My Whole World Is Falling

Throughout the 1970s, ABBA were pretty much the most popular group in the whole world. They sung about historic battles (in a nice way), dancing queens and stuff. It was all very well done, and very shiny, and very, very nice.

They got married to each other, wore fetching knitwear, sported facial hair, and were all very nice, which in turn inspired fanaticism that bordered on the religious in its innocence.

When they got to the 1980s, as is often the case where apparent perfection has reigned, things were falling apart, cracking at the seams, but they carried on.

In 1981 they made their last album together. Set amongst divorces settled and in progress, re-marriages and recriminations, The Visitors wasn’t very nice. The shininess was still there, and the smiles were painted on, but things had changed, distinct divisions were visible where before there was one polygamous whole.

Songs about loss, loneliness and paranoia replace the nonsense of before, as we witness a group of people falling apart before our eyes, played out in public at their own request.

It’s still ABBA, and obviously so, but the title track goes beyond anything they did before – synths, vocoders, verse and chorus bolted together, sounding like the long lost pop song Neu! and Vangelis never wrote, and about the fear and terror that comes from plotting in secret against a stronger force – it’s been said the lyrics are set in a context of resistance against Soviet rule, but it could quite easily be seen as a very human battle.

It is also my favourite song today. You can get the album on the cheap from lots of places, I got it for a fiver the other day. Nice.

ABBA - The Visitors