ABBA's latest album Voyage has already smashed a UK record by becoming the fastest selling LP in four years, just six days after going on general release.
The Swedish pop pioneers returned with their ninth and final album on November 5, with current sales figures suggesting it has rapidly outsold every other current release - among them Ed Sheeran's = (equals).
Sheeran's fifth mathematically titled LP has been available to buy since October 29 and currently sits at number one in the UK Album Chart, but is expected to be ousted by ABBA when the chart is updated on November 12.
Success: ABBA's latest album Voyage has already smashed a UK record by becoming the fastest selling LP in four years, just six days after going on general release
While = (equals) sold 139,000 copies in just seven days, Voyage - ABBA's first album of original material since 1981 - has sold 181,712 copies over a shorter period of time.
The Swedish pop group delighted fans when they announced they were returning with a revolutionary concert and new album in October.
Immediately after the announcement, Agnetha Fältskog, 71, Björn Ulvaeus, 76, Benny Andersson, 74, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, released new tracks I Still Have Faith In You and Don’t Shut Me Down - which received rave reviews.
Popular: The Swedish pop pioneers returned with their ninth and final album on November 5, with current sales figures suggesting it has rapidly outsold every other current release
However, critics were divided by the remaining body of work after the full album was released on Friday morning.
The Guardian's Jude Rogers awarded the album just two stars, noting: 'the glamour promised by this album’s two terrific singles goes horribly unfulfilled.'
Rogers added: 'In the past, they excelled when they twisted the sounds of their times in their own way, when they were within glam, disco and electronic pop but also apart from these genres; when their idiosyncrasies elevated them, rather than diminished them.
Top of the tree: Ed Sheeran's fifth mathematically titled LP = (equals) currently sits at number one in the UK Album Chart, but is expected to be ousted by ABBA when the chart is updated on November 12
'If only they had stopped at those two knowing songs, leaving the rest to our dazzling imaginations.'
The Telegraph's Neil McCormick was slightly more generous with a three star rating, but stated the Swedish band had 'drifted a long way from Waterloo'.
Alas the new music didn't match up to their greatest hits, as Neil penned: 'There is nothing here that strikes the pure gold seam of
