ABBA are reuniting

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!

Not that I’ve noticed.

Not quite the Beatles reforming but not far off it, put it that way.

I would've thought that after the two Mamma Mia! films every man woman and child in America would know ABBA, but yeah somehow that doesn't translate to radio play, which perhaps is the deeper mystery

their songs would sound very out of place on contemporary radio, regardless of how popular they are

Sadly feel their stuff is relegated to DJ wedding playlists at this point.

My daughter got excited when she heard about it and told my wife, but I don’t remember seeing any news alerts or stories about it.

America's relationship to ABBA is basically, like, lots and lots of people own 'ABBA Gold' on cd and play "Dancing Queen" sometimes and maybe they watched either or both of the Mamma Mia! movies, but that's the extent of it.

Pretty much

...and "Waterloo" & "Dancing Queen" get played on 'Classic Hits' radio from time to time.

One of my earliest music memories of any kind was seeing this TV 1978 special when it originally aired, featuring ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, and Andy Gibb. I just watched it again recently and was surprised that it was actually called Olivia!, with ABBA and Andy only getting second billing. Despite this, ABBA was big in the U.S. then, if not quite as much so as in the UK and throughout Europe. They had ten top-20 hits here and were all over the radio at the time, if not now.

Also, the segues between songs on that TV show are all-time. About half the show is elsewhere on Youtube in stereo, rare for 1978 TV.

lol what the hell is "when you danced with me"

There's a very good 4 or 5 song ep in this 10 song album.

From the Guardian review:

'When You Danced With Me' tells the story of a girl left behind in Kilkenny when a boy she loved “left for the city”. She’s spent years waiting for him to return, we’re told; presumably she’s oblivious to the existence in Ireland of train routes, driving tests or text messages. The Celtic-leaning melody in the intro recalls Abba’s incursions into other global settings, such as the Mexican battlefields in Fernando, or the Spanish-Peruvian musical moodboards of Chiquitita. The overall effect doesn’t prompt folkloric nostalgia, but mild nausea.

Pitchfork with a 7.4: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/abba-voyage/

Surprised to find that Bjorn doesn't play any instruments at all on this album.

i love "keep an eye on dan"

i may be a emotional schmaltz-loving dumbass tho as i'm crying through most of this album

oh yeah "no doubt about it" that's the stuff

i just love abba so much

i even think the gelatinous ballads are dope i'm helpless

Great record

Fun record. Witless Guardian review. First two singles probably the best tracks but the rest is great. I despair of people who can't be moved by good schmaltz.

I’ve been playing it over and over again today. It’s such a strange record, and like a lot of ABBA, a lot of it sounds off-kilter and naff, but that’s something to push through. “Little Things” in particular is… challenging… but then it segues straight into “Don’t Shut Me Down”, which immediately reframes the idyll. And then there are the subsequent songs about marital/post-marital strife, which sit all the better in its wake. B&B’s ventriloquising is unsettling in much the same way as “The Winner Takes It All” was us telling - all that self-denigration - but A&F interpret the sentiments beautifully, and in a way that suggests that they’re fully on board.

(“us settling” = “unsettling”… I may have had a drink or two)

Don’t get the hate for Little Things. Fits in the long tradition of sickly twee Abba songs haunted by a sense of loss.

Yeah, that one works for me. The two I’m still a bit cool on are Bumblebee and Ode To Freedom.

I'm having a lot of fun writing about Voyage, and the reaction to it, for a glossy gay lifestyle magazine. It does help enormously when you're not welded to the hot take.

:)