The sound is explicitly reminiscent of the early 80s (that is, digitally recorded), of the kind of music my folks would find affable and hummable if they wanted to be daring and contemporary (at the time), something to nestle in amongst their James Last and Nana Mouskouri albums. Urgh, what taste. But in terms of writing craft and technical studio perfection, all I can say about these Swedes is Damn, they make one with aspirations jealous. They provide clear lessons in songwriting and chorus construction and melodic vocal layering and big-ass walls of pop sound. Big-ass catchy walls of sound, mind you. Maybe not quite as heavy-weight as Arrival, perhaps, but still incredibly full and balanced. And they lay on an adult wisdom-post-suffering nuance that I find very endearing, now that I’m a bit older.

But I guess that we should first consider the final/divorce-album angle. Despite all couples having broken up by this stage in the band’s history, I don’t think The Visitors was a clear-cut last effort at unity or the overt swan song in the way that Abbey Road was. I think they were happy to keep riding the Abba juggernaut, happy to look for new themes and approaches. There’s still a strong sense of Benny & Bjorn being in control, of carrying on with the established Abba formula and integrating what may.

From the start, Benny & Bjorn used Agnetha and Frida for their vocal talents in a way that’s reminiscent of session singers. In discovering the power and success of the pairing, in developing their sound as they honed their writing and production skills, there’s almost a growing sense of mutual utility in the band-talent concept. When you look at how adept their promotional work was (the film clips, the media spots, the garish clothing an ultimately — crucially — writing some significant relationship-oriented songs — as little looks into their private lives), there’s a nagging sense that they exploited their own life dramas for pop material. The songs worked, everyone knew they were couples, and it was all within the Abba-theme scope, so when the divorces came around, why shouldn’t B&B write about them. Look at the clips for One of Us and The Winner Takes it All (off Super Trouper) — they’re taking their audience/fans along for the emotional ride. Sure, divorce is somewhat of an exploitable pop tradition, I hear you say — from Marvin Gaye to so much of Phil Collins and a host of others.