They should have included this new single on The Visitors, that album certainly needed an uplifting pure pop song…
Coldplay has already overtaken Let It Be in charts, which is surprising for me. And Adele is already climbing up with 21 and 25! Though Lana Del Rey is picking up rave comments from Pitchfork (as usual), her fanbase has been gradually shrinking IMO. Like Morrissey, only die-hard fans seem to be rushing to buy physical copies. Looking at streaming numbers*, I think the motto is "you've heard one piano ballad, you've heard them all..." among casual listeners. Now let's get to back to Abba! Just a Notion is much, much better than I expected. Some of the comments here were condescending after the sneak-peek was revealed and I can see why. The song picks up like halfway through and the sneak-peeks didn't do it justice. The cover art looks cool too. Great poster material. *Blue Banisters
Completely random and pointless story: I stopped in Copenhagen this morning and the guy at the airport sounded EXACTLY like Björn - not just accent but entire voice quality, too. It made me chuckle. And I’ve decided it was a sign. Of what, I’ve no idea, but I take it as a positive. (And yes, I know Copenhagen is not in Sweden, but Malmö is only 10 or 15 miles away!)
Hey Bob60 I was re-reading the thread and saw this contribution....I also see two phases, but for me the second phase begin with Arrival, because that album contribute's : Knowing me Knowing you (very mature imo), Dancing Queen, probably the biggest ABBA hit and My love My life..... And On The Album you also see -at least- two, three, four, very mature songs: Eagle - The name of the game (very mature) and Thank you for the music, Take a chance on me...... All the ABBA stuff before Arrival has the typical 70 's approach > SOS- Mama Mia, SO Long etc... very nice end timeless, but I consider them from ABBA's youth, With Arrival they grow into adults music
I feel the stages of their career are perfectly bookended and compiled with their original Compilation albums. Greatest Hits 1975, compiling their early career March 1973 up to November 1975, representing Ring Ring, Waterloo and Abba. With Fernando March 1976 bridging their early work and growth into finding their sound. Greatest Hits Vol.2 1979, comprising their classic years and peak August 1976 up to October 1979. Representing Arrival, The Album and Voulez-Vous. With Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) October 1979, linking their peak to their maturity and sophistication. Although there were some additional Voulez-Vous singles released in some territories post GGG such as I have a dream and As Good As New. The Singles: The First Ten Years 1982, a career retrospective but now representing the mature material of Super Trouper and The Visitors. Beginning July 1980 with The Winner Takes It All and concluding with Under Attack in December 1982.
I will go further than that and say that after all these years I *still* believe that Arrival is up there with Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper as pop at its highest level.
OMG!! Thank you for posting this link! This is the one of the most fascinating and heartwarming articles I have read about the work on the Abbatars Project. These dinner ladies and cleaners actually provided and audience for Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Frida as they performed for the technical crew capturing the body movement data during that five week period. I remember it being said in other articles that there were sometimes tears of emotion amongst people in that room. No wonder! ABBA needed an audience to sing to and get their reaction in return. It makes sense! I bet that someone has footage of this and that it will be part of a documentary on the creation of the Abbatars. Reading about this really brightened up my morning!
I agree that the song doesn't really seem to do much until you hear Agnetha and Frida harmonize "Just A Notion" at :43 seconds into the song, but that sound is magical and uniquely ABBA! As I have said, it is really "just a demo" and a letdown after ISHFIY and DSMD, but I am taking a new view of it. I think that JAN can be viewed as a gift from ABBA for ABBA fans and hardcore ABBA fans. This idea is similar to that of the special Christmas recordings that the Beatles did for their fan club in the 1960s. No one would have thought in 1994 when the TYFTM box set came out that we would ever get a full version of any of the songs in the "Undeleted Medley." My hope is that eventually, the full final mix with saxophone of "Just Like That" will be released. There is most likely going to be another greatest hits package because of this reunion. Based on the official "Voyage" trailer that was posted at the time of the big announcement, I noticed that the snippet of "Dancing Queen" at the end of the video 4:10 onward (in the link below) is a new mix. I think that there will be a new hits package will all new mixes of the classics. This would be a great place to put "Just Like That" as a bonus track. I also think there will be an album with the music from the live show released so that we can hear the new versions used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE8aSnhzTfQ
Well Motownboy, we are on the same line when it comes to JAN. The vocals are simply Wonderfull, the way Agnetha burst out in the chorus is magnificent. I really think they put a lot of work in it, although many won't be able to recognize that. But the aren't able to fulfill everybody's wishes..... (for me the intro could have been different, but that's a detail). The song as it is now, I can't describe as a demo any longer. You say it as I described it one or two pages back in this thread. I think B&B wants to reach the attention of all the old fans from the seventies, who grew up with SOS - So Long, Honey Honey, Ring Ring etc. Many of them were living their lives part from (and maybe far from) ABBA when they released The Visitors... so this could get them back in the Arms of our Schwedisch friends Uhmmm Just Like that, I like it a lot, also the version Gemini released in the eighties, but their is a Youtube film in which Benny talks about JLT, not in a very enthusiastic way, so I will cross my fingers for you, but also say don't count on it... More realistic is the release of the ABBA-tars show as it will be, after e certain time. But I also think they can change the set list, with all the material they have now on film. Instead of remixes from the old hits (which are good) I'd rather see them make more new material in the studio for the future, especially because they all four likes the proces so very much.... time will tell, but first we have the big Voyage release coming up in 12 days!
I took the version of Dancing Queen in the trailer to be a basic guide track that will be used in the live shows. Will be interesting if a collection of re-recorded hits are released though. I'd just be concerned they'd sound like those awful rerecordings that 60s and 70s bands do for the rights, then have them played on PA systems in garden centres and sh!tty card shops. Jeff Lynne's rehashes from 2012 are passable but not a patch on the originals.
I agree with you in almost every point, but I think that „S.O.S.“ is the beginning of ABBA‘s mature phase
Since the 90s, live performances have been able to mix live and prerecorded successfully. However, with 10 live musicians on stage, I doubt that the result will be too much like the studio recordings, but more like updated versions of the live recordings from the 70s and 80s. I can't wait for the result!
Here yo go: Abba secretly performed for Swedish dinner ladies in first shows for decades ahead of Abba Voyage EXCLUSIVE In an exclusive interview, the masterminds behind Abba’s comeback concerts reveal how they made Abba Voyage happen The singers’ futuristic pixie suits are laden with sensors that have allowed them to record every one of their hits again (Photo: Baillie Walsh/Maria Barham) By Benjamin Butterworth Late Editor and Senior Reporter October 23, 2021 7:00 am(Updated 3:05 pm) When Abba’s avatars step out on stage for their much-vaunted ‘virtual’ concerts next year, fans the world over will expect to be wowed. The Swedish supergroup – Agnetha Fältskog, 71, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, Björn Ulvaeus, 76 and Benny Andersson, 74 – have been transformed from living, breathing legends, into hi-tech dancing avatars, or “Abbatars”. Publicity images show the singers wearing futuristic pixie suits – black leotards laden with sensors that have allowed them to record every one of their hits again, to be performed as avatars in a specially-built Abba Voyage arena. For five weeks last year, Abba reunited at a studio in Stockholm, Sweden, where they performed their hits together for real to capture every possible gesture and dance move required of the avatars that fans will flock to see. Now, i can reveal there is one very special secret ingredient to the biggest reunion in pop history: dancing dinner ladies. Initially just a tight group of aides and technical crew was present, including director Baillie Walsh and producers Svana Gisla and Benny’s son, Ludvig Andersson. But a few days into performing they realised there was a problem. “We wanted them to project their performance as though they were on stage in Wembley or in an arena, but there was no one there – it was just a room with lots of cameramen,” Gisla says. They concocted a plan worthy of a Hollywood film. The band’s management gathered together dinner ladies and cleaners working at Filmhuset Stockholm, the performing arts building where the top-secret recordings took place, and asked whether they could help with a very special project. “We dragged out the dinner ladies and the cleaners and whoever to come and dance in front of Abba and give them a bit of energy,” Gisla recalls. “These women – all of them Swedish – didn’t know what they were going to, then all of a sudden they were like, ‘It’s Abba!’ And we said, ‘Yes, please enjoy, now let’s play Waterloo’. And we just had a party every day.” She continued: “They were dinner ladies mainly, so they would do our lunch, then they would come and dance and they would all be crying and having a great time. And we would invite them again and again. It became a private Abba concert every day.” For more than a month, the kitchen staff danced their hearts out in front of the real Abba. In a sign of the trust and affection the band inspires, not one of them revealed the secret for nearly a year. As Walsh says of the band: “These four people when they come together, this other entity happens, and that’s what happened when they came on to the stage and started to perform. It was extraordinary. When the four of them perform, it’s gob smacking.” Surely, the luckiest cooks on the planet? “I don’t know, maybe they hate Abba,” Andersson jokes. “They have to go to work every day for five weeks listening to f**king Abba!” Gisla adds: “On the last day, everyone got very emotional, because they may never be on that stage together ever again, playing those songs, so that might have been it.” The return is all the more extraordinary given that, on the turn of the century, the Swedish foursome were offered a billion dollar deal to perform together in hundreds of shows across the globe. Without a second thought, Agnetha told record company bosses there was “no chance” of that. The concert’s creative leads won’t be drawn on how much money is involved in this project. “It’s the most money ever spent on anything!” Gisla simply exclaims. “It’s a massive commitment from Abba and the people supporting this – there’s no doubt about it.” There are 800 special-effects staff working on the concert around the clock, and when the show begins, it will have a live 10-piece band on stage alongside the virtual Abba members. “Like any magician, we’d like to keep some of our tricks up our sleeve,” Gisla tells i. “This is going to be the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen. We’re trying to rewrite the law of live entertainment.” One seemingly minor consideration nearly derailed the whole idea, however. “Getting them to shave their beards [to aid the avatar creation process] was probably the trickiest part of the outfit. It almost derailed the entire operation!” Andersson, a well-regarded music producer in his own right, was born after the band split. He spent his whole life as the son of an Abba legend – practically royalty in his homeland – but had never seen them perform live. Speaking of his father, he says: “My relationship with him has not been defined by Abba, but I have grown up with this strange legend of sorts, of this music and this band. “There was a moment when we were doing this and they were on stage and that had an impact on me. I suddenly realised, this is happening. For good or bad, mostly good, it has had an impact on my life, and this is happening now.” For the 3,000 fans lucky enough to have tickets to the opening night of Abba Voyage, there is a special treat in store: they should see all four stars in the flesh. Gisla reveals: “They’re all making plans for their outfits for the opening night!” And what a night it will be. One final, long-awaited chance for the world to say “thank you for the music”. Abba’s new single, “Just a Notion”, is out now. The next batch of tickets for Abba Voyage concerts are on sale from Wednesday 3 November.
I think maybe the transition single was "Fernando" but as far as being a more mature pop song, surely it was SOS, that started that phase. It sounds like a fully realized song now, and as Motownboy said earlier, it is a gift to all of us. Maybe not as a single to spend more money on, but as a track to enjoy on the new album. Agnetha is magnificent on this track, her voice just sores!
Considering why we are here on this thread, I say that "never say never" is a rather good way to look at all of this.
This project is the biggest thing ABBA have ever done, by far. They're looking to stake a claim (not that everyone will ever agree) as the greatest pop group ever. There's no way they're going to take short cuts with the Voyage concert as it will continue into the foreseeable future after they've literally left us. I would think they won't release any new "live" or "re-recorded" songs because they're integral to the concert. The whole aim of the concert is to create the illusion that you're witnessing a live performance by ABBA - but as they were in the 70s. I envy you being present on opening night because it really will be epic.
Or you could actually say that the whole song is just one long chorus! There is no clear distinction between the verse and the chorus. It's definitely lacking something, and the arrangement is quite linear throughout. The highlight of the track are the new(?) vocals near the fadeout! What a surreal experience. The real ABBA members in the audience watching their avatar selves perform on stage! They will actually do what Kraftwerk wanted to do in the 70's, by putting robots on stage instead of themselves. Well, they have, but only for "The Robots" and not a whole show with the real members in the audience. ABBA are the real pioneers here!
You absolutely love steak & you're invited to a steak dinner. You walk up to the grill & someone sets a fine looking steak on your plate. Awesome! You then see some foil wrapped potatoes on the grill. You love potatoes so you get one. This is good for now so you head to the table to eat figuring your next plate will be your sides. After finishing your steak you think to yourself "That was delicious!". You then go to the serving table to get some side items. You get a fresh dinner roll & take a small bite but it's not as good as what you expected. Did it ruin your dinner? Of course not! There's seven more side items to try. They each have a lid on them so you won't know until they are revealed for you to enjoy...or not. No matter what happens, that dinner was delicious because you had steak (which you love!). Use this way of thinking before criticizing the serving of ABBA you're receiving. My opinion.
Not at all envious of you going on opening night. Not. At. All. Given the reaction to Benny & Bjorn’s press event/reveal, the reaction to their new music and the hoopla over the ticket pre-sale/going on general sale, I’d expect to hear the unamplified reaction from here in May if the 4 were to appear on stage and in the flesh and I’m a good 300 miles from London.
Yes, I can agree with you that ABBA is the best pop act of all time! They have the same quality that the Beatles had in rock music! Both released not so much material, but it was great! Quality before quantity seemed to be the motto of both, the Beatles and ABBA
Many many thanks for doing and sharing that! Really interesting, as I agree the official release is congested / muffled. Nice work
