The Daily Spin, June 1
ABBA | The Visitors
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: The Visitors (1981)
Artist: ABBA
Link:
ABBA are globally recognized as superstars, power pop shimmering brilliant into the distance, with their scoring work on hits like Mamma Mia! carrying a career that has spanned the better part of five decades at this point.
Swinging between string arrangements that call back to the early Disney films (seriously, the opening to ‘One Of Us’ sounds like it could have come straight from Cinderella) and funky synth-laden pop music that would become the benchmark for ABBA’s trademark sound, The Visitors takes that dichotomy to its relative extrema, enough so that it almost feels as though it’s to the detriment of the album.
The entire album feels a bit like a performance, and while that’s got its positives, I personally feel as though there’s something to be said for being able to turn those dials down.
Rating: 7.1/10
Best Tracks: When All Is Said And Done
Worst Tracks: Head Over Heels