Friday, December 13, 2024

Was The Abba Comeback Worth It? New “Voyage” Album is Terrible Disappointment After Almost 40 Years

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You can try listening to ABBA’s first album in almost 40 years. I wouldn’t recommend it. “Voyage” is everything ABBA was not: pedantic, childish, amateurish, devoid of the hooks or choruses that made ABBA such an appealing Top 40 enterprise.

The three singles already released were like that, too, so I don’t know why I thought the rest of the songs on “Voyage” would be any different. It’s as if Benny and Bjorn, who wrote songs like “Dancing Queen” and “SOS” and “Take a Chance on Me” completely forgot how to write catchy hits.

Instead, the album is like gloppy sugar, more Muzak-y than ever before. The ballads are drags, the few uptempo songs don’t have enough melodic construction to carry them. You lost interest as the album unfolds.

Of course, aside from Greatest Hits, ABBA was never an album group. They were all about singles. Benny and Bjorn have forgotten that, too. And there’s some weird one called “Keep an Eye on Dan.” Is Dan a kid? A dog? What the heck is going on? And why do I care?

Stick to the hits, fans. Stay away from this.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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