A (Agnetha Fältskog album)

A
Studio album by Agnetha Fältskog
Released	10 May 2013 (2013-05-10)
Recorded	January–October 2012
Genre	Pop, easy listening
Length	38:37
Label	Universal
Producer	Jörgen Elofsson, Peter Nordahl
Agnetha Fältskog chronology
My Very Best (2008) A (2013)
Singles from A
"The One Who Loves You Now" Released: 11 March 2013 "When You Really Loved Someone" Released: 11 March 2013 "Dance Your Pain Away" Released: 15 July 2013 "I Should've Followed You Home" Released: 18 November 2013

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(6.2/10) 62/100, 8 critics
Review scores
Source	Rating
Aftonbladet	link
Allmusic	2013
Attitude	link
Evening Chronicle	link
Expressen	link
The Independent	link
Q	link
Rolling Stone Germany	link
Svenska Dagbladet	link
The Press	link
The Telegraph	link
The Times	link

A is the fifth English language studio album by Swedish recording artist Agnetha Fältskog, formerly a member of the group ABBA. It is her twelfth studio album overall.

A is Fältskog's first album since 2004's My Colouring Book, an album of cover versions of her favourite songs from the 1960s, and the first original material she has 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."^[1]

Ten tracks were recorded for the album, all of which were written or co-written by Elofsson.

Song information

The lead single from the album is "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."^[1] The song had its radio premiere on 21 April on a Dutch radio station.^[2]

"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.

"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—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'."^[1]

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".^[1]

Promotion

Personal appearances

Fältskog appeared on stage at G-A-Y in London on Saturday, 4 May 2013 to promote the album. Although she did not perform, ten 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. The show was filmed on 14 March 2013 and aired the next day.^[3][4]
• The Seven Network in Australia aired a special edition of the programme Sunday Night at 6:30pm on Sunday 5 May 2013 focussing 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 in the middle of April, entitled "Agnetha: Abba and After", which aired in the UK on 11 June.^[5] 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 in Australia in prime time on 2 July 2013, sending the album back up to number 5 in Australia.
• Whilst in London in late April/early May, Fältskog was interviewed by Patricia Schäfer for German TV station ZDF. On May 2 the interview was broadcast on several TV programs, most prominently the society report Leute Heute.^[6]

Press and print media

The May edition of UK gay publication Attitude 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, Twitter and YouTube.

Reception

The BBC called A a "tasteful and sumptuous" mid-tempo album . The disco song "Dance Your Pain Away" was marked as the only exception to the general tempo, its bassline reminiscent of ABBA's "Voulez-Vous".^[7] In a review of the album, The Times in Britain gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "A is a triumphant return to form by a woman presumed lost to music forever".^[8] Helen Brown awards the album 3 out of 5 stars in a review in the Telegraph. She describes the album as "as beautifully boring as ever".^[9]

Other news services, such as the German newspaper Die Zeit, highlight Agnetha's voice, which still sounds young and fresh and "like a young Agnetha would sound today".^[10]

The album has been certified with Gold and Platinum record awards two month after its release in Australia (35,000 copies), the UK (100,000 copies), Germany (100,000) and Sweden (50,000 copies). In 2015 after several returns to the various charts in different territories the album now has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

Track listing

Commentary for each track by Agnetha and producer Jörgen Elofsson was made available with the release of A on Spotify.

Personnel

Credits for A

• Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals (primary artist), background vocals

Production crew

• Jörgen Elofsson – producer, recording engineer, vocal arrangements
• Peter Nordahl – producer, arranger and conductor (orchestra)
• Jess Sutcliffe – mixing
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Janne Hansson – recording engineer
• Micke Herrström – recording engineer
• Lasse Nilsson – recording engineer
• Michael Dahlvid – assistant engineer
• Gustaf Berg – assistant engineer

Musicians

• Mattias Torell – guitars
• Peter Nordahl – piano
• Max Lorentz – organ
• Gunnar Nordén – bass, guitars
• Per Lindvall – drums

Additional musicians

• Per Wästerlund – keyboards and programming
• Simon Petrén – keyboards and programming
• Fredrik Thomander – keyboards and programming, guitars
• Jesper Jacobson – keyboards, guitars
• Niklas Sunden – accordion
• Stefan Ohlsson – guitars
• Gary Barlow – vocals on 5

Background vocals

• Janet Leon
• Myrra Malmberg
• Jeanette Ohlsson
• Jörgen Elofsson
• Fredrik Thomander
• Linda Ulvaeus

Charts

Certifications

Total worldwide sales at 1.1.2015 = 1 million copies sold

Release history

References