ABBA to release final album

[mrjukebox]

The legendary Swedish quartet ABBA will release their ninth studio album "Voyage" this coming Friday (11/5)-This is the first album of all-new material since "The Visitors" which was released at the end of 1981-"Voyage" for all intents & purposes will be ABBA's swan song-To quote founding member Benny Andersson:"It's got to be,you know".

[rayshae3]

ABBA limited Sirius XM radio continues till November 14 (started November 5) on Channel 54, preempting Classic disco Studio 54 channel, with songs from their entire catalogue as a group as well as the individual members and occasional cover version of their songs by other acts (Cher, Erasure, the Corrs, B*Witched, etc.) (It continues on SXM App longer until December 4).

Having listened to their 2021 album, this is a typical and real ABBA sound, as similar to for example as “The Album”, “Voulez-Vous” or “Supertrooper” LPs. (They’re only a couple of tracks I don’t care for).
I was watching Björn Ulvaeus in a recent interview who said at first he was concerned if the female singers in their 70s could still carry the tunes. (Even pros like Elton John or Paul McCartney clearly show their age vocally.) Well, I don’t know how much of their sound is genuine and organic, and how much is machine-mixed assisted, but Bjorn concluded yes the 75-year-old Frida and 71-year-old Agneta can still accurately sing a melody. Listen to Agneta on lead vocals (one of my favorites from “Voyage”) in the second single from the 2021 album.

Don’t Shut Me Down-ABBA


I know it can never compete with people like Drake in today’s charts, but if this had been released as the follow up to Dancing Queen, it would have been a definite top 10 hit in 1977 (if not a Top 5).