The Visitors (ABBA album)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: 30 November 1981 | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Super Trouper1980The Singles: The First Ten Years1982studioThe VisitorsABBA - The Visitors (Polar).jpgABBA30 November 198116 March – 14 November 1981Polar, StockholmPop37:39* Polar

• Epic (1981 UK release)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>* Benny Andersson

• Björn Ulvaeusx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Template:Music ratings The Visitors is the eighth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 30 November 1981.

With The Visitors, ABBA took several steps away from the "lighter" pop music they had recorded previously and the album is often regarded as a more complex and mature effort. The opening track, "The Visitors", with its ominous synthesizer sounds and the distinctive lead vocal by Frida, announced a change in musical style. With Benny and Frida going their separate ways, the pain of splitting up was explored yet again in "When All Is Said and Done". The major hit single on the album, "One of Us", also depicted the end of a love story. Elsewhere there were Cold War themes—highly topical at the time—and further songs of isolation and regret.

The Visitors was one of the first albums to be digitally recorded and mixed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Visitors was also one of the earliest to be manufactured commercially on compact disc, it was released after 52nd Street by Billy Joel (the first available in this format).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Visitors has been reissued in digitally remastered form four times—first in 1997, then in 2001, again in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set and most recently in 2012, as part of the "Deluxe Edition" series.

For four decades, The Visitors stood as ABBA's last studio album, until the release of their 2021 album, Voyage.

Recording and release

Recording began on what was to become ABBA's eighth studio album on March 16, 1981.<ref>Magnus Palm, C: "ABBA The Complete Recording sessions", page 106. Century 22 Ltd, 1994</ref> By this time, tensions in ABBA had heightened. Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog had divorced in July 1980, while the band's other couple, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, announced their divorce in February 1981, adding strain to the musical partnership. Ulvaeus mentioned in retrospect that the sessions were troubled, noting, "It could be frosty sometimes." Lyngstad also commented that they were beginning to tire of working together.<ref>Magnus Palm, C: "Bright Lights, Dark shadows", page 444. Omnibus Press, 2001</ref>

The members of ABBA and their personnel have memories of the recording sessions for this album being rather difficult. To begin with, their sound engineer Michael Tretow had to become accustomed to using the new 32-track digital recorder that had been purchased for Polar Music Studios. He said, "Digital recording...cut out all the hiss, but it also meant that sounds were sharply cut off below a certain level. The sound simply became too clean, so I had to find ways of compensating for that". The first three tracks for the album had already been recorded using analogue tape and therefore Tretow had to transfer all subsequent tracks from digital to analogue and back again to avoid a difference in quality.<ref>Magnus Palm, C: "ABBA The Complete Recording sessions", page 109. Century 22 Ltd, 1994</ref>

On its release, The Visitors reached the top of the charts in a number of territories but was not as successful as the band's previous albums.<ref>Magnus Palm, C: "Bright Lights, Dark shadows", page 446. Omnibus Press, 2001</ref>

On 1 December 2023, The Visitors was reissued as a multi-format release for its delayed 40th anniversary celebration.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It included: a double-LP half-speed mastered version of the album, done by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, pressed on 45rpm 180g black vinyl; a colored vinyl 7" singles box set of "Head Over Heels", "One of Us", "The Day Before You Came", and "Under Attack" (the latter two being from The Singles: The First Ten Years); and individual 7" picture discs of these four singles.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Deluxe edition

The Visitors was reissued on 23 April 2012, as a CD an DVD deluxe edition set.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first disc consisted of a remastered version of the original album, with seven bonus tracks.<ref name=":0" /> Featured among them were: a version of "Should I Laugh or Cry" with a brief count-in, from the original United Kingdom and South African 7" release; "I Am the City", recorded in 1982 and released in 1993, on More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits; and, particularly, the 9-minute demo medley "From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This collection of demos, put together by Benny Andersson, showcased the evolution of "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room", offered insights into ABBA's recording process, and was, at the time, the first release of unheard archive material since 1994's Thank You for the Music box set.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

The second disc included the following television material: the performances of "Two for the Price of One" and "Slipping Through My Fingers" from the Dick Cavett Meets ABBA special; the original promo clip of "When All Is Said and Done"; two promotional appearances by the band, from The Late, Late Breakfast Show (BBC) and Nöjesmaskinen (SVT), titled "ABBA In London, November 1982" and "ABBA In Stockholm, November 1982", respectively; four television commercials: two for The Visitors and two for The Singles: The First Ten Years; and the "International Sleeve Gallery".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> The set also came with a 24-page booklet with an essay on the making of the album.<ref name=":1" />

Pitchfork reviewed this deluxe reissue on 18 May 2012, and gave it an 8.6 rating, saying "even as the band's commercial star faded and its professional relationships quietly unravelled, they were perfectionists. ABBA's music on The Visitors is more pristine and ambitious than it had ever been, its themes darker, its personal politics more tangled".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An April 2012 review by The Arts Desk said that "The Visitors is not their best, but it is their most interesting [album], pointing to where Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson would go next".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Album cover

File:Skansen Julius Kronberg studio.jpg

The studio of Julius Kronberg at Skansen in Stockholm.

Rune Söderqvist, who had worked with the band on previous designs, was put in charge of the artwork, and came up with an "angel" concept that was based on the album's title and its closing track "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room".<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":5">Magnus Palm, C: "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows", page 445. Omnibus Press, 2001</ref> The next step was to develop this concept into an idea. As he recalled, "I knew that the painter Julius Kronberg had painted a lot of angels in his time... so I located his studio – at the Skansen park [in Stockholm] – which contained several of his paintings".<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> With photographer Lasse Larsson's help, Söderqvist gathered the band in Kronberg's atelier (in a room with paintings of Eros) and photographed them with a giant painting of an angel as the backdrop.<ref name=":4" />

In the album cover, the group members are positioned apart and appear to be waiting solemnly in the shadows. It was the first time the members were depicted as separate individuals rather than a close-knit group, conveying ABBA's general sense of fatigue.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />

Julius Kronberg's Atelje (atelier), where the album cover's photo-shoot took place, is located in Skansen Park, Stockholm.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listing

All tracks are written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Template:Track listing

Deluxe edition

Released on 12 April 2012. The tracks "No hay a quien culpar" and "Se me está escapando" (the Spanish versions of "When All Is Said and Done" and "Slipping Through My Fingers", respectively), featured on the Spanish and Latin American versions of the album, were not included on this reissue. Instead, they could be found on The Complete Studio Recordings and the 2014 deluxe edition of Gracias Por La Música.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

All tracks are written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Template:Track listing Template:Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

ABBA

• Anni-Frid Lyngstad – lead vocals (1, 3, 5, 9), backing vocals
• Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals (2, 4, 6, 8), backing vocals
• Björn Ulvaeus – acoustic guitars, lead vocals (7), backing vocals
• Benny Andersson – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Ola Brunkert – drums
• Per Lindvall – drums (1, 4)
• Åke Sundqvist – percussion
• Rutger Gunnarsson – bass guitar
• Lasse Wellander – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
• Jan Kling – flute (5), clarinet (5)
• The Three Boys – mandolins (6)

Production

• Benny Andersson; Björn Ulvaeus – producers, arrangers
• Michael B. Tretow – engineer
• Rune Söderqvist – album design
• Lars Larsson – photography (at Julius Kronbergs Atelje, Skansen, Stockholm)

Charts

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart (1981–82)	Peak position
Argentinian Albums (CAPIF)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	5
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name="auchart">Template:Cite book</ref>	22
Belgian Albums (HUMO)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	2
Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	23
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref name="Jachart">Template:Cite book</ref>	12
Portuguese Albums (Musica & Son)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1
Spanish Albums (El Gran Musical)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	6
US Record World Albums<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	37
Chart (2012)	Peak position
Chart (2021)	Peak position

Year-end charts

Chart (1981)	Position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	4
UK Albums (OCC)<ref name="UKYearend">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	17
Chart (1982)	Position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	73
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	14
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	19
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	18
UK Albums (OCC)<ref name="UKYearend"/>	55

External links

• The Visitors (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• In Focus: The Making of The Visitors at the official ABBA website