20 years ago today...

 It was 20 years ago today, in 2004, that Agnetha released her fourth English language solo album, My Colouring Book.  The album comprises of 13 covers of some of Agnetha's favorite songs from her childhood and throughout the early 70s, songs that she loves and remind her of happier times, exactly how some of us feel when we listen to her songs and ABBA's songs.  

I've always loved this album.  I mean I love all of her work, but this album is quite special.  It was the first time Agnetha had released a new album since her 1987 album, I Stand Alone.  Her voice is exceptionally strong on this album despite it being 17 years since she released anything, and her sings all of the songs with such passion and emotion.  Although I'm not the biggest fan of cover songs, I personally always believe that the original versions are best, I've never had a problem with covers that are respectful of the original work, not changing too much but also adding a very minuscule touch of originality.  Throughout Agnetha's entire career, she has covered a lot of artists but always did it in the best way, and the same goes for this album.  

Coincidentally, not realizing this album was coming up on it's 20th anniversary, I listened to this album in full a couple of days ago while drawing, and it's still such a good song.  I like all the tracks, well except for Past, Present, Future as that track is just so weird to me (this is my personal feelings on the song itself, not on Agnetha's presentation of the song!), but my top favorite would have to be I Can't Reach Your Heart, Sometimes When I'm Dreaming, and Love Me With All Your Heart.  But again, all the tracks are good.

 One of my favorite thing about Agnetha is that she makes music on her own terms.  She doesn't give into public pressure to release more music, she does project was just one entirely made up of her own passion for artists and songs she loves, and she did it completely out of her own volition.  She kept promotion of it to a minimum, as that seems to be one of her least favorite parts of making music, yet it went on to be quite successful.  And to this day, I think, it still is a really good, successful album.  

I've mention in the past how Agnetha's A album from 2013 was the first solo project from either of the ladies of ABBA that I was actively there for.  I didn't know of ABBA yet at all when this album came back - I was only three years old, so I couldn't have been aware of it, but it's nice to know that I was around at the time of this album's release. :)