not OK. Not only is the song laden with too much dreck to support its melody and lyrics, it just does not work to include a Christmas number in the middle of your first abum in forty years. The usual approach would be to put the holiday song at the end of the album, but that is admittedly a problem because of the final track, "Ode To Freedom" is of a similar tempo and overall feel. So maybe "Little Things" should have been a bonus track.
Two other songs that really messed things up for me are "I Can Be That Woman," which is about a strained relationship a woman has with her husband and its effect through the their dog. It is just too much drama and too much like a song that would have been written for a musical. Then comes "Keep An Eye On Dan," another Broadway-style number in which a woman admonishes her ex to watch their son while in his care, has an exciting synth arrangement, but it's a bit too offbeat to fit the record. Still, it's recognizably Benny and Bjorn, ending with the piano line from "SOS," a gentle touch that provides the perfect reference for fans. That's picked up on the next track, "Bumblebee" by an introduction straight out of "Fernando." This three song grouping just didn't work for me, even though the concluding two tracks are excellent.
So for me, Voyage has flaws that keep it from being one of ABBA's best, but it's still distinctively ABBA, and there are a few songs here that will become part of my general listening, I'm sure. It's not the album they would have made if they had followed up The Visitors in the next couple of years, but it does have its own charm. Besides, the group, represented by their ABBA-tars will still play 'Dancing Queen' and 'Take A Chance On Me' when their virtual tour kicks off next year.
Hope you enjoy this edition of NDIM and that you have a great weekend. I’ll be back next week with more on the music that breaks the mold.