The Visitors | Loppylugs

Submitted by Matthew Baker on 20 December 2013 - 2:29pm

Cover:

Artist:

ABBA

album-ID:

a_142

Nationality:

Sweden

Year:

1 981

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

The Visitors (Crackin' Up)*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

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_55

Now-num:

2 014

Spotify-URL:

0lXoZDB0yfxncR0cyrWDmf

Grooveshark-URL:

The+Visitors/1443777

Short-title:

visitors

nominator-ID:

u_2

Meeting-date:

Sunday, 2 February 2014

MusicBrainz-URL:

76bb9f69-b5c1-31be-9bbf-b4b3d98988b0

Wikipedia-URL:

The_Visitors_(ABBA_album)

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

ABBA-The-Visitors/master/50014

Allmusic-URL:

the-visitors-mw000018886

rdio-URL:

ABBA/album/The_Visitors_(Digitally_Remastered)

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guest-list data

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117

reviewers-IDs data

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-14-

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-13-

72

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Chuck out the chintz

1-6-8-9

2-5-7

Two For the Price of One proved a useful song in answering the question ‘what would this band sound like without the agreeable female vocals and the catchy hooks?’. I think this one really exposes the crappy blandness at the heart of their sound, which does rile a lot of people.

The followng song, Slipping Through My Fingers, was probably the best on the album. I thought this was the only genuinely moving piece on the whole thing and felt like the exception which proved the rule - of a lack of real emotional impact on this, in spite of the album being heralded as the reflective, sensitive high water mark of their career.

There are still some great pop songs on here, though. When they do their plasticky rhythmic pop thing, like on One of Us , it is right on the money in terms of its craft, it’s irressistable pop perfection. The title track is another good one and reminded me a bit of Madonna’s Ray of Light.

The lyrics, like the music, have their good moments and their bad. Some of their lyrics are well observed and well crafted but there are always enough duds around to make you fail to believe in them (go back to Two For the Price of One for an example of that). Overall, a mixed bag but a fair return of enjoyable moments.
66

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
60

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

When pop goes dark

1-9

The 'break up' album, the title track is a great piece of sytnth disco with lyrics about a KGB dissident. Some fragile songwriting amongst more usual Abba poppy fare.

Nice arse on that blonde one though?
58

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

Beards and Bottoms