Abba - The Visitors
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CD Details
Artist: AbbaEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-10-16
Music Label: Polydor / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- The 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
- Should I Laugh Or Cry
- The Day Before You Came
- Cassandra
- Under Attack
Music reviews of The Visitors
Music Review: A Veritable Masterwork of Melody, Surrealism, Poetry and Depth.
Rating: 5 Stars
Along with the much loved "Super Trouper" album, "The Visitor's" is one of ABBA's best original albums. It is the sound of a group that had matured and the end result is so alien to some people, that many may not even believe ABBA was capable of creating such dark, hauntingly beautiful poems set to ravishingly beautiful music.
The title track is a fascinating piece of work. The lyrics and chorus are interesting enough but Frida's solid, uncompromising vocals during the versus combined with the embellished synthesized sound transforms "The Visitors" in to one of ABBA's most unique and enduring songs.
Throughout ABBA's years as a group, Agnetha was chosen as the lead vocalist in several of their tear-jerker ballads; "Hasta Manana", "SOS, "My Love My Life", "Chiquitita", "Happy New Year", "The Winner Takes it All", "I've Been Waiting For You" and in "The Visitors" she's given several; "One of Us", "Soldiers", "Slipping Through My Fingers" and as an added bonus "The Day Before You Came". One of my favorites from this album is the hauntingly gorgeous "Soldiers". The lyrics recall a war-torn place and time and a sense of helplessness and dread are conjured up ("What's that sound what's the dreadful rumble?/Won't somebody tell me what I hear?/In the distance but drawing near/Is it only a storm approaching/All that thunder and the blinding light/In the winters night/In the grip of this cold December...") and Agnetha's sorrowful vocals add a touch of pathos to the already solemn atmosphere of the piece. The chorus is also worth mentioning because it's constructed almost like a tongue twister and the meaning of the phrase "Soldiers write the songs that soldiers sing/The songs that you and I don't/won't sing" isn't clear adding a bit of mystery.
"Soldiers" is followed by the even more enigmatic "I Let the Music Speak" with Frida on lead vocals. This song has always intrigued me because I don't fully understand what the song is about. It's a whole array of incredibly poetic images ("Where Beauty will defeat the darkest day"), phrases ("I'm hearing images/I'm seeing songs no poet has ever painted") and places ("I find myself a blind man in some Ancient valley"). It's also one of the most theatrical songs Bjorn and Benny ever wrote for ABBA. "I Let the Music Speak" is also one of Frida's best vocal performances to date along side "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room". The latter song is simple in form but strikingly beautiful in sound and mind.
There are a couple of upbeat songs in "The Visitors". "Head Over Heels" is a charming ditty which features Agnetha as lead vocalist and showcases her beautiful voice and her ability to adapt to various styles of music. Bjorn takes the lead in "Two For the Price of One". Listening to "The Visitors" from beginning to end is a moving and sometimes depressing experience, these 2 songs are a welcome change from the darkness and sorrow.
"The Visitors" was released in 1981 becoming a commercial hit entering the UK album charts at number one. The album also reached the Top 40 in the US peaking outside of the Top 20 but it was a disappointment considering their previous records; "Arrival", "The Album", "Voulez-Vous" and "Super Trouper" all peaked within the Top 20 of the Billboard Album Charts. The biggest single to emerge from this was the magnificent ballad "One of Us" which peaked at number 3 in the UK. The other Agnetha lead vocal track "Head Over Heels" was also released as a single there and became a meduim sized hit reaching number 25. This was the first time since 1975 that ABBA had a single peak outside of the Top 10 in the UK.
In the US, "When All Is Said and Done" and "The Visitors" were the two chosen single releases. "The Visitors" peaked at number 63 and "When All Is Said and Done" fared better reaching the Top 40. It should be noted that these two songs became ABBA's 19th and 20th singles to reach the Billboard Hot 100 within an 8 year time span. For a Swedish group to accomplish this was simply amazing.
There are 2 re-mastered versions of "The Visitors" both having bonus tracks. The original re-mastered edition released in 1997 has "Should I Laugh or Cry", "The Day Before You Came", "Under Attack" and "You Owe Me One" while the newer edition omits "You Owe Me One" and replaces it with the more poignant "Cassandra".
Out of all the bonus tracks, my favorite is the melancholic "The Day Before You Came" sung by Agnetha. In my opinion, it is one of ABBA's masterpieces and one of their most beautiful ballads. Like "The Winner Takes It All", it's simplistic but due to Bjorn and Benny's creative genius and Agnetha's gorgeous voice, it tugs at the heartstrings. There is nothing remotely depressing in the lyrics. It reads like a journal entry of a desperate, bored woman who cites off her daily activities before a person; a good friend, a lover, came in to her life. This song should be joyous and hopeful but it is not. Agentha's voice wreaks loneliness and sadness making one wonder that tragedy became this individual she is remembering. Benny stated in an interview that they had instructed Agnetha not to use her "vocal abilities" in this song in order for her to sound like an ordinary woman. Although he later regretted it by stating that you don't have to under use your abilities as a singer to play a part in a song, their idea worked wonderfully here. Unlike Agentha's previous solos where she adorns the songs with power and vibrato, her desperate, vibrato-less vocals in "The Day Before You Came" makes it more intimate. Like a one-way conversation that the listener is having with the singer. It is a shame this song wasn't appreciated when it was released as a single in 1982. It peaked at number 32 in the UK (although it was a hit in other European territories) but many music critics have since called it a masterpiece.
"The Visitors" shines like a glittering jewel within the ABBA catalogue. It was an album that was ahead of it's time. No other album in 1981 was this intense and polished. It is also the sound of a more mature ABBA who musically evolved and who were interested in creating more than just perfect pop songs. Several of these songs are meaningful works of art and that's probably the best way to describe this album; a work of art.
Highly Recommended
Description of The Visitors
Exclusive import limited edition digipak is remastered, has extensive line notes and lyrics, and includes four bonus songs, 'Should I Laugh Or Cry', 'The Day Before You Came', 'Cassandra' and 'Under Attack'. 13 tracks in all.Abba's 1981 swan song is appropriately touched by intimations of loss; The Visitors certainly contains nothing as breezy as "Does Your Mother Know." Far from the listless meanderings of a group on its way out, however, the album is alive with emotion and creativity. The title track fuses a melody reminiscent of the Beatles Indian explorations with a smartly done synthesizer arrangement typical of the disc as a whole. (They could've been the Human League!) Similarly moody cuts like "Soldiers" and "One of Us" help make this that rare thing, an Abba record suited for lonely late nights. This 24-bit remaster boasts four bonus cuts, including the final singles "The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack," in addition to improved sound quality. --Rickey Wright
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