''A'' is the fifth English-language studio album by Swedish singer
Agnetha Fältskog, a member of the group
ABBA
ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...
. It is her twelfth studio album overall.
''A'' is Fältskog's first album since 2004's ''
My Colouring Book
''My Colouring Book'' is the eleventh studio album released by Swedish singer-songwriter Agnetha Fältskog. It is her fourth album recorded in English and was her first album release for 17 years, and was well received by ABBA fans, as well as t ...
'', an album of
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s of her favourite songs from the 1960s, and the first original material she had recorded since ''
I Stand Alone'' in 1987. It also includes her first self-penned track in nearly 30 years, "I Keep Them on the Floor Beside My Bed" .
Album information
As Fältskog was not an active recording artist at the time, the album happened in a roundabout way. "The project came about through a good friend of mine", she explained. "She called me up and told me that
Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl wanted to play me some music. They came to my house and played me three songs and I thought, 'Oh my God, I have to do this'. It felt like a challenge."
Ten tracks were recorded for the album at Atlantis Studio (
sv),
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, all of which were written or co-written by Elofsson.
Speaking with author
Paul Stenning
Paul David Stenning (born 12 June 1976) is an English author, ghostwriter and poet. He has written twenty-nine books, of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and biography. The best-known of his books is ''The Robert Pattinson Album'', a biography of R ...
, Elofsson explained, "Agnetha is not just any artist, she is an icon with a rich heritage. We really felt the pressure of making something great, we didn't want to destroy anything for ABBA or Agnetha given the reputation they've built over the years. I'm really happy to say I think we pulled it off!"
Song information
The lead single from the album was "
When You Really Loved Someone", which was released worldwide on 11 March 2013 as a
digital download, with a
CD single following on 15 April. A video clip for the song was filmed in late 2012, with Max Fowler and Camilla Rowling co-starring with Fältskog. In Germany and Austria the lead single was "
The One Who Loves You Now", also released on 11 March 2013.
The track "I Should've Followed You Home" is a duet recorded with
Gary Barlow of the British group
Take That. Both artists recorded their vocal parts separately, as Fältskog was on holiday at the time of Barlow's recording session. Nevertheless, Fältskog stated, "I think our voices work so well together."
The song had its radio premiere on 21 April on a
Dutch radio station.
"I Was a Flower" is a string-attached piano ballad, produced and performed in a theatrical way. On 22 April, the song was made available for download only through
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
.
"I Keep Them on the Floor Beside My Bed" is the first track Fältskog has written herself that has been released since "
I Won't Let You Go"—the lead single from her 1985 album ''
Eyes of a Woman
''Eyes of a Woman'' is the second English-language solo studio album by Swedish singer and former ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog, and her eighth studio album overall. It was released in March 1985.
Background
The album was recorded in the Polar ...
''—and its B-side "You're There". Fältskog commented, "Jorgen kept saying 'You have to write a song for this record'. I hadn't written any music for a long, long time. But I sat at the piano and suddenly it was there. A friend of mine said a lovely thing: 'It's in your spine. Even if you feel tired, when it's time, it will be there'."
Other tracks on the album include the contemplative "Bubble", the disco "Dance Your Pain Away", the pop "Back on Your Radio", and the piano-led "Past Forever".
Promotion
Personal appearances
Fältskog appeared on stage at
G-A-Y in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on 4 May 2013 to promote the album. Although she did not perform, 10 fans had the chance to meet her backstage after the appearance. On 1 August 2013 she appeared on stage at Stockholm Gay Pride, where she was presented with her Gold record award for sales of the album in Sweden.
In the same week of the announcement of her album release, Fältskog was a guest on the Norwegian-Swedish television talk show ''
Skavlan
''Skavlan'' was a Norwegian-Swedish television talk show hosted by Norwegian journalist Fredrik Skavlan. It premiered in Sweden on Sveriges Television (SVT) in January 2009, and the first guests to appear on the show were former Prime Minister o ...
''. The show was filmed on 14 March 2013 and aired the next day.
The
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
in Australia aired a special edition of the programme ''
Sunday Night'' at 6:30pm on 5 May 2013 focusing on Fältskog and including new interview material shot in Sweden in late April. A television commercial for the album was shown as well. Due to popular demand, the programme showed other unaired portions of the interview on 12 May 2013.
Fältskog filmed a documentary for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
in mid-April, titled ''Agnetha: Abba and After'', which aired in the UK on 11 June. Afterwards the album returned to the UK Top 40, w/e June 16, 2013, to its peak position of 6, and to a new high of number 9 on the UK Album Download Chart. This special was also aired on the
Nine Network
The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...
in Australia in prime time on 2 July 2013, sending the album back up to number 5 in Australia.
Whilst in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in late April and early May, Fältskog was interviewed by Patricia Schäfer for the German television station
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
. On 2 May, the interview was broadcast on several TV programs, most prominently the society report ''Leute Heute''.
Press and print media
The May edition of UK gay publication ''
Attitude
Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value
* Metaphysics of presence
* Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...
'' magazine featured an extensive new interview with Fältskog. The German gay publication ''Exit'' also featured an interview in April. In the UK and Ireland ''
The Big Issue'' featured Fältskog on the cover of their June edition along with an interview about her life.
Internet and social media
In order to promote the album and its singles, several social media web profiles for Fältskog were created, including pages on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Reception
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
called ''A'' a "tasteful and sumptuous" mid-tempo album; the
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
song "Dance Your Pain Away" was noted as the only exception to the general tempo, its bassline reminiscent of
ABBA
ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...
's "
Voulez-Vous". In a review of the album, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' gave the album four out of five stars, calling ''A'' "a triumphant return to form by a woman presumed lost to music forever". Helen Brown awarded the album three out of five stars in a review in ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'', dubbing the album "as beautifully boring as ever".
Other publications, such as the German newspaper ''
Die Zeit
''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The ...
'', highlighted Fältskog's voice, saying it sounds young and fresh and "like a young Agnetha would sound today".
The album received Gold certifications two months after its release in Australia (35,000 copies), the United Kingdom (100,000 copies), Germany (100,000 copies) and Sweden (20,000 copies).
Track listing
Notes
* Commentary for each track by Fältskog and producer
Jörgen Elofsson was made available with the release of ''A'' on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''A''.
*
Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals, backing vocals
*
Gary Barlow – vocals
* Gustaf Berg – engineering assistance
* Michael Dahlvid – engineering assistance
* Andy Earl – photography
*
Jörgen Elofsson – backing vocals, production, recording, recording engineering, vocal arrangements, vocal conducting
* Janne Hansson – recording engineering
* Micke Herrström – recording engineering
* Jesper Jacobson – guitar, keyboards
*
Janet Leon
Janet Ava Owji (born 19 October 1990), also known by her stage name Janet Leon, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and A&R. Leon began her career as part of the pop group Play, for which she was lead singer 2003–2005. She rose to further promin ...
– backing vocals
* Per Lindvall – drums
*
Max Lorentz
Max Lorentz (born in Täby, November 16, 1962) is a Swedish musician, songwriter and producer.
He has also worked as a session-musician with artists including Ulf Lundell, Sanne Salomonsen, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Skifs, E-Type, Eldkvarn, ...
– organ
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
– mastering
* Myrra Malmberg – backing vocals
* Lasse Nilsson – recording engineering
* Peter Nordahl – orchestra arrangements, orchestra conducting, piano, production
* Gunnar Nordén – bass, guitar
* Jeanette Ohlsson – backing vocals
*
Jeanette Olsson
Jeanette Olsson is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She started working as a session singer in Stockholm in the late 1990s. Olsson has provided accompanying and background vocals on tracks by numerous top-selling artists, from Jennifer Lopez to ...
– guitar
* Simon Petrén – keyboards, programming
* Matt Read – art direction
* Niklas Sundén – accordion
* Jess Sutcliffe – mixing
* Fredrik Thomander – backing vocals, guitar keyboards, programming
* Mattias Torell – guitar
*
Linda Ulvaeus
Linda Elin Ulvaeus (born 23 February 1973) is a Swedish actress and singer. She is the elder child of Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog, members of the pop group ABBA.
Early life
Ulvaeus is the only daughter of Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fä ...
– backing vocals
* Pär Westerlund – keyboards, programming
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:A (Agnetha Faltskog album)
2013 albums
Agnetha Fältskog albums
Polydor Records albums
Verve Records albums