When i first got this cd on alumb i played the heck out of it and it still sounds good but not as it does now and when i seen it had extra tracks on this cd i knew i just had to have it.
Rondall
May 30, 2008 |  | Surprisingly complex like a good cabarnet... |  |
I first heard "The Visitors" 25 years ago cruising around w/friends in college, and I remember my friend Diane warning us that this Abba tape would trip us out...the intro "sounds like Rush", I remember her saying. And for a guy who preferred hard rock and metal, I was intrigued. The melodies and the lyrics made you realize this wasn't the overproduced numbers that ABBA was famous for pop audiences in the US; it was mature in lyrics and its styling. Years later I bought the CD, and I can say it's one of my favorites when I'm in the mood for something somber and reflective - check it out if you don't have it.
May 13, 2008The Visitors was ABBA's last studio album, and there is a sombre mood which sets it apart. But it is a true masterpiece! One song in particular transcends pop music. I Let The Music Speak explores the nature of creativity itself. It sees the composer as a medium through which music passes. It assumes music (art) to have a pre-existence and that we merely tune into it. The song hints of music's capacity to evoke emotions and to enhance reality. Music reconciles. Note the imagery. Streets take the artist from the city into the country. Dry leaves imply death. She is lost in a valley, a depression, blind. Her inspiration is gone. Sleep, death, writer's block. Music rescues her. Again, sexual imagery. Music is her lover. "I take it to me and let it flow through me." Music is life itself, the voice of God! This is ABBA's most elegant song. Painting, poetry and music merge.
February 21, 2008 |  | Edgy ABBA? Yeah, a bit, and a great final studio album..... |  |
I have 2 ABBA albums, the box set Thank You for The Music, and this one. I really like this one, their final album (I doubt there will ever be a reunion). It has a lot of sadness in it (the romantic liasons in the band were coming apart by this time), and it gives the songs a dark edge to them, something that is noticably missing in other ABBA albums. I love the title track. It's one of my favorite ABBA tracks with an edge of darkness to it, yet it's still a great pop song. Head Over Heals and One of Us are great pop ABBA classics, and I love the closer (at least on the original album ) Like an Angel Passing Through My Room. It's a sad, sad lullaby song, a worthy closer to ABBA's darkest album. This reiusse has The Day Before You Came and Under Attack, which was ABBA's last single (A-Side and B-Side). I love both those songs, and I'm glad this edition has them. Obviously, if you're an ABBA completist, you have to have this one, but those who are even slightly interested in ABBA should pick it up too.
January 29, 2008 |  | These Visitors are welcome to stay forever. |  |
The Visitors is a throbbing, harmnonizing wall of sound entwined with sparkling vocals. It is an exquisite, endorphin releasing tapestry laced with Agnetha's catalytic yearning. She spins a shimmering thread throughout.
September 29, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...