The Visitors

Artist: ABBA
Label: Polygram Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 042280001148
EAN: 0042280001148
ASIN: B000005IKY

Release Date: 1995-08-22

The Visitors

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Sweden

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Tracks:

Visitors
Head Over Heels
When All Is Said and Done
Soldiers
I Let the Music Speak
One of Us
Two for the Price of One
Slipping Through My Fingers
Like an Angel Passing Through My Room

Similar Items:

Arrival
Abba - The Album
Super Trouper
Voulez-Vous
Ring Ring

Customer Reviews:

The Visitorrs: a bit less sugar-sweet, still undeniably ABBA.......2005-01-12

As most other reviewers have noted, this album is surely something very different for ABBA; it was obvious to me on the first listen (in those days of LP records, on "the first spin"). The Visitors, is indeed, a more mature album than anything that came before---although ABBA's lyrics were often far more accomplished than they were given credit for (Knowing Me, Knowing You; Fernando; One Man, One Woman, I'm A Marionette... none of them obscure, shocking or literary, but undeniably solid, adult pop lyrics). Still, with a new consistency, the songs on The Visitors clearly aim for, and usually strike, adult nerves. Ruminations on the power of music, the Cold War, raising kids, personal break-ups.. all very well done, the glaring exceptions being "Two For The Price Of One" which is at best, a trifle, both lyrically and melodically. "When All Is Said & Done" has a truly fine, insightful lyric, notwithstanding the rather gratuitous inclusion of the word "sex", which seems in retrospect a quaint but obvious move, part of the "adult" mood they were aiming for. Each song has something to say, and says it well.

The sounds, too, are somewhat different---though not unreservedly for the better. Like the lyrics, the melodies are often more subtle and complex than what ABBA were usually known for (too often described as "hook-filled" and "sing-song"). So here we get more melodic & rhythmic subtlety, but sometimes at the expense of that uncanny, positively joyful musical energy that seemed to inform every typical ABBA smash hit, from Waterloo to Dancing Queen to Super Trouper. One wants to love this album, like a last conversation with an old friend, but there's no denying that "Head Over Heels" or "Soldiers" simply do not make one want to jump up and shout the way their predecessors did. These melodies are by no means UNmelodic, or even less than VERY catchy. It's more fair to say that if their earlier songscapes were painted in bright, primary colors, Bjorn & Benny were now utilizing other, more subtle shadings.

The arrangements, are as always, rich, interesting and distinctive. Frida's and Agnetha's performances, consistent with everything else on the album, are more adult, personal and individual ---a far cry from the early days when it was often said that they sing in such perfect harmony, "you can hardly tell them apart".

The final verdict? Taken on its own terms, The Visitors is quite impressive. It's a more complex listen than their other stuff, both lyrically and melodically, and it highlights the impressive extent of ABBA's evolution over the scarcely ten years that we knew them (and this is not to diminish the wonder of their earlier work). Equally important, for all the talk of more serious moods, Bjorn & Benny STILL had a way with a song, to drastically understate it. It's not like they did an album of minimalist jazz, or a suite of atonal gregorian chants. This is still ABBA music, and practically nobody in the pop world can do it like them: melodies you remember forever, flawless singing, intricate arrangements, accessible, yet meaningful lyrics. A fine, final album from a group whose music was always far more adult and technically accomplished than they're ever likely to be given credit for--even (or especially) with their newly hip "rehabilitated" status. Perhaps the final word on ABBA should be, Just because they wrote songs that were wonderfully catchy doesn't mean they didn't write great music. The Visitors underscores that.

ABBA's Pet Sounds?.......2003-02-01

No not really, but ABBA's 1981 LP "The Visitors" was almost as drastic a departure from 1980's "Super Trouper" as Brian Wilson's classic 1966 "Pet Sounds" was from "Beach Boys Party!".

I bought this album new in 1981 and I was surprised how somber and serious it was. I was expecting another fun upbeat Pop album from them, but here were lyrics about the end of marrages, the fear of a Russian invasion during the cold war, children growing too-quickly, and the final disillusionment of childhood/adolescent dreams into adulthood. Not something you'd expect from a group that gave us "Sitting in The Palmtree" "King Kong Song" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" 5-6 years before. ABBA were showing signs of maturing from 1977's "Arrival" LP on, but "The Visitors" is the album where the group had truely grown up.

Despite the upbeat melodies and sing-along choruses the whole album has a sense of impending doom about it - Perhaps it's the all-digital production with the increased use of drum machines and synthesizer programming that creates the chilly sonic atmosphere. There's a couple of fun songs like "Two For The Price Of One" (which made me gag back then - but I now find charming) but the optimistic "bouncy" energy of ABBA's earlier albums is gone.

But Benny & Bjorn didn't lose their touch for writing memorable songs and crafting big and beautiful productions. The whole album just sucks me in - the track listing isn't as haphazard as earlier ABBA albums, it seems to flow just right.

ABBA started make a album after this called "Opus X" (their 10th album) and recorded a few tracks for it like the great "Just Like That" (a edited version made the "Thank You" box set but us fans want the full version with all the verses) and "In the City" (which made ABBA Gold Volume 2) but personal differences broke up the foursome for good. Had ABBA stayed together, could they have made a album that would have changed jaded rock critics and "serious" music fans minds that thought ABBA was just a "bubblegum" group? ...Well we will never know! But we have this great send off to the best overseas Pop group of the 70's and early 80's.

When all is said and done, it's a great album.......2002-01-02

I believe this is the greatest of Abba's original albums. I like every single song on this album. Some of these songs don't appear on the "Gold" or "More Gold" albums, but every one is a classic. From the intense (and paranoid?)"The Visitors," to the bitersweet "Slipping Through my Fingers," to the humorous "Two for the Price of One" (with a male lead vocal), this album is worth listening to.

Let the music speak.......2001-10-05

Not by any chance the typical Abba album, "The Visitors" shows the world a totally different reality than the one that was experienced through their previous recordings. If "Ring Ring" or "Arrival" featured innocent and candid lyrics, and "Voulez-Vous" or "Super Trouper" were deeply involved with the disco-revolution that the world was living, "The Visitors", stands out as the best Abba album because of its strength. This is a pop record, made by people who know how to make pop sound like pop.

Probably a big part of the strength of the album had to do with the lives of the members of the band during the recording. With guitarist/composer Bjorn Ulvaeus and singer Agnetha Faltskog already divorced since 1979, the band had to suffer the divorce of the second marriage, between keyboardist/composer Benny Andersson and singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The result of these hard situations are the most sincere lyrics ever written by this band.

From beginning to end, the album is astonishing. "The Visitors" is the first (and the best in my humble opinion) track, and features an amazing Frida lead vocal, and altered all-band vocals for the bridge and chorus. The theme of the album goes through all these marriage complications, and it's mostly Frida the one who gets to sing the most intense lyrics this time. "When All Is Said And Done" (re-recorded in Spanish as "No Hay A Quien Culpar", this version is available on the "Oro: Grandes Éxitos" compilation) is a strong "goodbye" song, ironically with Benny playing an amazing piano part. We see Frida on her best vocal way also with "I Let The Music Speak", a track that explores the not always well apreciated theatrical vein of the band. The beautiful, haunting closing track (and a good farewell track for the band) is "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room", the one and only Abba track that does not feature a single vocal harmony, not even in the background. The song is sweet and tender, it sounds like Frida is sending her children to sleep.

While Bjorn pays his personal tribute to The Beatles with the Pepper-ish "Two For The Price Of One", Agnetha gets the chance to sing on "Head Over Heels", a great poppy track; the haunting "One Of Us" (the only song from this album that made it to the "Gold" compilation"), in which she shows yet again her talents as a vocalist; "Soldiers", which is an ambient surrealistic track resemblent to the anthem "Eagle", released on 1978; and "Slipping Through My Fingers", the sweetest song of the bunch, talking about how hard is for parents to handle the growing of their children. This song was also re-recorded in Spanish as "Se Me Está Escapando"

The B-side to the "One Of Us" single was "Should I Laugh Or Cry", another breaking-up song, strongly sung by Frida. The next Abba singles were "The Day Before You Came", probably the Abba song with the greatest lyrics ever and "Under Attack", ironically a much lighter love song. Those along with their respective B-sides "Cassandra" and the silly "You Owe Me One" can all be found in different issues of this album, and in different compilations. Those are for giving the costumer a complete view of the moment Abba was experiencing while recording "The Visitors". Their strongest record was surrounded by the sense of having grown up, the sensation of maturity and the need to do more innovative stuff in the fields of music. Benny and Bjorn took their chance and let the music speak for them. They were totally splitting up, but they let the world know about it. Surely they didn't think that was true, but it was anyway. It's sad that after a masterpiece like this a band like Abba broke up. It would have been great to know their achievements in the fields of the complex 80's music scene, but one must think that everything has a planned end, and there's nothing left to do when that happens.

Don't expect this to be the regular Abba CD. It is much more innovative and "experimental", if you want... But it is an Abba record anyway. You recognize them not only because of the vocalists, but also because they're "letting the music speak" by them. And that's what they always did.

The GREATEST pop album in ALL OF HISTORY!!!!!.......2001-09-07

No pop act today can compare to the catchiness and melody of Abba. And their artistic sincerity really shined through on THE VISITORS, the final album in late 1981.

What makes this such a superb cut? Begin with the overall sound. Abba were charging forward from the oldies sound of 70s pop into the characteristic sounds of the 1980s--synthpop, new wave, dance-club music. Had they remained for another album, who knows what? They would probably still be heard today on AC radio, a genre that still plays 80s music liberally. This is one of the earliest albums to make complete use of CLEAN SOUNDING electronic drum tracks and synthetically manipulated voices (listen to songs like WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE and TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE to hear this mastery). The sound on this album approaches the likes of Duran Duran or early Madonna (especially on the title track). It's actually cool and fun to dance to.

Second, the emotions are wonderfully set here which range from haunting Halloween-esque fear ('The Visitors') to Swedish folk music ('Head Over Heels') to divorce sorrow ('When All Is Said and Done' and 'One Of Us') to parenthood ('Slipping Through My Fingers') to memories of the past ('Like An Angel Passing Through My Room'). This last song sounds especially like a good-bye song with its quietude and midnight-hour atmosphere. It's Abba's denouement after nearly ten years of fame and glory.

Finally, these singers have perfect voices on this album and the recording is wonderful. No more tinny studios that sound like the Sixties. Everything here is pretty much just as crisp in audio as today's pop music records. Many songs recorded for a few years after in America didn't have this same clarity.

While The Beatles can be accepted by most as the most overall innovative artists in the history of the music industry, when it comes to pure melody and family-friendly pop, Abba can't be beat. No group before or since has made me so likely to shed tears in joy or sorrow.

I would definitely recommend THE VISITORS, the final dying gasp by one of the greatest pop groups of all time-ABBA!

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