Yes, it does lack cohesion, one of my least favourite things about it. It does not flow together well at all I think.
ABBA
- Thread starter Hudvar
- Start date
Keep An Eye On Dan, is still quite the bop I will say.
I’ve fiddled about with it a bit, based on 2 sides of an LP:
1. I Still Have Faith In You
2. When You Danced With Me
3. Just A Notion
4. I Can Be That Woman
5. Little Things
6. Don’t Shut Me Down
7. Keep An Eye On Dan
8. Bumblebee
9. No Doubt About It
10. Ode To Freedom
It works a tad better like that and makes side 2 all top tier.
I still can’t believe it happened either, even if objectively I know it’s not their strongest album. It was still an utterly magical era that I still haven’t got over. The whole Voyage era consumed my whole life from September 2021 to June 2022!
Side one works quite well especially I would say with what you have done there, with the more traditional ABBA songs back to back.
The thing about Voyage is that it's actually like most ABBA albums in that there's some brilliant material, some slightly less brilliant but still great stuff, and an occasional moment which I personally appreciate but still wonder what they were thinking. Little Things falls into that last category - it's not so different from the way that Arrival gives us Dum Dum Diddle two songs after Dancing Queen, or The Visitors has Two for the Price of One, or (dare I say it), Voulez Vous crashes to a halt at track 3 with I Have A Dream.
Voyage was never going to be ten Gold-worthy songs, but its highlights are up there with the best of what's on Gold, and the rest is pretty good. As a fan since my teenage years in the mid-90s, I never expected to get another album and in many ways didn't want one in case it was rubbish. To have had one (last?) album, and a good one to boot, is still very special and I'm grateful for it.
Voyage was never going to be ten Gold-worthy songs, but its highlights are up there with the best of what's on Gold, and the rest is pretty good. As a fan since my teenage years in the mid-90s, I never expected to get another album and in many ways didn't want one in case it was rubbish. To have had one (last?) album, and a good one to boot, is still very special and I'm grateful for it.
I’m really doing myself a disservice here and making it sound like I don’t like Voyage - I do love it and the era was magic, but with a few different choices it could’ve been a 10/10 all the way through.
I like all those songs! Someone proposed chucking I Have A Dream off Voulez-Vous and adding the full version of Summer Night City, then chucking either I Wonder or Rock Me off GHV2 and replacing it with I Have A Dream, so GHV2 has 2 new songs and IHAD is still a December 1979 hit. I thought that was an interesting idea.
There’s very few ABBA songs I dislike and most of the ones I do are either on Ring Ring (which I can avoid) or were b-sides. Of the original run of albums, there’s only really the inclusion Man In The Middle and The Piper on studio albums that bother me. I’ve swapped them for Crazy World and Elaine.
For Voyage, Just A Notion sounds so weird with 1979 vocals plonked on a 2021 album. It’s an odd choice to recycle half an old song. But I like the song.
Shittle Things can get in the bin.
Personally for me Voyage is a great album, but the highs aren’t as high as previous efforts, but the lows aren’t quite as low either so overall I guess it will always end up mid.
I have to agree hehe!
Ha ha, natutrally!
Yes - I like all those too - even I Have a Dream, much as it sticks out a bit on its original album
The only Abba song I have ever actively avoided is I Saw it in the Mirror, which never made it into my iTunes library from the CD so I haven't heard it in 20+ years. I probably should listen to it again!
Having just posted that, I've listened (for the first time) to the original version of I Saw it in the Mirror by Billy G-son, and it's certainly got more about it than the ABBA version
I wouldn’t if I were you, it’s just as bad as you remember it being
Same. I tried it out again last year and couldn’t even get through it.
Remembering when it was rightfully the first song out in @Remorque’s rate here.
Man in the Middle circles the drain too but I can take it once every few years out of morbid curiosity.
I need to reappraise my albums list, but I don’t think it’d be too different from yours. Somewhere I also did one based on the cover art - Arrival wins hands down, I love those helicopter photos