The visitors by Abba-The greatest song ever?

Everybody knows that.

The free MM book Eyeball Kicks refers to is 'unknown pleasures'; I too would like to know if it were available somewhere online... I'm not sure that it is.

Agnetha looks exactly like my mum in that clip. The only thing more unnerving than that is the lyrics:

I must have picked up a piece of pa-a-aper
ooo-ooh ooo-ooh
And then I sat on the sofa and crossed my le-e-egs
ooo-ooh ooo-ooh
And then I had a drink of the coffee from my cu-u-up
ooo-ooh ooo-ooh

Mentalist.

Here's the piece mentioned in the original post: one two three four

that article really gets it

this album is a masterpiece and it's time to listen to it again RIGHT NOW

{it is perhaps worth noting that, during sessions for "The Visitors", Abba worked periodically on a "strident" instrumental piece variously known as "Anthem" and, uh, "Nationalsang", before deciding it "was not a suitable song for an Abba album").

Many thanks; I've been looking for this article for ages.

I hadn't heard this (or indeed any Abba album) before coming across the article, but we picked up the eight-album box set in hmv for £15(!) last weekend. I've only had on The Visitors so far, but it is pretty excellent. 'Head Over Heels' is outstanding.

heh i just bumped this: ABBA - Soldiers

"slightly worn but dignified and not too old for sex"

it's a shame they broke up after this. it's an amazing album and points in a lot of interesting directions. oh well.

under attack is also the greatest ABBA song

i often agree.

its b-side is terrific, also ('you owe me one')

yeah, i like the drum machine on that one. and all the different ways they managed to sneak reggae borrowings into their last few years of recording.

i guess "sneak" isn't the right word, since they're pretty obvious.

well, sometimes obvious, not always. less obvious in "you owe me one." anyway, i'll shut up now.

it *is* a shame they broke up. Can you even imagine a 1982-1989 ABBA???

I tried to pretend there was by listening to Frida's and Agnetha's albums, and that premise starts out strong but ends poorly.

oh yeah 'you owe me one' is pure <3<3<3

I could do with some Visitors lovin about now.

Whoever mentioned the reggae references upthread is OTM. Name Of The Game always struck me as a reggae tune. Also, how amazing is the bassline on One Of Us? I sometimes listen to it just to hear the bassline.

Also - the little moog-y breakdown in Under Attack is my favourite bit in any Abba song.

I know Abba only in singles form, but "One of Us" is a joyously fantastic toon to be sure.

I just listened to the Visitors album for the first time and I'm kind of stunned at how good it is. So full of interesting melodies and pathos. Shouldn't this be considered a masterpiece?

This song truly is amazeballs!

Welcome to the Visitors Club Josefa

Super Trouper is a masterpiece as well. Was thinking of polling the two albums but it seems a bit pointless tbqh

They've already been polled separately

Plus the big Abba poll was only in June, and decided definitively that Lay All Your Love On Me is the best track from those two albums.

Yeah and not nearly enough people voted in it tho I totally understand why people don't vote in those monster polls, I avoid most of them

All good points and reasons why I didn't (though I wasn't talking about tracks, I just meant polling them against each other)

And they've put the singles "The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack," plus "Cassandra" on the CD which makes something great greater.

I guess everybody knew that.. I have to pay more attention to these polls.

It's weird to me that The Day Before You Came wasn't already on the album, it's so perfect for it.

^Yes! It completely blends in with the rest.

Super Trouper is a masterpiece as well.

― that's the way to choke a jiving spirit (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, November 24, 2012 9:00 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's a very good album. 'Me and I' is one particular song on there that I think is an absolute gem. Love those harmonies on 'On And On And On', too.

I'm beginning to think that Super Trouper is their best album, first side is one stunner after another,--even "Andante, Andante" is great--second side leans heavily on their treacly side but is redeemed by the album's true masterpiece, the aforementioned "Lay All Your Love on Me"

Hold up, there was an ABBA Poll? Where was I? Where is it?

You can POLL, you can jive, having the time of your life -- ILM Artist Poll #20 -- ABBA (RESULTS THREAD)

I'm beginning to think that Super Trouper is their best album

Hmmmmm. It has got "Winner Takes It All" and "Lay All Your Love On Me" on it, as well as the title track and "On And On And On" but I don't really like much else and "The Piper" is one of their all time worst tracks.

The Visitors is such a great album, but what the hell is "Two for the Price of One" doing on it? It totally kills the mood, this song about a special offer on callgirls.

It has it's supporters! If you look at the poll page.

It got one vote, and the only person who mentioned it on the thread was Geir!

I just don't get why it would even occur to someone to write a lyric like that. And then to put it to a jaunty tune and place it after "One of Us" seems genuinely psychopathic.

Ah, maybe it was on another page but I remember it getting quite a bit of praise (I agree with you by the way, but maybe they thought the album was a bit doomy and downbeat and needed a bit of preking up)

Oh yeah, I was looking at the Visitors poll rather than the general one linked to above.

i think you don't quite get the lyric for that song

Yeah, it's not about callgirls

basically it's about a lonely hearts ad with this odd, tantalising "two for the price of one" tag but the joke is it's the woman's mother, i've always assumed she's saying that any relationship won't work out unless you're willing to love/take on her mom - not in a sexy times way at all.

it's a silly one-joke song but the tune's good and you cd argue thematically it's in with a lot of the album's sense of more mature relationships breaking apart/beginning again

There was a link in I think the poll voting thread to an article from the 70s where the NME deigns to cover multi-million-selling Abba, and the NME douche sent to interview them gets all critical of the lyrics and how they need to make them better; and Benny and Bjorn just stay all polite, thanking for the advice and promising to try harder in future. That still kills me.

I do get the lyric, and yeah in a sense it is obviously about loneliness, compromise etc, but in another sense it has lines like "He read the matrimonial advertising pages / The cries for help from different people different ages" and "He called the number and a voice said 'Alice Whiting' / The voice was husky and it sounded quite exciting" and "He said, 'I read your ad it sounded rather thrilling' / I think a meeting could be mutually fulfilling" which take Abba's usual goofiness too far for this album. I mean, you could say "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was about loneliness too.

But also this makes sense:

likng Visitors best = liking Abba but being scared of cheese BUT cheese is the point of Abba, or rather without the cheese the heartbreak is just heartbreak and you can go get that off Ryan Adams.

― Tom, Monday, February 4, 2002 1:00 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

from this thread

I don't mind the cheese, it's the schmaltz I'm wary of

Is there really such a thing as listening to something for the "wrong" reasons? I'm not a hueg fan of ABBA's cheesier moments, I must admit; I mean, I don't outright dislike that stuff but it's generally not an aesthetic I go for, whereas Visitors/Super Trouper stuff does something for me that I've been unable to find in pretty much any music around. I don't think another act could really pull it off quite like that.

I don't bracket Visitors and Super Trouper at all btw

Soldiers ftw but one of us kills me

Just listened to The Visitors a few days ago and it's still as perfect as ever. Slipping Through My Fingers vs the title track for me. I've always had a soft spot for Two For The Price Of One as well. Maybe the oddest song they ever did?

the bassline on one of us

Should I laugh or cry is so gorgeous

"i am the city" just came on in the car at random, good jam