I stand alone --- Agnetha Faltskog --- 1987 (WEA)
Agnetha who? Ok then, what if I said “that blonde one from ABBA”? Yeah, that's her: one half of the female pair in the Swedish supergroup. This was her third solo album, and it's not half bad. Produced by Peter Cetera of Chicago, who also duets with her on one track, it's got a nice crisp clean sound about it, without being clinically pristine and devoid of emotion.
It starts off well, with a mid-paced ballad, “The last time”, replete with digital piano and churning guitar. Perhaps strange to begin an album with a track so titled, but it sets the tone of the album, which seems to be more or less centred on the idea of breakups and betrayals, and is, I guess, in that way quite a dark album. No vacuous pop record then, but that's hardly what you'd expect anyway from someone who has spent the better part of her life making music that's cherished by millions the world over. “The last time” is really more a rock song than a ballad, quite gutsy and heavy, and Agnetha's soulful voice soars over the arrangement like an avenging angel.
Much more commercial, and less impressive, is the Gloria Estefanesque “Little white secrets”, which more or less comes and goes without leaving too much of a mark, and leads into the third single from the album, the aforementioned duet with Cetera. “I wasn't the one who said goodbye” has all the hallmarks of a Chicago song --- the only thing missing is production by David Foster! It's pretty much Peter Cetera sings with Agnetha Faltskog, rather than the other way round. Don't get me wrong: it's great to hear the man's voice on record again, but he does sort of take over the song. At least it's heavier and rockier than the previous track, though that's not hard.
Then we have a Bucks Fizz cover! Yes, you read that correctly. “Love in a world gone mad” was originally on an album by the blonde Eurovision winners who brought us such anthems as “Making your mind up” and “The land of make-believe”. Give me a break! This thing is so sugary I'm glad I'm not a diabetic! Pass!
And there we have the essential dichotomy of this album. Some tracks are good rockers or rock ballads, some are pop songs and some are just over-produced nonsense, so that it's hard to take it seriously as a whole. As if to underline the point, the next song, “Maybe it was magic”, is a fantastic, powerful ballad sung with power and passion by Agnetha, and if more of the songs were like this then this would be a knockout album. As it is, for every “Maybe it was magic” there's a “Little white lies” --- you're just starting to enjoy it when something slaps you upside the head and changes your thinking, so that it's hard to form a cohesive opinion of the overall product.
It's also telling that Ms. Faltskog doesn't write, or even have a hand in writing, any of the songs on this album. You would think that a talented songwriter like her would have wanted to be involved in the creative process, but no, every song is written for her. Personally I wonder if this is why the album falls down on so many fronts: some of the songs are good, a few great, but there are some very bad ones, and I wonder had she stretched her wings a bit and engaged in some songwriting, would we have had a better album?
For all that, the second side of the album is considerably better than the first. Kicking off with a nice little pop/rock tune, which was released as a single from the album, “Let it shine” is not half bad at all. “We got a way” is pure ABBA, circa the “Voulez Vous” period. Rocks out nicely, keeps the tempo up, nice keyboard solo. At this point, you begin to let your breath out, daring to think that maybe the album is beginning to come together,and you'd not be wrong. The title track is I guess what you might call a dark ballad, although the rhythm betrays it as more a pop song, and the horns give it a very latin feel. It's written for her by (you would have to say) co-star Cetera and his ex-Chicago compatriot Bruce Gaitsch, who apparently also co-wrote Madonna's hit “La isla bonita”. So he knows a bit about songwriting, then. You can also hear a little of that song in the beat and melody of this one.
The album closes on two songs penned by two true adepts of the art, Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, and of these two it's the final track, “If you need somebody tonight”, that stands out and is a fitting closer. A gorgeous little piano-driven ballad, with yearning and a hint of desperation, a sort of much slower and restrained “Take a chance on me”.
All in all, this is no classic album, but there are certainly tracks there which make it a very good one. My advice would be, listen to the opener, skip to “Maybe it was magic” and let it go from there. Mind you, she couldn't put a foot wrong in her native Sweden, where the album went to number one! Ah, those crazy Swedes!
TRACKLISTING
1. The last time
2. Little white secrets
3. I wasn't the one who said goodbye
4. Love in a world gone mad
5. Maybe it was magic
6. Let it shine
7. We got a way
8. I stand alone
9. Are you gonna throw it all away?
10. If you need somebody tonight