The Visitors [Extra tracks, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

ABBA | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 16, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Polydor / Umgd
• ASIN: B00005CDNK
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,547 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #35 in Music > Pop > Euro Pop > Swedish Pop
  • #44 in Music > World Music > Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
  • #53 in Music > Pop > Dance Pop > Euro Dance

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classik ABBA, November 28, 2003

By 

S. Foster (Moira, Co Armagh United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Visitors (Audio CD)

As most would agree, ABBA's final released album of original material in 1981 was greeted with mixed response, let alone this 8 year old at the time! Many years later, and with more adult insight I fully appreciate the sombre and autobiographical brilliance of this oeuvre. Increasingly autobiographical and documenting a widening rift between the band through rhyme (the album cover alone indicates their division and the bleakness of the recording), yet this CD stands victorious trial against music critics and fans alike, containing soaring and brilliant melodies (listen to the grumbling choris of the title track and the snappy Soldiers chorus), awesome harmonies (Agnetha's falsettoes in I Let The Music Speak and the 2-part chorus harmony to Two For The Price of One). Lyrically this is an introspective album covering healing from separation (One of Us, When All Is Said ''here's to us, one more toast''), the torments of mental anguish (The Visitors), war (Soldiers), growing children (the gorgeous Slipping Through My Fingers), and so on and so forth. Frida and Agnetha are also given individual vocal reigns on each song (no songs have them singing verses in harmony) and most importantly, Frida is able to shine as perhaps the most accomplished of the two vocalists. I find it hard to summarise the cd...there's so much complexity to the lyrics, the musical structures (listen for example to Two for the Price moving from simple male lead verse to twin part backing harmonies and army-band type ending). Despite criticism for being overtly commerical this Opus indicates ABBA as accomplished and mature artistes who are capable of writing deeper lyrics and musical structure while maintaining a commercial appeal. Haunting, tragic and brilliant.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABBA gets creepy, grown up, and very good., January 16, 2007

By 

lighten_up_already2 "lighten_up_already2" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Visitors (Audio CD)

ABBA's final studio album is truly in a class by itself. The title track is about someone alone in their apartment -- which has been surrounded by the secret police -- awaiting their fate for being a political dissident in a communist country. Creepy and brilliant.

This album isn't about disco dancing and teenage crushes, it's about tyranny, watching your children grow up, ending relationships, and war.

If you are an ABBA fan, and you are hesitant to buy this disc because you don't see any charting hits on it, just go ahead and buy it. It's sad that this is the their last album, because I think they could have succeeded with this sould through the decade of the 1980's. They proved that they could change and reinvent themselves.

How many bands have "last albums" that are as great as this one?

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars farewell, December 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Visitors (Audio CD)

The Visitors is Abba's final album, enhanced in this edition with some of their last recordings from 1982. It did not follow Abba The Album as previously written by someone (The Album was released in late 77; Abba released their disco-LP Voulez-Vous in 1979 and their masterpiece Super Trouper in 1980 before The Visitors saw the light of day in Decembre 1981). So The Visitors is the last complete album before the band fell apart. You can tell that from the sleeve picture (which doesn't especially show a sense of unity) and also from the fact that for the very first time in Abba's history, every song had solo parts clearly given to a specific band member. Those who expect to find the joyous sound of Dancing Queen will be disappointed : the overall atmosphere is quite dark, the style of the album hesitates between electronic new wave (a style even more obvious on the 1982 recordings) and a classical style which shows the direction for Benny & Björn's carreer as musical composers (Chess was released in 1984). It contains some of the lesser known singles of the group : The Visitors, When All Is Said And Done (with lyrics hinting at Frida & Benny's recent divorce), The Day Before You Came (their very last recording) : all are masterpieces in my opinion. About the bonus tracks : Should I Laugh Or Cry is from 1981, an excellent song then only released as a 7" B-side. The others are taken from the two late-1982 singles. To be complete, the CD should have included You Owe Me One (the B-side to Under Attack, Björn & Benny reportedly hate the song), I Am The City (recorded in 82, unreleased until it was included on More Abba Gold in 93) and also Just Like That - which Björn & Benny unfairly consider as an unfinished song (it was eventually changed and given to the B&B produced project Gemini in 1985).