It is so powerful to hear Agnetha and Anni-Frid singing I Still Have Faith In You together after 40 years – and the slinky, cheeky Don’t Shut Me Down is even better
Abba Voyage is probably just going to be a cruise, I thought. Only in my dreams did I thought it would be a new song. Then at 6pm came the news: a whole new album, with two tracks released at once to herald its arrival.
Heralding this pop miracle are I Still Have Faith In You (★★★★) and Don’t Shut Me Down (★★★★★), two songs precision-honed to wallop emotion out of the listener (if you’re willing, that is: if you’ve always been immune to Abba’s charms, these songs won’t melt your cold heart). I’ve been an Abba fan since I was a little girl, and the opening strings on the former, full of minor-key melancholy, had me welling up immediately, pointing as they do to a classic Abba trope. Here’s a melody that feels like it’s already in its middle – leaving the listener lost, rooting around for something to console them – before it moves, with exquisite deliberation, towards the first verse (Dancing Queen also does this brilliantly).
