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Roxette "Critical" Reviews
9 replies
LittleSpooky said on December 15, 2005 00:39:
Since I don’t have cable tv hooked back up at the moment, I’m watching a bunch of my DVDs / VHS tapes and I have Roxette’s “Don’t Bore Us - Get To The Chorus! Roxette’s Greatest Video Hits” circa 1995. I bring this up because “Joyride” is one of the vids on here. I remember when this song came out. I don’t remember where I’d read it, but one of the critics of this song basically said:
“Roxette is encouraging kids to steal cars and go on a ’joyride’.” In the States, that’s basically what it’s called when a minor steals a car: “joyriding”. We obviously had never sat down and really listened to the song for that statement.
How many of us have vague recollections of what critics wrote about some of Roxette’s songs?
btw, “Joyride” rivaled Amy Grant’s “Baby, Baby” in terms of popularity in my high school during my senior year. I also had an Aussie exchange student in one of my classes who was a HUGE Roxette fan. Wish I still had her address.
Oldag75 said on December 24, 2005 17:24:
From the Houston Chronicle, November 1994
“Crash! Boom! Bang!”
Roxette.
EMI.
Five years after hitting it big in America with “The Look,” Swedish duo Roxette can’t buy airplay.
No, the new radio darlings from that country are bland ABBA wannabes Ace of Base.
Meanwhile, Roxette’s Per Gessle keeps writing some of the most highly melodic and superbly crafted pop songs since - you heard right - early Lennon-McCartney.
That’s not to say Roxette’s music is adventurous or profound - or prolonged. Indeed, almost two-thirds of the group’s new songs run under four minutes.
But so did most of the great songs from pop’s ’60s heyday. That is a part of their charm.
These are short, sweet, leave-’em-humming ditties, but ditties at their best. For power pop with a kick and tuneful ballads with a heart, Gessle and singer Marie Fredriksson will not steer you wrong.
“Crash! Boom! Bang!” - previewed in a 10-track disc sold at McDonald’s - here has 15 tracks, all served by Roxette’s uncluttered musicianship and Fredriksson’s alternately soothing and belting vocals.
For a softer side, the closing Go to Sleep exults in a special tenderness. It’s an even lovelier love song than the duo’s It Must Have Been Lovefrom the film Pretty Woman.
Roxette’s histrionic torch songs are still a bit ponderous. The title track is a thudding stab at soulfulness along the lines of the earlier, overwrought Spending My Time.
But for rockers, there’s the jaunty single Sleeping in My Car, with its jangling guitars and vocal kick. And Run to You recalls the lush yet driving romanticism of such earlier tunes as Church of Your Heart.
Yes, these Swedes’ music can be sweet. So dance the night away in Ace of Base’s mindless disco daze if you must. But for those who luxuriate in listening, rest assured that the fading art of pop songmanship is alive in Roxette.
THREE AND 1/2 STARS.
Roxryder-V2002 said on December 27, 2005 15:07:
Rolling Stone USA - ****/5
Roxette is not the new Abba. There are similarities, of course; A frighteningly efficient hitmaking machine, Roxette is Swedish and prone to impossibly catchy melodies. Yet Roxette manages to be different in the way that matters most – its music. Unlike Abba, which often sounded like the Beatles with all the blues left out, Roxette makes no such omissions; even Joyride’s title tune, though decked out in a glossy, Sgt. Pepper-style arrangement, never comes across as mere candy-coated pop.
Which is no mean achievement, given the group’s well-honed commercial instincts. For instance, after the mega-success of “It Must Have Been Love,” fans undoubtedly expected more of the same on Joyride; naturally, Roxette doesn’t disappoint, but neither does the group limit itself to the obvious. For all the vocal fire-works packed into power ballads like “Spending My Time” or “Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave),” singer Marie Fredriksson shines brightest on quiet numbers like “Watercolours in the Rain,” a mournful, reflective song about longing and loss.
Fredriksson gets many of the album’s big moments but not all of them. Even though Fredriksson’s high-octane performances on “Hotblooded” (not the Foreigner hit) or “(Do You Get) Excited?” are obvious standouts, Per Gessle, the group’s chief songwriter, is no slouch either. His light, puckish vocals add a likable touch to wry dance numbers like “Knockin’ on Every Door.”
Overall, what ultimately defines Joyride are the performances, and that marks perhaps the most important difference between Roxette and Abba. By emphasizing its sense of personality, Roxette delivers more than just well-constructed hooks; this music has heart, something that makes even the catchiest melody more appealing. (RS 607)
J.D. CONSIDINE
(Posted: jun, 27 1991)
Oldag75 said on December 29, 2005 00:59:
Here’s the reality: ABBA and other candy-coated rock groups simply do not have a world grand master like Per Gessle composing their songs. Case closed. World without end, Amen.
FirstGirlOnTheMoon said on January 3, 2006 13:41:
Taken from an Online CD store’s website - A review of The Ballad Hits
Roxette’s Ballad Hits demonstrates what it is that’s made their band successful. It’s a simple formula, but it works every time. After a quiet, exquisitely maudlin verse, Marie Fredriksson unleashes that shockingly big voice, the drums crash, huge guitars and keyboards attack and Roxette burst into another ludicrously memorable chorus. No one can match their jubilant revelling in the torment of love. From 1989 to 1991, they dominated the US charts with a string of super-dramatic hits. “Listen to Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love”, “Fading like a Flower”, classics all, and they’re all here, along with much else. For Roxette, ballads don’t always follow the duo’s own comic dictum–“Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus”. “Queen of Rain”, with its moving oboe breaks, takes time to grow, as does the string-laden “Crash! Boom! Bang!” And it’s not all great, either. “You Don’t Understand Me”, cowritten with hit-maker Desmond Child, is a weak song only just rescued by Fredriksson, while “Salvation” sounds like a Robbie Williams-style collage of other people’s work. Fortunately, the two new tracks, “A Thing About You” (sung by songwriter Per Gessle) and “Breathe” are sweet and strong enough to repair the damage. Thus, despite the enormous power of those early smashes, the surprisingly varied Ballad Hits is consistently brilliant throughout. –Dominic Wills
rox-kuryliw said on January 3, 2006 16:45:
ow how i miss roxette songs :-( per’s songs maries voice, im in heaven.
roxtexanet said on January 4, 2006 00:41:
I can’t believe that there was a time when Roxette could get a positive review (and even be touted as a CREDIBLE band!) in “Rolling Stone.” My, how the times have changed.
coyboyusa said on January 4, 2006 13:14:
rolling stone is run by monkeys now all they think is music is crack dealers drooling and shooting off guns lol
sommartiderhejhej said on January 4, 2006 20:23:
That review is quite positive!
(Taken from an Online CD store’s website - A review of The Ballad Hits)
And I agree with it..
coyboyusa said on December 24, 2005 14:35:
usa critics always compared roxettes early ballads to anything heart did, but I rember an american critic saying that most of the material on ballad hit sounded like something someone else would have done which was really shady