Where do we go from here?

On 24 August 2023, the world was surprised at the arrival of a new Agnetha Fältskog website, featuring a mysterious teaser: a “+” (plus or addition) symbol, the words “Where do we go from here?” and Agnetha’s name, a link to sign up for news, plus links to reactivated social media accounts, which also showed the same teaser video.

Signing up for the newsletter revealed that it was from BMG Rights Management. In recent years BMG has been signing up many so-called legacy acts for new music or their back catalogue, including Kylie Minogue, Boy George and Culture Club, Duran Duran, Blondie, Roger Waters, Lenny Kravitz, and George Harrison’s post-Beatles solo recordings.

Fans immediately started speculating – was it a new song, a new album, a new compilation, something else entirely? Many suggested a new song, possibly a cover of one of the seemingly dozens of songs of that title, or a song that features that line (most popularly, Madonna’s ‘You Must Love Me’, written for the movie version of the musical Evita). In my head I keep hearing the Yoko Ono track of that title from her 1995 album Rising – of course I seriously doubt it could be that song.

Logically, being on a new record label and launching a teaser social media campaign hinted that a new album was coming.

Meanwhile, the media extrapolated what little information was available (i.e. nothing beyond the teaser website), hyping the story about Agnetha’s relaunch of her solo career, with breathless reports often quoting an anonymous “music industry source”.

A second social media post on 26 August offered no further clues. A smash edit of clips of Agnetha performing, from ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’ promo clip through to her 2013 single ‘When You Really Loved Someone’, backed by an intriguing electronic crescendo.

On 29 August, Amazon UK answered all the questions, when they posted preorder links to four different configurations of an album titled A+, with the following product description:

On the 10th anniversary of her solo album ‘A’, Agnetha Fältskog releases ‘A+’, a completely reimagined version of ‘A’. The album features 11 tracks, including the lead single ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ – the first new material from Agnetha in 10 years – and her duet with Gary Barlow ‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’. Agnetha has been working with renowned, Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Jorgen Elofsson (who has written hits for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and many more).

The four listings were for a single CD, deluxe double CD, single LP on white vinyl, and deluxe double LP on crystal clear vinyl, with a release date of 13 October 2023. The double deluxe versions had a slightly different description:

On the 10th anniversary of her solo album ‘A’, Agnetha Fältskog releases ‘A+’, a completely reimagined version of ‘A’. This 2CD [or 2LP] deluxe version of the album features 11 reworked tracks, including the lead single ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ – the first new material from Agnetha in 10 years – plus all 10 original recordings from the album ‘A’. Agnetha has been working with renowned, Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Jorgen Elofsson (who has written hits for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and many more).

So, it seems we have a “reimagined” album, with deluxe versions bundled with the original 2013 version.

Reimagining and reworks of past or current albums have been a popular offshoot for artists in recent years, including Kylie Minogue’s Disco Guest List Edition, Paul McCartney’s McCartney III Imagined or his work with The Fireman, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way The Tenth Anniversary, and several revisits of Elton John’s back catalogue, among others. Songs are remixed, rerecorded, mashed up, or reinterpreted by other artists.

What reimagining we get for A+ remains to be seen. Personally, I’m hoping for something creative and interesting, like some of those mentioned above, and not just a stripped back or orchestral version, as was done for the A track ‘I Was A Flower’ for an Amazon (France and Germany) exclusive digital track in 2013. With the involvement of A‘s original producer, it seems likely ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ is a new song, not a cover. Which may be new or may have been recorded for the album in 2013 [UPDATE 31 August: it has been confirmed ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ is a new 2023 recording].

Amazon has track record of leaking information with preliminary listings of new releases. Ten years ago, they published the first tracklist of the original A album, including an audio sample of lead single ‘When You Really Loved Someone’. It appeared, disappeared, and reappeared a couple of times before the official announcement.

At the time of writing three of those Amazon listings for A+ have disappeared, only the deluxe CD remaining. No doubt when the official announcement has been released the album will be available on all formats for pre-order on all the usual sites, and presumably a store on the Agnetha site.

The new song ‘Where Do We Go From Here?” will have its world premiere on Thursday 31 August, at around 8.30 am BST on BBC Radio 2, when Agnetha speaks to Zoë Ball (who you might remember hosted the ABBA Voyage launch in September 2021). Or listen to the podcast afterwards.

Any news will be posted on the new Agnetha Fältskog · A+ feature page on ABBA Omnibus as it comes to hand.