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Abba

The Visitors - Polar 1981

Tracks: 1. The Visitors / 2. Head Over Heels / 3. When All Is Said And Done / 4. Soldiers / 5. I Let The Music Speak / 6. One Of Us / 7. Two For The Price Of One / 8. Slipping Through My Fingers / 9. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room / 10. Should I Laugh Or Cry* / 11. I Am The City* / 12. You Owe Me One* / 13. Cassandra* / 14. Under Attack* / 15. The Day Before You Came* / 16. From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel*

Comments:

Abba's final album, "The Visitors", shows that although group members on a personal enough were growing apart, they were as a group still under interesting development. With "The Visitors" greatly influenced the shape of pop music that would come to typify the 1980s. Although most songs are unmistakeably Abba, the sound on several songs, however, has turned towards a more techno-approach, a trend that was continued in the handful of songs that the group recorded for the never finished ninth album.

Among the singles on the album "One of Us" was by far the biggest commercial success, but also "Head Over Heels" and especially "When All is Said and Done" have gone down in history as some of the group's greatest numbers.

Lyrically, it is also clear that the group has more at heart than what might have been the case on the early albums. A song like "Slipping Through My Fingers" is about how fleeting the time you have with your children may occur, a beautiful and moving song. The theme of the breaking up, is well known with Abba, but hardly described as fine and movingly as on "When All is Said and Done".

"Two for the Price of One" is musically a very exciting track - a shame that it was not sung by one of the girls - could then perhaps have made it as a single.

The bonus tracks come from sessions in 1982, with the B-side "Should I Laugh or Cry" derived from "The Visitors" sessions.

As a fantasy an excellent ninth album could have been put together, showing even stronger techno influence to their music. Six songs recorded in 1982 could have formed the backbone of such an album. If supplemented with non-album B-sides "Abba Under Attack" could have have looked like this: 1. Under Attack / 2. You Owe Me One / 3 Just Like That / 4 Should I Laugh or Cry / 5 Just Like That / 6 I Am the City / 7 Elaine / 8 The Day Before You Came / 9 Put On Your White Sombrero. The album would have a playing of app. 40 minutes.

"Just Like That" is the only song that has not yet been released - unfortunately. Different versions can be heard on Youtube.

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