ABBA – The Visitors

this is a very good release, I like it a lot.

OK, so. This was SCRATCHED right across the A side, right from one edge, across the 'label area' to the other side - the (three!) scratches so deep they can be felt with the fingertip! I am getting SO sick of this particular pressing plant's history of churning out vinyl that is scratched, scuffed and downright dusty/dirty! Oh, and the poly inner that holds the disc is SO tight that I struggled to get the disc out, and even harder to get back in! To be fair, the online store have been really good and immediately sent a replacement. Again though, the inner PVC/poly sleeve is FAR too small and the disc just does not want to be removed! I have no idea how they managed to get it in in the first instance...

This is possibly one of the most obvious bootlegs I've seen in many years, and yet people are so desperate for it to be 'genuine'. It isn't, so save your money

Is this the 4th edition of this album on CD? I think I have the 3th without barcode and the galet is metalic with lines in blue and black

Is it true that this was the first CD ever released, in 1981? I always thought it was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street in 1982.

ABBA's final album "The Visitors" always felt somewhat thrown-together, deficient and incomplete, as if it was missing a more substantial, appropriate closing track that would elevate it to the same level of overall brilliance as its most recent predecessor. In 2001, a remastered reissue semi-corrected this flaw by introducing several bonus tracks from the applicable 1980-82 recording sessions, increasing its duration considerably and regrettably downgrading the inexplicable power and consummatory feel of the original edition. One such non-LP single from said sessions, "The Day Before You Came", was far too fabulous to be a mere extra. In fact, when heard in all its melancholic glory isolated from the other additional tracks and posterior to the exquisite and finely executed "Head Over Heels," "When All Is Said And Done," and "One Of Us", deeply evocative "Slipping Through My Fingers" and the cryptic "Soldiers" and "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room", "The Day Before You Came" betters the album immeasurably, fitting its prevailing bittersweet mood, adding greatly to its appeal by effusing the frailties of love in typical diametric late ABBA style.

Technically, "The Visitors" was not intended to be ABBA's swan song, and it wasn't, but there is a bittersweet, highly emotional charge throughout that could make one believe otherwise. Not only does the album play in something of a different light than their other records since both couples are divorced (and tellingly independent and facing away from each other on the cover art), it also holds up remarkably well as an illustration of their musical progression and a reflective conclusion and moody response to a glorious decade of deceptively "light" pop music, finding the band in an ambitious post-stardom phase, unfettered by commercial concerns and tired of working together. Also of striking significance is the sophistication of the writing and the minimalism of the arrangements, presenting the band's established grand, lyric-driven operatic framework in a more stark, stripped-back fashion, as if to foreshadow Benny and Björn's move into musical theatre, where meaning and the clarity and projection of the music and lyrics is of the utmost importance, not universality and radio friendliness. Keen to take full advantage of the advances in technology at Polar Studios, Benny and Björn switched from analogue recording during the sessions, eventually tracking, mixing, and pressing the album in the digital format. Naturally, the incredibly clean sound achieved by digital recording techniques underscores the album's cold, sombre atmosphere and crisp, layered electronic production. As a direct consequence of Benny and Björn's desire to show how much they had evolved as songwriters and producers, Anni-Frid and Agnetha's renowned pristine vocals were given equal opportunity to shine, with their strong, saturnine delivery matching the dark, dramatic tone of the album as well as the frostiness resulting from recording with an ex-partner.

For those expecting vestiges of goofy, schmaltzy or celebratory ABBA, there's a surprise in store herein: a decidedly mature, nervy mosaic of personal and professional separation, survival and freedom and the paranoia, terror and loss of the communist regime. It may not be traditional ABBA, but the resonant ideas and angular, haunting and lugubrious mood are all in keeping with the band's demise and the state of the world at the time, therefore such an approach is justified in the grand scheme of things. That being said, if one takes an analytical view of the material, there is some warmth and wisdom to be found within, and the journey of discovery is more cathartic than depressing, purely because the songs, taken as a whole or otherwise, are so deliciously dread-laden and wonderfully, unabashedly stirring, chilly and edgy. Quite simply, this is an album that is too lush and weighty to experience once, it must be appended with "The Day Before You Came" and devoured on a regular basis before one can appreciate all of its nuances and qualities.

RATING: 5/5 ~ Unfortunately, the aforementioned 2001 reissue is an improperly sequenced ear-bleeder, necessitating audiophiles and serious fans to forge the authoritative configuration of "The Visitors" by other means, i.e. the sonically-pleasing original nine-track edition issued in 1986, and the definitive version of "The Day Before You Came", the inclusion of which is the basis for my higher rating, sourced from "The Singles: The First Ten Years".

Horribly-sounding pressing !!! One of the "rare" pressings without CUTTING ROOM SWEDEN engraved. This record sounds thin, lifeless and has lots of sibilance. There is another dutch pressing with CUTTING ROOM SWEDEN engraved and it sounds wonderful.

got this still sealed and already there was horrible sibilance on the last few songs on each side. I can still enjoy it but the sound quality is just not that great

I seem to have a different variant. Side 1 is A10. Side 2 is B12 (stampers)

perfect pressing. impressive how absurd the quality is. I have had copies of this company and it is worth a lot.