Agnes Album: “Agnes”

I discovered Agnes in a funny way - while searching for interviews of Leona Lewis on YouTube, I found interviews of Agnes and discovered that she'd won the Swedish Idol contest. I listened to the clips of this, her debut and decided to give it a try.

This collection is ok overall & does what a debut album is supposed to - it showcases the singer's voice using different musical genres to help her appeal to a wide audience. On some tracks Agnes struggles with English so the lyrics sound slurred and/or forced which doesn't make for a pleasant listening experience but overall it seems like her producers tried to create songs that made the best use of her vocal ability.

The songs that I really like are:

STRANDED - an r&b-ish upbeat track that is reminiscent of Mariah Carey's EMOTIONS; EMOTIONAL - beats remind me of a late 80's pop track;

FOREVER YOURS - enjoyable melodic track;

NOW THAT I FOUND LOVE - nice uptempo track

The songs that are just "ok" are:

I BELIEVE - a ballad that is just a little too big for her vocals, it's a sweet track that a stronger singer could've done more with

LET ME CARRY YOU - another ballad featuring beautiful lyrics and sentiment around the popular "Footprints in the Sand" poem - an Angel lifting a human up during difficult times. If a choir had been used on the chorus it might have made this track stronger.

WHAT A FEELING - cover of the Irene Cara classic theme from FLASHDANCE. She gets an 'A' for effort but they really didn't do much to update this version and given the fact that Irene is a stronger vocalist, this song is just a sincere copy.

Overall I think that this debut shows that given the right material, Agnes has a kick ass voice - on the more r&b/dance tracks she really shines but on the ballads she sounds a bit weaker. I wouldn't recommend purchasing the entire disc though, just try to sample the singles first and buy those tracks that appeal to you.