ABBA are reuniting

Both new songs are strong, but "Don't Shut Me Down" is really excellent and bodes well for the rest.

I was on the livestream yesterday. As the first video (for "I Still Have Faith In You") started playing, without any prior explanation, my thoughts went from "hmm, don't remember this one", to "oh, those voices sound distinctly older", to "fuck, this is a new track". That's when the shivers started. Then, towards the end: "how have they got late-1970s Frida to lip-synch the lyrics, that's uncanny". We didn't yet know about the avatars.

The most charitable thing I can say about Zoe Ball's interview with Benny & Bjorn is that she was overawed and lost it a bit. B&B handled her excitable wibblings with patience and grace.

Gleaned from the interview: the show is 22 songs, 90 minutes, mostly greatest hits plus the two new songs and a few deeper cuts. 10 live musicians on stage. Visual direction by Baillie Walsh. Inclusion of "Dancing Queen" confirmed (duh). They also talked about "Under Attack" and "The King Has Lost His Crown" as songs that should have been big hits, which could be a hint. On the new self-produced album ("it's all us"), "Little Things" is a Christmas song.

*43 seconds into "don't shut me down"* god i fucking love abba

oh man wtf both songs rule

Yeah, ISHFIY wasn’t immediately so matched to my tastes, but I love it just as much now.

Yeah I hated it on first listen but after listening to it on proper speaker, I've totally fallen for it

Same here

"Do I have it in me?" is such an odd question for a song to ask in 2021. I love it. They are the best.

"I am not the one you knew/I'm now and then combined/And I'm asking you to have an open mind" <== that is a lovely lyric

So true.

I don't think I'm a huge fan of these songs, but I do think it's great that they are just making songs that sound like ABBA and aren't awkwardly trying to meet contemporary pop music halfway

^cosign

It helps that ABBA never overstayed their welcome. It is fresh coming back to this sound after 40 years

Otm. Feels like they've done everything right on paper, even if the songs themselves strike me on first listen as replacement-level late ABBA album cuts.

Sonically it's neither too fussy about recreating the sound of their old records nor too self-conscious about not doing so. The honest weatheredness of the vocals is really striking and lovely, and imo quite apt in that ABBA at their best always had a particular kind of stylized "grown up perspective". "This wooden bench is getting harder by the hour" is the platonic ideal of a lyric that only Frida can drop on an unsuspecting listener like a ton of bricks, too.

Enjoying the idea of this as a MBV or Vashti Bunyan style comeback that tries exactly hard enough and not a bit harder, though that impression might be harder to sustain once I've seen more of the motion capture avatars.

I mean, the late period albums rule so this bodes well for me when I get around to hearing them.

BTW I was legitimately in tears of joy when news broke of the album because of how the world is and everything is always better with ABBA.

Okay, thse are growing on me.

Don’t Shut Me Down has been pleasurably pinging in my head non-stop for two days now

I'll post a review of the show next August. Yeah, I succumbed.

I don't like ABBA much, but I do respect that after reportedly/allegedly turning down decades of reunion offers for hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, they more or less just quietly went and did it themselves, when the world was at its most distracted and needed them least/most (take your pick).

These two tracks are surprisingly good and, yes, in so many ways just what the doctor ordered. What I can’t believe is how much they sound like themselves here. I mean, these are all septuagenarians (all 76 but Agnetha who is 71). For a ton of reasons, they should sound very different. Yet they don’t.

I’m mildly interested in seeing what they do with the avatar thing.

One thing: Bjorn says that “I Still Have Faith in You” is about the band’s relationships with one another and how they have remained “the best of friends.” Is the latter remotely true? Or sentimental pap? I had always worked under the assumption that at least one of the divorces ended pretty badly.

The Richard and Linda Thompson divorce was historically terrible, too, but I believe they are friends now. I think that's not uncommon after decades of reflection, and I doubt it usually even takes that long.

I especially like how these really really sound like ABBA and they haven't tried to go all EDM or something.
The whole branding (as well as the "computer"-based language on 'Don't Shut Me Down') reminds me of Random Access Memories a little bit.

This whole revival has led me into a wikipedia rabbit hole. I didnt know about all the tragedies that Agnetha went through... This band's history is straight out of a Bergman movie. "Voyage" being their "Saraband"

Was looking at ABBA Revival as a potential screenname but, not only is it taken, it is the name of an ABBA tribute band.

Is the latter remotely true? Or sentimental pap?

True, I reckon, as evidenced when they chose "The Way Old Friends Do" to sing onstage together in 2016: "And after fights and words of violence, we make up with each other, the way old friends do"

Little Boots will be part of the live band (keyboards/backing vocals), and she's also been working with ABBA in the studio. Full post and studio pic with Benny: https://www.facebook.com/littleboots/posts/392293902267346

Cool! *Looks up Little Boots*

I Still Have Faith In You has really grown on me. Shut Me Down was the instant banger but ISHFIY deserves to become a standard

remember when those awesome new ABBA songs came out?

(been wanting to try out saying that, feels great)

Still feeling them

New song teaser sounding great.

I like the “f**k this 21st Century bullsh*t” look on their faces

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/09/02/abba-2021-reunion-12d8b48a1226e153bd6d24dab72e04e4f7bd1a65-s1200-c85.webp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZhrf32Tq1A

SCHLAGER SCHLAGER SCHLAGER!

I love how they're absolutely refusing the temptation to go all drum'n'bass or whatever

OTM. Though at first I read that as, "I love how they're absolutely refusing the temptation to go all dumbass or whatever". The OTM still applied.

holy shit this one hit for me

I like that one, kinda ELO.

they apparently first tried recording this one in 1978 but weren't satisfied with it at the time

Holy shit, this could be off Ring Ring.

Yeah, part of the old demo version is included on the 23-minute "Undeleted Medley" that was released in 1994. The other one from that medley which will be on the new album is "Bumble Bee".

"distiny"

Yeah I was wondering if I might’ve first heard it there.

That hook is ridiculous. Listened twice and hummed it for hours.

Holy shit, this could be off Ring Ring.

It could and I'm loving that!

this is much more like it

Is there some practical explanation for why the previous two new songs charted high in the UK (and across Europe) but did not enter the US Hot 100? Has the Billboard chart gone rogue?

ABBA generally much more celebrated on this side of the pond than the US I can imagine?

Yeah, I assume it’s for the obvious reason (the tracks not being played on the radio here).

They both made the billboard global 200, which doesn’t include airplay, just streaming and sales.

Was this reunion a major news story in the US? It was over here!