The Visitor
The concept album: fourteen tracks, many of them short, with Paul Wrightson singing.
Arena, 1998
- Released
- 20 April 1998
- Recorded
- September 1997 to January 1998
- Studio
- Thin Ice Studios, Surrey
- Label
- Verglas Music
- Producer
- Clive Nolan, Simon Hanhart
Recorded at Thin Ice Studios in Surrey between September 1997 and January 1998, produced by Nolan and Simon Hanhart, mixed by Hanhart and mastered at Abbey Road by Chris Blair. Nolan wrote the lyrics, and the music is credited to Nolan, Jowitt, Mitchell and Pointer. Hugh Syme handled the art direction and design, and the CD came with a 20-page lyrics booklet.
Jurriaan Hage reviewed it in July 1998 and heard that it had outsold Pride in its first two weeks. He found the band taking in more ingredients than before: acoustic pieces that reminded him of Genesis, a more thematic and less song-directed approach, and some room for sound experiments. He called Serenity an instrumental that points toward Pink Floyd and said the title track closes the record in a seventies Genesis style, with a tremendous guitar solo at the end. He judged that most of the music was still recognizably Arena.
Track listing
- A Crack in the Ice7:25
- Pins and Needles2:46
- Double Vision4:24
- Elea2:36
- The Hanging Tree7:09
- A State of Grace3:26
- Blood Red Room1:47
- In the Blink of an Eye5:29
- (Don't Forget To) Breathe3:40
- Serenity2:10
- Tears in the Rain5:43
- Enemy Without5:05
- Running from Damascus3:44
- The Visitor6:13
Personnel
- Paul Wrightson vocals
- John Mitchell guitar, backing vocals
- Clive Nolan keyboards, backing vocals, producer, engineer
- John Jowitt bass, backing vocals
- Mick Pointer drums
- Simon Hanhart producer, engineer, mixing
- Mike Stobbie assistant producer
- Chris Blair mastering
- Hugh Syme art direction and design
More from Arena
Songs from the Lion's Cage (1995), Pride (1996), Immortal? (2000), Contagion (2003), Pepper's Ghost (2005), The Seventh Degree of Separation (2011), The Unquiet Sky (2015), Double Vision (2018), The Theory of Molecular Inheritance (2022)
Sources
- Arena: The Visitor, Discogs
- The Visitor review, Jurriaan Hage (1998-07)