ABBA have previewed the official video for their recent Christmas single, “Little Things” on social media. You can see the post and check out the preview here.
The festive track, which appears on the Swedish icons’ new album Voyage, will be available on a special CD from tomorrow (December 3). Taking to social media this morning (December 2), the group teased that “something special is coming” to mark the physical release. They made the announcement alongside a wintery 16-second clip.
The festive number features the lyrics: “Little things/ Like your sleepy smile/ As the brand new day is dawning/ It’s a lovely Christmas morning.” Elsewhere, the band sing of the “joy Santa brings“, “stockings full of nice little things” and “tiny elves with wings“.
In a review of Voyage, NME described ‘Little Things’ as “a twinkly Christmas song that’s sickly-sweet even before [ABBA] bring in a children’s choir. Frankly, it would feel even more mawkish if it weren’t for the poignancy in Fältskog and Lyngstad’s beautifully mature voices.”
ABBA received a UK Number One album with Voyage as well as earning the fastest-selling vinyl of the century. The group’s first full-length effort in 40 years registered 204,000 chart sales in the seven days since its release.
The legendary band will showcase the record at a string of “revolutionary” concerts at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2022. Earlier this year, the event’s producers spoke to NME about what to expect from the “magical space circus”.
The spectacle was put together by former Klaxons member James Righton and features Little Boots (a self-confessed ABBA “mega-fan”) in its cast of live musicians. A dazzling official trailer arrived last month.
Also in ABBA news, a recent episode of ‘M Means Music,’ the music podcast hosted by veteran UK music writer, DJ, and music consultant Daryl Easlea – dissected the history, context, and lyrical themes of ABBA’s 1981 LP The Visitors.
Using the podcast’s traditional framework of the five M’s – moment, music, modern act, members, and memory – Easlea tells the story of the Swedish pop megastars’ final album before their unofficial, yet temporary, dissolution in 1982. Each of the album’s tracks are put under the microscope in turn, including the singles “One Of Us,” “When All Is Said And Done,” “Head Over Heels” and “The Visitors,” and deep-cut “Slipping Through My Fingers.”