An unforeseen trip
It has been exactly 39 years since the Swedish band recorded any new songs. Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog separated in 1982 after the album was released. Visitors, after the breakup of their respective couples.
The members of ABBA have always said that the adventure was well and truly over.
While Björn and Benny have continued to nurture the ABBA heritage through theater and cinema (Mamma mia), Agnetha and Anni-Frid have become much rarer in the public space. The ABBA book seemed closed for good, we were going to have to settle for the same old hits and an idealized memory.
But since 2018, the rumor of a return circulated. And it was confirmed in early September, with the release of two new songs, I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t shut me down, prelude to an even bigger announcement: the launch of a new album, Trip, their ninth, which has just been published.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY UNIVERSAL
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
the buzz spread across the pop planet like a trail of aquavit. Denigrated during his lifetime, ABBA has over time become a standard yardstick in pop music. The myth has survived with the new generations, thanks to the cinema (Mamma mia), albums of great success (ABBA Gold) and even tourism (ABBA museum in Stockholm).
The group has reportedly sold more than 380 million records in all formats since their debut in 1974, making them one of the most popular groups in pop history, along with Queen and the Beatles.
An immersive experience
All this to say that this return is no small matter. Especially since it comes with another big news: a new spectacle on the horizon, scheduled for the month of May, in a new hall created especially for the occasion at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
Don’t rejoice too quickly. ABBA members will not be there. At least not in person. It will be an “immersive experience” where Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha will be represented by digital avatars, here renamed “ABBAtars”…
This project has been in the air since 2016. Simon Fuller, the show’s creator Pop Idol, wanted to produce an ABBA concert in the form of holograms. The group finally turned to the company Industrial Light & Magic, founded by George Lucas, for a digital concert, where the silhouettes of the musicians will appear in 3D in digital form.
On screens? On a stage? Mystery still surrounds this aspect of production. But it is known that the Abbatars required five weeks of studio work, 75 technicians, 160 cameras, and that the members of ABBA, filmed with sensors and from all angles, will be represented in a rejuvenated form, as they appeared. at their apotheosis in 1979. We also know that an orchestra of 10 musicians will accompany their image on stage, where they will perform 22 of their greatest hits as well as their new ones. singles.
We are talking about a “residence” of six evenings per week. As the operation does not physically involve the members of ABBA (who no longer want to do a stage), nothing prevents the circus from moving. Or that it gives ideas to other aging formations that would like to ensure their sustainability …
Not so bad, not so good
There is something strange to see this UFO from the past land. Pop has changed a lot since the heyday of Dancing Queen, Fernando and Waterloo. Rap, electronics and R’n’B have all been there …
But at an average age of 75, Benny (74) and Björn (76) frankly had nothing to prove. They say they wrote the new songs trend blind, without worrying about the modes, which contrasts radically with the technomodern concept of their new virtual concert.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY UNIVERSAL
The Swedish quartet during a working session
ABBA fans will therefore find an unchanged group, immediately recognizable by its “vintage” production, its superimposed female voices (miraculously intact), its well-drawn melodies, an alternation of more rhythmic songs (When You Danced With Me, Don’t shut me down, No Doubt About It) and melancholy ballads (Ode to Freedom), not to mention a very family Christmas song.
This terra cognita trip will reassure the nostalgic public. But comfort also induces indifference. If the more raised pieces make you smile, the slower pieces lack tone and passion. The glitter and effervescence of the glorious seventies have faded. The vital momentum is not always there. It is sometimes a little soft.
There remains an indisputable know-how and a recognizable style among all. This is already taken.
Note that Agnetha, 71, and Anni-Frid, 75, participated in this reunion on one condition: that they are not involved in the promotion of the album. Which was moreover suspended for 24 hours, following the death of two spectators in a concert-tribute to ABBA, Wednesday in Stockholm…
Bad omen ?