A bouncy, synthy beat bridges the decades and brings ABBA into the present.

鈥淵ou look bewildered,鈥� Agnetha F盲ltskog sings above the retro rhythm, 鈥渁nd you wonder why I鈥檓 here today.鈥�

Well, yes.

ABBA is back with its first album since 1981. While skeptics might ask why, the four Scandinavian septuagenarians decided why not, and 鈥淰oyage鈥� does nothing to tarnish their legacy as global hitmakers.

The highlight, 鈥淛ust a Notion,鈥� comes midway through the 10-song set. A backbeat kicks in, followed by saxophones. The singers leap to a higher register, and pounding piano chords help the arrangement bloom. Sugar rush!

Alas, that brisk tempo is an outlier. Like most of us whose heyday was in the 1970s, ABBA has slowed down.

Ballads predominate on 鈥淰oyage,鈥� and the mood is mostly melancholy as F盲ltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sing about relationships, Christmas, freedom and a bee. There are more tunes built for Broadway than for Eurovision, and the entire album contains fewer hooks than 2 1/2 minutes of 鈥淲aterloo.鈥�

Even so, Benny Andersson and Bj枚rn Ulvaeus remain remarkable craftsmen as composers and arrangers, and the vocals of Lyngstad and F盲ltskog 鈥� now pitched lower 鈥� still blend beautifully. After more than 40 years of silence, it鈥檚 nice to hear. 鈥�

鈥擲teven Wine, The Associated Press