ABBA singer gets an A* for her solo retake: ADRIAN THRILLS reviews A+ by Agnetha Faltskog
Agnetha Faltskog A+ (BMG)
Verdict: Dancing queen finds a mellow groove
She shuns the limelight and spends much of her time with her extended family in the countryside near Stockholm.
But the success of the Abba Voyage residency in London, where more than a million fans have sung along with her digital 'Abbatar', has clearly reignited something in Agnetha Faltskog.
The 73-year-old no longer sports the glitter-encrusted jumpsuits that were a hallmark of the band's 1970s heyday, but she can still turn super trouper when the fancy takes her. And after hearing one of her old solo hits on the radio, she wondered how it might sound with a modern sheen.
The upshot is A+, a revamped version of her ballad-heavy 2013 solo album, A, that does away with the middle-of-the-road string stylings of the original and replaces them with elegant dance and electronic pop, adding the kind of studio trickery more commonly found on a Dua Lipa or Miley Cyrus record.
As with its 2013 parent album, A+ puts a lot of onus on lyrics written for Agnetha by fellow Swede Jorgen Elofsson
Those expecting the full-throttle disco of Abba hits such as Dancing Queen and Voulez-Vous should be wary, though.
Retaining her original vocals but dispensing with all of the old music, Agnetha and her producer Anton Martensson have opted for mellower grooves, spicing up some decent songs with gentle synth pulses, strummed indie-pop and shuffling Latin rhythms.
As with its 2013 parent album, A+ puts a lot of onus on lyrics written for Agnetha by fellow Swede Jorgen Elofsson.
When You Really Loved Someone — once a bombastic ballad; now fortified by a drum machine and sunny Balearic beats — finds her imploring a heartbroken friend to forget her troubles. 'Break loose, have some fun, let yourself go, come undone,' she urges.
Back in 1980, Agnetha sang the heart-wrenching lead on Abba's The Winner Takes It All, the UK's favourite break-up song, and she plays the lovesick Juliet again here
The 73-year-old no longer sports the glitter-encrusted jumpsuits that were a hallmark of the band's 1970s heyday, but she can still turn super trouper when the fancy takes her
Originally created for a Swedish film about a prostitution scandal, and later used in a campaign against people trafficking, I Was A Flower addresses a loss of innocence, replacing the original arrangement with stripped-down electronics.
The sweet but kitschy Back On Your Radio uses the wireless as a metaphor for romance ('tune into my frequency', she winks).
Back in 1980, Agnetha sang the heart-wrenching lead on Abba's The Winner Takes It All, the UK's favourite break-up song, and she plays the lovesick Juliet again here.
On Perfume In The Breeze, she laments a holiday romance that went wrong; I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed finds her flicking forlornly through old photos.
Her unease extends to the one new song, Where Do We Go From Here?, on which she confesses to 'falling into emotions I've never felt before', on a tune recalling the indie-pop jangle of Natalie Imbruglia.
She eventually finds liberation in a good night out. 'You caught him in the restroom with another one,' she sings on Dance Your Pain Away, before launching into a thumping, auto-tuned disco banger in the tradition of Cher's Believe.
Despite the melancholy, Agnetha still knows how to enjoy herself.
Sufjan Stevens: Javelin (Asthmatic Kitty)
Mixing folky piano, acoustic guitar and epic orchestrations, it's the work of both a superb craftsman and an artist adept at capturing heartfelt emotion
Verdict: Songwriting tour de fouce
You never quite know what to expect from Sufjan Stevens. The prolific Detroit singer has roots in indie-folk and chamber music, but he has also written four ballet scores, dipped into electronic pop and recorded nearly 100 Christmas songs.
He once set about making an album for each of America's 50 states but gave up after just two (Michigan and Illinois).
He finally brings these different strands — or rather everything bar the Christmas thread and the 48 remaining U.S. states — together on his new album Javelin, a songwriting tour de force that cements his position as a modern-day Paul Simon.
Mixing folky piano, acoustic guitar and epic orchestrations, it's the work of both a superb craftsman and an artist adept at capturing heartfelt emotion.
Last month Stevens was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, that has left him unable to walk
'You know I love you, but everything heaven-sent must burn out in the end,' he sings on Goodbye Evergreen, one of several meditations on grief and loss that begin gently, in this case on piano, before building into a wall of symphonic sound.
My Red Little Fox, which also opens on piano, develops into a Disney Fantasia. Everything That Rises has a spiritual air.
Last month Stevens was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, that has left him unable to walk.
He is undergoing physical rehab and is expected to make a full recovery. Promotional plans for Javelin have, understandably, been put on hold, but this is a record worthy of attention.
Let's hope he'll soon be back and performing it live.
Holly Humerstone: Paint My Bedroom Black (Polydor)
The 23-year-old says her songs have 'tattoo lyrics', specific to her life, and she uses acoustic guitars and sparse electronics to address loneliness and coming of age
Verdict: Broad brushstrokes
Having won the Brits Rising Star Award in February 2022, following in the footsteps of Adele and Ellie Goulding, it would have been easy for Holly Humberstone to rush out her debut album.
But the singer from Grantham, Lincolnshire, bided her time, writing the songs for Paint My Bedroom Black on a U.S. tour with Olivia Rodrigo, and she's come up with a more interesting, varied release as a result.
The 23-year-old says her songs have 'tattoo lyrics', specific to her life, and she uses acoustic guitars and sparse electronics to address loneliness and coming of age.
The title track puts a UK slant on Rodrigo's confessional rock. Humberstone also admits, on Antichrist, to being the guilty party in a relationship. 'I'm the only problem here,' she sings, with a candour worthy of Taylor Swift's Anti-Hero.
Holly Humberstone starts a tour on March 8, 2024, at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh (ticketmaster.co.uk).
Joshua Bell: Butterfly Lovers Concerto (Sony)
The Concerto's seven movements are based on a story of star-crossed lovers and the melodies are either based on Chinese folk melodies or composed in the same style
Back in 1959, two students at the Shanghai Conservatory wrote a concerto for violin and a Western-style symphony orchestra.
A number of famous fiddlers have recorded it, but this latest version substitutes Chinese traditional folk instruments for everything except cellos, basses, harp and percussion.
It does not sound at all strange, because the players of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra are so skilled, Tsung Yeh conducts so well and Joshua Bell is at the top of his game.
The Concerto's seven movements are based on a story of star-crossed lovers and the melodies are either based on Chinese folk melodies or composed in the same style.
Bell sounds wholly committed and plays beautifully, and the more Eastern timbre of the orchestra prevents any suggestion of 'Hollywood Chinese', as sometimes happens.
Keeping the same orchestra, Bell adds Saint-Saens's Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, Massenet's Meditation from Thais and Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, all well played.
Holst: The Planets (ICA Classics, two discs)
Boult was the first interpreter of this masterpiece, as he was for Holst's Fugal Overture and Hammersmith and George Butterworth's The Banks Of Green Willow
To mark the 40th anniversary of Sir Adrian Boult's death, ICA has issued some of his late broadcast recordings.
His two favourite orchestras, the BBC SO and the LPO, are featured and the set begins with his 1973 Proms performance of Holst's The Planets, tremendously powerful.
Of course, Boult was the first interpreter of this masterpiece, as he was for Holst's Fugal Overture and Hammersmith and George Butterworth's The Banks Of Green Willow.
I was in the audience for The Planets, as well as both works on Disc 2: the Sinfonia Antarctica by Vaughan Willams and the exciting rendering of Walton's First Symphony.
The Walton was so successful that the BBC asked Sir Adrian to repeat it the following year but he declined, not really liking it! The RVW is from his last concert, in 1977.
Track of the week: How You Leave a Man by Paloma Faith
The London singer tackles the aftershock of a big break-up on her first new song in three years.
A taster for her sixth album, The Glorification Of Sadness, due next year, it's a country-soul banger.
