The Visitors (ABBA album)

Recording and release

Following the upcoming divorce of Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, recording began on what was to become ABBA's final studio album on 16 March 1981. Only one month had passed since the announcement of their separation when the group entered the studio.

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.

Ulvaeus also mentioned in retrospect that the recording sessions were troubled. "It could be frosty sometimes," he acknowledged in an interview. Lyngstad also commented that they were beginning to tire of working together.

On its release, The Visitors reached the top of the charts in a number of territories but was not as successful as their previous albums.

Album cover

Rune Söderqvist designed the cover and photographed the group in a room containing Julius Kronberg's painting of Eros. The room is the Atelje Studio in Skansen Park, Stockholm. The group are positioned apart and appear to be waiting solemnly in the shadows.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus.

CD re-issues, bonus tracks

The Visitors album was remastered in 1997 and released with four bonus tracks:

1. "Should I Laugh or Cry"
2. "The Day Before You Came"
3. "Under Attack"
4. "You Owe Me One"
5. B-side to "Under Attack" single

In 2001, a new remastered edition was released with four different bonus tracks:

1. "Should I Laugh or Cry"
2. "The Day Before You Came"
3. "Cassandra"
4. B-side to "The Day Before You Came" single
5. "Under Attack"

In 2005, a third remastered version was released as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set, with bonus tracks

1. "Should I Laugh or Cry"
2. Version with a brief count-in
3. "No hay a quien culpar"
4. Spanish version of "When All Is Said and Done"
5. "Se me está escapando"
6. Spanish version of "Slipping Through My Fingers"
7. "The Day Before You Came"
8. "Cassandra"
9. "Under Attack"
10. "You Owe Me One"

The Visitors was reissued once again in 2008 as part of the The Albums box set but without any bonus tracks.

The Visitors was released as a Deluxe Edition on 23 April 2012. As with previous releases in the Deluxe Edition series, this version of ABBA's final album offered a DVD of archive material along with a CD featuring the original album (although a different mix of "Head Over Heels" was used) and bonus tracks; one of the bonus tracks included was the demo medley "From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel", the first previously unreleased ABBA recordings since 1994.

DVD:

1. "Two for the Price of One" (Dick Cavett Meets ABBA)
2. "Slipping Through My Fingers" (Dick Cavett Meets ABBA)
3. "When All Is Said and Done" (original promotional video)
4. ABBA in London, November 1982 (The Late Late Breakfast Show, BBC)
5. ABBA in Stockholm, November 1982 (Nöjesmaskinen, SVT)
6. The Visitors (TV commercial #1 - UK)
7. The Visitors (TV commercial #2 - Australia)
8. The Singles: The First Ten Years (TV commercial #1 - UK)
9. The Singles: The First Ten Years (TV commercial #2 - Australia)
10. International Sleeve Gallery

Tracks 1–10 & 16 digitally recorded and mixed 16 March – 14 November 1981 at Polar Music Studios, Stockholm, Sweden.
Tracks 11–15 digitally recorded and mixed 3 May – 26 August 1982 at Polar Music Studios, Stockholm, Sweden; scheduled for ninth studio album, which was ultimately not completed.

Reviews of 2012 deluxe edition

Pitchfork Media gave it an 8.6 grade, 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."

The Arts Desk: "The Visitors is not their best, but it is their most interesting [album], pointing to where Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson would go next."

Singles

1. "One of Us"/"Should I Laugh or Cry" (December 1981)
2. "When All is Said and Done"/"Soldiers" (December 1981)
3. "Head over Heels"/"The Visitors" (February 1982)
4. "The Visitors" (single edit)/"Head Over Heels" (March 1982)

Personnel

ABBA

Additional personnel

Production