A is the first album from Agnetha Fältskog--the ABBA songstress--for nine years, and the first album of original material since 1987. Agnetha has been working with renowned, Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Jorgen Elofsson (esponsible for hits by Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson among others) and acclaimed producer/arranger Peter Nordahl. The album features 10 tracks, including lead track "When You Really Loved Someone", "I Should've Followed You Home"--a duet with Gary Barlow--and "I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed", one of Agnetha first co-writes in many years
B**S
A for Agnetha!
Wow! What an incredible album! You’ve asked for a review of this album.Its now a week ago I have received and listened to the CD.It looks very promising. Your picture on the cover is lovely. As are the pictures inside. The booklet is made with care and quality. By the way, Per Lindvall is very familiar name on the credit list... And very great to hear Linda on the background again.Its getting better and better. At first, I had to get used to the way you are singing the songs. It is so much better then on the other albums you have made. Every song has a different approach concerning the singing. Now it sound very very good. On all songs you are singing the words very clear. I like that! The music is very good and positive and warmth. Also in your voice you can hear the warmth and positive sound and such a quality! You have sung the songs in a convincing way I like to listen to. The lyrics are all great and to the point.The One Who Loves You Now is a very lovely song. With a simple melody line but with a very strong singing part by you. I like this one from the start.When You Really Loved Someone has a very nice intro and in the middle it’s getting very joyful and happy. Great hit and wonderful video clip.Perfume In The Breeze. At first I had to get used to this one. But now it’s a very wonderful track. The music is very joyful and very positive.I Was A Flower, the delicate of this song is very present and you sung it on the spot.I Should’ve Followed You Home, This is a great duet, sung by two great artists. Melody line is powerful and beautiful. With great up-tempo pieces in it. The warmth is very present.Past Forever came to me today, a week later, as a great song. You sung this song very delicate and beautiful.Dance You Pain Away, that’s a masterpiece, influenced by ABBA, I like that very much. It has also much of its own. Very positive and energetic song and it gets me dancing. Your voice is very srong on this number. And the orchestra is magnificent!Bubble is very good piece. The experiment you made with you voice worked very very well. It makes the song very special.Back On Your Radio also a song what didn’t get to me right a way. But now its a great song. And sung it beautifully. Your voice on this number sounds a bit different, but I like it now very much.I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed. Yes, you still got it. To write such a great song.I really like to listen to it. Music is super and the words fits very well.I feel very lucky to listen to your music. As Benny mentioned It IS your BEST work ever!I can say it is true as I know all your albums, those are pearls. But this CD beats them all!Thank You For The Music
J**W
Agnetha Faltskog - the Queen of Pop is back!
This is a triumphant return by the girl with the golden hair - ABBA's legendary blonde diva. Her unforgettable voice is in pristine condition, maturity giving it even more colours, expression and subtleties than in her ABBA days, yet still - astonishingly - as fresh and clear as Nordic spring water, and often heart stoppingly beautiful.Few other singers in the history of pop can match her particular ability to deliver a poignant lyric in such a memorable and touching way; a unique mixture of vulnerability, innocence, yearning, and sexiness. Her disarming Swedish accent - so familiar from her ABBA recordings - only heightens the appeal. Agnetha can make any song immediately hers; it is an instantly recognisable voice and in technical terms, her breathing, pitch, phrasing and diction in this "torchy" repertoire are all unparalleled in modern pop music. Forget Kylie, Madonna and co.; this is the real deal - she is, simply, a living legend.Jorgen Oleffson's bespoke songs, with contributions by, amongst others, Carole Bayer-Sager and Gary Barlow, are by and large worthy of her talents, presented in sweeping and sophisticated arrangements. There is nothing to alarm ABBA fans here, just a good mix of timeless ballads, disco numbers and nostalgic pop.The two early singles, The One Who Loves You Now, and When You Really Love Someone, are far from the best things on the album, albeit delivered with heartfelt conviction. I Was A Flower might have sounded sentimental in less skilful hands, but here become a painful anthem to the loss of innocence, genuinely moving. The retro Dance Your Pain Away sounds like the disco love-child of Voulez-Vous, and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, capturing exactly the swirling hedonistic atmosphere of the late 70s. The implicit lyric will surely make this a huge hit in gay clubs all over the world.The bitter-sweet duet with Gary Barlow I Should Have Followed You Home has a dark sense of regret; a hint, perhaps, of The Day Before You Came. The two voices blend perfectly. Several other tracks - Past Forever, Perfume In The Breeze and the unlikely title of Bubble (Agnetha's favourite on the album) - are tinged with a similarly haunting atmosphere of sadness. They inevitably reinforce the fantasy of Faltskog as a lonely, rejected, heartbroken women - mainly because she brings such pathos to her generous performances. The balance is then redressed with the cheery Back on your Radio, a piece of pure bubble-gum pop.The final track, I Leave Them On The Floor Beside My Bed, is also noteworthy; it's Agnetha's own composition, her first for a quarter of a century. It's another wistful, melancholic theme, the sort of nostalgic wallow so suited to her fragile, plaintive voice. Who else cries with the voice like Agnetha?This is a tremendous return to form, without doubt her most successful English language solo album. If she never recorded again (we must hope she does, but she is, after all, 63 years old), she could still rest assured that she had concluded her remarkable career on a genuine high.
A**E
A superb album of new material. What a fantastic surprise!
This is a real treat, one of those rare gems of an album that you can enjoy listening to again and again. Agnetha's voice has matured, sounding a little deeper and warmer, but she has lost none of her ability to tug at the heartstrings and convey a real depth of emotion. There is an interesting array of influences on display here, everything from sixties pop songs and the Carpenters (Past Forever), to Disco (Dance Your Pain Away) and Jazz (the Hammond organ on Bubble is simply stunning). The duet with Gary Barlow is a real highlight, whilst the opening and closing tracks are pure Agnetha. Listening on vinyl, you realise that this is sequenced as a traditional '70s album, 5 tracks per side, total running time just under 40 minutes, and that experience of listening to a new work exactly as the artist wanted you to hear it is something special. Elofsson & Nordahl have clearly given some thought to the production, with the lush strings from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the use of analogue synths mixed with modern production techniques creating a really cosy feeling, A great piece of work, and for those of you who are left wanting more go and listen to My Colouring Book from 2004, a personal selection of '60s covers by Agnetha that is a wonderful listen, produced by Michael Tretow, ABBA's production engineer.
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