Abba set to release new album in April

I've been a fan for decades,glad to hear this news.I wish ABBA success with this set.

I am a die-hard fan of ABBA!! I am so excited about this news and the upcoming release in April. When they disbanded years ago my heart was broken, as a young lad living in Africa, it was a shock and I didn't understand then the pressure and horror of fame. I guess all good things come to an end. I am really glad that they can still get together and share their God given gift with the world. I love them!!!!

Perhaps this will be a sales success. The fact that so little decent music is being created these days certainly will not harm its potential. It would not be the first time that something old is new again.

Pop music without thumping sub-woofers. Imagine that.

Thought they'd met their Waterloo.

@Opinionfool

In the modern age, things only die when there is no longer money to made.

Still waiting for 'Ring Ring' and 'ABBA' deluxe album releases! :-(

Awesome!!!

@dizzymoe33

Don't you mean awful! As songwriters they are nothing compared to Carl Michael Bellman; as composers they are nothing compared to Stenhammar; as performers nothing compared to Håkan Hardenberger.

This is of course welcome news, but what the world really wants is a tour. Most wouldn't be able to affoed tickets though as they would probably be some of the most sought after ever.

Nevertheless - wouldn't it be great?

@the fonz

No.

Having wanted for decades to go to a concert of one of my old favorite bands from the 1970s I recently watched film of a concert that gave. They had a reputation for being a fantastic live band, with immaculate performances and theatrical effects. Although they are still much better musicians that Abba ever were, their material more challenging than Abba's, being more than just 3 minute pop, and the songs and improvisations evoke the same feelings the band had "lost it". There was something missing from their performance; bum notes, fumbled passages of prominent intricate guitar, piano, percussion, or bass line and inadequate PA. If there were one or two of those problems then I'd overlook them but this was an endemic problem in every single piece they played. I will stick with the LPs (yes, that old) and CDs transferred to my MP3 player. I no longer wish to see them at a live concert.

Just because Abba were considered commercially successful in the 1970s and provided momentary pleasure to people is no reason for them to reform and tour. Better to live with the fiction of good live gig never seen than to suffer the reality of a mediocre one actually attended.

Yes, maybe time for an "Abba - where are they now ?" biopic/documentary, but leave concerts out of it.

ANY music ABBA plays will generate a great atmosphere which Sweden lost many years ago.

Well done ABBA it has been a long time but no-doubt it will be worth it.

A Tour!! Come on before it is too late! You will not live forever even if your music will.

Good luck to you all.

@Observant

Really, the re-release of an Abba album is going to change Swedish society over night. Really? There are good reasons why material is hidden away in vaults. Usually because it was not good enough for release first time around. Listen to the junk released after John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, or Janis Joplin after their deaths. It was not up to the standard set by their in life releases.

This is just nostalgia for "the good old days". Good old days seen through a pair of rose-tinted glasses. Those good old days were just as bad as now ask those who lived through them.

I question whether this experience will be worth it ... other than to Abba's individual bank accounts.

Well - 'one man's food is another man's poison'

I always thought that, like so much else about Sweden, ABBA were just SO mediocre, but its a tribute to their organisation and image management, that they can now be proposing a new album.

Mediocrity gets better as the years go by LOL!

@Opinionfool

You're mostly correct: ABBA shouldn't reform. They said themselves that they would never do it, even when offered 1 billion dollars to do 100 shows. They've also repetedly said themselves that they don't understand the continued appeal of their music, and they're getting weary of talking about it 30 years on. They release new material (or rehashed old material) periodically not because of any inherent contribution to culture, society, and poetry readings everywhere, but because their extremely large, broad, and persistent fan base pleads for it.

And you have to admit, you weren't up to naming the incredible '70s group you feel is light-years better than ABBA. Don't dish out criticism if you can't take it in return.

@roaringchicken92

Yes, I didn't. Unlike Abba they have continued to record and tour. There's an Australian and New Zealand tour scheduled for this year even. In their case it really is "thank you for the music".

But this "new" Abba material is not actually new is it. They haven't been into the studio recently. This is stuff they didn't release first time round because even by their standards it wasn't good enough.

I too am and always have been a fan of Abba,their music is timeless,well written and a tribute to all four of them that it is still on playlists of commercial stations here in UK and presumably other countries to.

Personally,I would love to see the foursome together again,but I doubt that will happen,and if anything they have my respect for sticking to their guns and not reforming. Doesnt stop me wishing it would though.

Also Sweden should be justifiably proud of the fact that Abba still have a following......after all a lot of people didnt give them a chance or second look because they were Swedish.....as Mc Cartney`s lyric says...` and whats wrong with that.....i`d like to know`.

We had Lennon and Mc Cartney, Sweden have Abba....dont knock them, alot of people will remember and enjoy these guys music LONGGGGGGGG after we are all gone.

PS......Agnetha,Benny,Bjorn,Frida....if you guys are reading this......lets have a pic of you all together both now and then.....not nessessarily performing,just sociallising,and having fun. Tack sa Mycket killar `n` tjejer..........ta hand,.......john

@dukesy #17

"We had Lennon and Mc Cartney, Sweden have Abba....dont knock them, alot of people will remember and enjoy these guys music LONGGGGGGGG after we are all gone."

We also have the songs from the great talents: Cole Porter, George and Ira Gerswhin, Harold Arlen, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim. John Bucchino . But nothing Abba produced matches any of their output.

You and I won't be around to know if I'm right but I reckon that Carl Michael Bellman will be remember long after Abba are forgotten. They won't outlast those I've listed above either and certainly not the likes of Hugo Wolf, Schubert, Schubert, and Schumann.

Opinionfool, your (geo-centric) opinions certainly polarise.

As an Australian, I had never heard of the people in #8. You could not say that they 'put Sweden' on the map (not that you did say that).

But, they first 2 were from a different age, and you can't really compare them. Your selective arguments do not use terms such as "number of fans" or "number of records sold", which must be equally considered in terms of rating talent and performance.

As it happens, I agree that they should not reform, for exactly the reasons you cited. And I am a huge Abba fan, having been to Sweden many times because of them, not in spite of them.

I also would not consider that being a fan for over 35 years is 'momentary pleasure'. Bellman's music lives on in Youtube for instance, and I'd like to think that in 200 years, Abba's music will still be available.

Part of their 'tall poppy' syndrome was the amount of mis- and dis-information that accompanied heir success. At the time, they were reported as "earning more than Volvo". What rot. Volvo was selling 68 000 cars a year and 100 000 in the US. In fact, Abba did nearly everything "in house", such as having their own recording studio, so their overheads were much lower, leading to margins that were much larger than almost any other 'business'. They were more profitable in terms of % return.

And people still report that they were offered "$1 billion" for 100 concerts. That would need a profit of $10m each concert for 100 times. Not even Abba could do that. It was 1B SEK . Benny himself said that.

Disagree with your comments in #13 however. I never understood why they never released such songs as Just Like That, yet were washing their hair or bending over tying their shoelaces when such utter tripe as Put On Your White Sombrero slid out of the vault and inflicted itself on an unsuspecting public. And don't get me started on I Saw It In the Mirror.

Anyway, that is my two bob's worth. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.