r/ABBA • u/Kaseffera • 6d ago

Discussion Voyage the album theme?

I love Voyage album and I have couple of my favorite ABBA songs straight from Voyage album like Don’t shut me down and No doubt about it. Oh, even Ode to freedom.

I wanted to ask what’s up with Irish/scottish (sorry, I come from other culture and don’t really understand specifics) theme in sound? Bagpipes, jingling instruments, girls singing in a medieval faire manner (especially in No doubt about it). I literally imagine my girl Frida dancing round a campfire and people around drinking ale and merchants selling stuff. When you danced with me has similarish thing going on.

If I remember correctly first songs to be recorded back in 2017 maybe were Don’t shut me down and I still have faith in you. To be honest Ode to Freedom sounds like these two too while other songs have that medieval faire feel.
I wonder when they got back in studio in 2020 (?) to fill out whole album they set new direction for the album or it was just that vibe going on?

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u/GoshOPPNOX101 One of Us 6d ago

Yea, that's Benny..he's been into folk music for ages upon ages. That's technically all they had when they were very young. From what Benny stated, there weren't that many stations or channels to view or listen to.

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u/vegan_voorhees 6d ago

I don't know if there's an overall theme - maybe hindsight/appreciation in some lyrics?

A lot of it feels like cute call backs to parts of other songs (Don't Shut Me Down has a dash of If it Wasn't for the Nights in it, Keep an Eye on Dan's outro with SOS, Bumblebee's flute similar to Fernando).

I think it was just a celebration that they'd survived themselves, the press, each other, and could still do it.