ABBA Voyage review: Futuristic fun – but above all, we’re thankful for the music
With the director of Kylie’s ‘Slow’ at the helm, it's no wonder what could have been a Mamma Mia!-like cringe-fest is in fact the decade's coolest cultural event, writes Attitude’s Jamie Tabberer
“The gods may throw a dice, their minds as cold as ice, and someone way down here, loses someone dear.”
The lyrics to ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’ should be put in a test tube and studied. They’re as mechanically precise as they are earnest and heartbreaking: the author’s despair and self-doubt sweeping through the song’s structure like a tidal wave through a suspension bridge.
This artistry may have passed you by if, like this writer, ABBA soundtracked your childhood without your express agreement. Yes, I belong to the “come on – ABBA are extremely overplayed” camp. That’s what growing up with a super-fan for a grandmother does to you. ‘Dancing Queen’ is now tantamount to torture.
But hearing ABBA’s music ‘live’ at ABBA Voyage, in a purpose-built, collapsable arena, at a so-called ‘digital concert residency’, is like hearing it for the first time. The setting reveals magic lost through car stereos and music video channels flicked through in states of zombified boredom as a teen. It’s an experience even die-hard fans missed out on in the band’s heyday, given their allergy to touring.
That’s the big takeaway of ABBA Voyage, for me. Not the digital renderings of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, which I can take or leave. But the newly-underlined quality of the music. The pop perfection of ‘Voulez-Vous’, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ and more.
Interesting, then, that the night of Attitude’s visit, the show opened with album tracks. ABBA nerds were in their element. Casual fans, meanwhile, were perplexed. (So too were the many, many rowdy teenagers who were impossible to escape in this intimate, 3,000-capacity space.)
It is curious that a big-ticket song does not accompany the ABBAtars’ big reveal. And that lesser-hits, like the recent single ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, come at the expense of ‘Super Trouper’ and the like. But these creative choices also hint at what’s to come. (“We did motion capture more songs that we have in this concert,” Björn confirmed to NME last spring.)
As for the ABBAtars, in this writer’s genuine opinion, they’re not as lifelike as people claim. Fix your gaze on the blown–up side screens long enough and you get video game vibes. That’s not to undermine the countless hours of work involved at the hands of human beings; special effects company Industrial Light and Magic have really pulled it out of the bag with this one. (Billions more hours went into it from computers. But who cares about offending them? On balance, the phrase ‘famous last words’ springs to mind…)
In a way, a slight lack of realism is OK. Uncanniness can be discomforting and distracting. Reassured that this wasn’t the episode of The Twilight Zone I was fearing, I was able to enjoy the ABBAtars for what they are: silly, futuristic fun.
What’s more, a bit of distance from the technology gets you out of your head and engaging with the whole show. The music, atmosphere, and tireless 10-piece band, who humanise proceedings. And finally, the trippy lighting. This is the show’s superpower: those sharp, deep, mesmerising colours and patterns. It’s apparently the largest, most complex permanent kinetic lighting installation in the world. Between that and spaceship-like building, you do feel transported to another plane.
Who’d have thought it? Given the high camp stage and screen legacy of Mamma Mia!, this could have gone one step further and been a total cringe-fest. By comparison, if anything, ABBA Voyage‘s camp wings feel ever so slightly clipped. What we get is fresh, new, and startling. But with the director of Kylie’s ‘Slow’ video (Baillie Walsh) in the driving seat, it was always going to be cool. Here’s hoping Ms. Minogue gets the same treatment next.