Back in 1980, I was eight years old and even at that young age I loved music and was starting to become obsessed with radio. It was the year that I bought my first single. I visted Woolworths and with my pocket money I bought ABBA’s Super Trooper. I don’t what it was about this single that stood out enough to make me buy it, I’d heard on the radio and I liked it!
Within a couple of year they were gone from the world of music and I’d moved on anyway to listening to the likes of Ozzy Osbourne & Twisted Sister! Over the next 40 years there had been rumour after rumour that the group would reunite for a gig, or some new music. FInally a few years ago, it was announced that two new songs had been recorded for a TV show about the band. However, once again, they never appeared for various reasons.
And now the time has arrived, and new music from ABBA has been released, and it’s like they have never been away. The two new songs, Don’t Shut Me Down & I Still Have Faith In You could have been release at any point during their orignal time together.
I Still Have Faith in You is a natural successor to the likes of The Winner Takes It All or Thank You to for the Music. It’s reflective and builds into a timeless ABBA classic.
Meanwhile Don’t Shut Me Down is a more upbeat affair, and my favourite of the two new songs. Both share the ABBA sound that has been missing since the 1980s. A new album called Voyage is due in November and during the interview below with Apple’s Zane Lowe, Björn Ulvaeus says the album is the follow up to 1981’s The Visitors and that they are as proud of the new material as they were in the seventies. The interview is one of the best music interviews I’ve seen in years, it’s well worth a watch.
Voyage will be released on Friday November 5.