Customer Reviews

My Colouring Book

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was very excited and intrigued to discover that Agnetha Faltskog had decided to release a new album. Particularly after her "self-exile" of several years from the world at large. She had made such an important and worthwhile contribution to the world of music as a member of ABBA. It was an unfortunate reality that her previous solo works were not altogether strong or even overly interesting releases. In my opinion though, this latest album (My Colouring Book) redeems all of Ms. Faltskog's post-ABBA endeavors. Here you will find a mature and confident songtress still in complete artistic control of her nothing-less-than-glorious capabilities. She sounds GREAT. The choices of songs and in fact, her dedication to all the artists that inspired her early on, is more than appropriate. This is EXACTLY the kind of album she should be producing at this time of her life. The Lady has paid her dues and done more than enough for her adoring fans. Now she need do nothing more than record an album of songs simply because she can. And beautifully too. The dance remix singles are fun also, and I hope they are being enjoyed in clubs all over the world. Really, the only thing that would have made this album as close to perfect as possible would have been a duet with Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, the other half of the beautiful singing duo of ABBA.

Deliciously retro, yet current. THIS WOMAN CAN SING! I was lucky to hear this album before its release. Every song is a TREASURE! Delicate, fragile, expressive, with melodies from the heart (romantic, sweet, classic!) that songwriters do not write anymore these days. Apparently (from what I heard), these are the songs that inspired Miss Faltskog in her teenage years. The way she sings these songs is UNEXPLAINABLE. Her voice is NAKED, TRUE, HONEST! A great choice of songs. An album to last a lifetime.

after 17 years of not making music or even listening to music. i am amazed this great singer still has it. She has been my favourite singer for about 3 years. Her sense of style in music makes this cd a great gift to the ears. the songs she has picked for this album were emotional, but of course they were still great. her best songs she has sung were of heart break and emotion. so I think she picked the right songs for her voice.

GREAT JOB AGNETHA!!!
and thank you for this album for it means a lot to me and many other fans around the world.

It`s a candy king for you ears, if you like one of the voices from Abba: Agnetha Faltskog. It`s femenim soft rock, or shall i called it " smoothies" for your ears. This is easy listening. To easy sometimes, to give it 5 Stars. It opens with a song called The Colouring Book, a so so opener, but it realy kicks in gear with the Del Shannon oldie: Walk in the Room. Many artists have their version on this one. It`s a simple pop song, but Agnetha put her own signature on it, with respect to the original. There are not to much tempo upbeat songs on this CD, like the older Agnetha solo album songs like The Heat is on etc. But the good thing is that she do the cover songs as here own. The favourite is the new version of the Skeeter Davis hit: The End of the World. If she`s gonna do an another album put some more variation and up beat tempo on some of the covers, but hopefully it will come some new written songs for Agnetha. If some of the
ex Abba members read this, please put the band together and Agnetha will really 5 star shines again

In this album, Agnetha emerges from her reclusion to bring us a loving tribute to the music of her youth. I am older than Agnetha so these songs were mostly quite familiar. Two songs, "Every time that you walk in the room" and "If I thought you'd ever change your mind" are being treated as breakout songs with single releases of alternate dance versions. Both are good songs, but neither was familiar to me before. I am especially taken by her version of Bryan Hyland's "Sealed with a kiss." While the production is great, it is really Agnetha's signing here that is so wonderful. She exhibits real artistry in this song, but she never draws attention to herself, only to the song. The other song that really got my attention is "Past, Present, Future." This "song" is not sung at all, but only spoken over Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Agnetha has always been very effective speaking directly to the listener and this song is a tour de force. I did not remember the song, but it was originally done by the Shangrilas in a version very similar to Agnetha's. I have all Agnetha's other albums, but this one has stayed in my portable player the longest. A wonderful re-emergence.

This is the best "cover" album I have ever seen or heard in my life. A wonderful selection of material and a reflection of Agnetha's great judgment of how best to pay tribute to her favorite, and most influential, musical artists. Her voice is absolutely flawless and just as powerful (and pure) as her days of old with ABBA. It would have sold well with the right kind of promotion such as touring which I read she had planned at one point. Unfortunately, she had to cancel any such ideas. I would travel anywhere in the world to see her live just once in my life, whether it be to listen to any of the catchy tunes from this album or anything previous. We can only hope the day will come that she will do a live show again for us adoring and anxious fans. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. It is neither an impossibility that Agnetha record subsequent material in the not too distant future as this album without a doubt indicates she has so much great music left in her soul to share with the world.

This is not an ABBA sound, but definitely recommended for ABBA fans.. Agnetha still has "THE" voice and it's totally enjoyable to hear her crystal clear pure sound once again.... Also refreshing (although I LOVE ABBA), to hear her sing a different style apart from that sing songy techno euro pop stuff.. It's age appropriate for her and distinguishes her as the true musical talent she is. I have a feeling she could sing any of these songs in her sleep and not break a sweat!
Nostaglic songs with an orchestra background and mostly ballads.. although "When You Walk in the Room" is a retro choice with a beat! Love her rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon"- romantic and profiles her voice. It takes a while to get used to the "non-ABBA" sound of it, but it kind of grew on me and it stands for itself as one of my favoite CD's.. I recommend it and hope we start hearing more from her (and Frida) !!

Agnetha's solo work has always been lacking, so why do I love listening to her? The answer: Her voice is pristine, clear, soulful. There are a few really nice cuts on the cd and a few that don't mean as much to me as they mean to Agnetha. Of course, I would have preferred her to record Jane Birkin's "Je t'aime," but alas I'm happy to have these tunes. If you love Agnetha, you'll love these sessions. Don't forget to youtube the videos for a few of the tracks.

It has been a year since I first heard this album and if anything, it has only improved with repeated listenings. Agnetha has one of the most stunning voices in pop music and it is a shame that she has not made more albums. This album is definetely the best solo effort by any ABBA member. The song selection, the production and, most importantly, her voice are outstanding. Agnetha has made these pop standards her own and in most cases surpassed the original versions. This is a great achievement when you consider that these songs have been recorded by people like Dusty Springfield, Frank Sinatra and Jackie DeShannon! Despite being a collection of cover versions, this album comes across as very personal. This is especially true for songs like My Colouring Book, Sometimes When I'm Dreaming, What Now My Love and, especially, Past, Present and Future. There is not a bad song on this album, but the highlights are the ones I already mentioned along with If I Ever Thought You'd Change Your Mind, Love Me With All Your Heart and extremely pleasant versions of the well known standards Fly Me To The Moon and Sealed With A Kiss. I am very happy that Agnetha has released this album. It would be great if she recorded again. If not, then this is a beautiful reminder of her great talents.

I am a hard core ABBA fan, more specifically a fan of Agnetha and Frida's voices. The guys are great, but I always felt the women made ABBA a group we all want more of.

I found out late that Agnetha (the BLONDE one) had a new CD coming out. I was willing to pay any price to get it, thinking maybe this one would be somewhat reminiscent of the group. I have several of her other releases since her departure from the group, but never finding the sound I expected.

I read the liners I found stating that these were songs she grew up with and fell in love with. Though I am thrilled to hear Agnetha sing again, I was not taken with the song choices and arrangements. Her voice, on the other hand, is as pure as it was in the beginning. Crystal clear and almost hypnotic!

The CD is done welland of great quality but it is very, very ballad(y). If you are thinking that you will find more of a variation of fast and slow music or a variaty of tempos, you would be wrong. It would be my only criticism, that the tempo is too 'down' most of the time, and I love slower music.

BUT, I also found out that there were remixes of a few of her songs from the album also being made. I ordered them also. This is where she comes to life. They took the original voice tracks and remixed them to up tempo percussion, and released them. "When You Walk In The Room" is fantastic. You can feel the passion in this one. They are huge in Europe and in larger metropolitan areas here. The other remix I could find was "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind", another very fun remix. Its like the old ABBA all over again. Having said that, I finally realized it was the guys in ABBA that brought in the percussion and faster tempos that I could never find much of on many of Frida or Agnethas CD releases since ABBA broke up.

Now that I found the remixes, My Colouring Book is great every once in a while. But the remixes are where you will find what you were hoping to re-live on this CD. Its not a 10, but I WOULD definitely buy it again. But LOOK for the remixes.