finally i got my hands on it. and i gotta say this - it’s indeed per’s best job ever. not a fan opinion...in the last year, i was kinda ’off-roxette’...well, i was nicely fed anyway with keane, the killers, marron 5 among others. actual stuff, but who cares? they’re good anyway. last week, i was gifted with tears for fears 82-92 collectanea, their newest album (2004 - everybody loves a happy ending) tom petty’s anthology double album and SOAP. of course, i couldn’t help fall in love with petty’s and per’s sounds.

for the first time in years - actually, since roxette’s golden years, and that makes 11 years now - per can deliver simple, beautiful and really musical lyrics. i mean, some choruses sang themselves. other songs, need per’s play, act...talent to sing. and he can put it.

needless to mention the brightness in c’mon - a song that could easily hit the charts in any part of the planet - not sure if that could happen in top positions, but per would be there, anyway, deservedly. the same goes for jo-anna says a jolly, very simple song...but u can never get fed up of listening to it, it’s incredible!

about the ballads...well, late, later on is definetly a piece of art that i can’t see any other artist of the world delivering better than Per. the joint of his voice and Helena is so sweet and so warm - and of course, i cant help being taken to the end of 80’s and early 90’s, when songs like that turned Roxette into the first reference that people in love looked for when they wanted some romantic inspiration or that ’atmosphere’, you know. it sounds like Roxette at its best, and who could complain about it?

btw, about helena - what is so sexy and sweet about the voice of that girl?? if anyone have any link to her pics, gimme, gimme...btw...what’s her last name again?

if the main goal of Per was to create an album that people would like more and more at every listening - and not instantaneously, what could carry the same people to get bored with it easily - he really made it. in the beginning, i was a littke skeptic about the songs, their lenght...but now, everything cooperates and works so funnily and perfectly. really beautiful and brilliant in many moments.

of course, not all of songs could fit into that. but they can be fun anyway, and that’s part of per’s music ’heritage’ as well, what this album is all about. I mean, per’s songs have always been ’perish’, and I believe he enjoyed himself listening to his own stuff. so, some songs are contemporary, specific-artist references, others simply bring up that very good and old per of always - well, the same guy that always drops some Tom Petty and 70’s rock on his creations. that’s come back tomorrow, something in the system and are you an old hippie, sir? remember - when I mean ’drops’ i mean, some drops, ok? it’s not like a bath of TP and other 70ers.

the moment i realized that - the crazy it may look - was when i listend (again, to ’be sure’) I have a party in my head. where the hell in his ’music heritage’ per could find inspiration to a song like that? i mean...when did u see bands using those south american floutes in the past decades?

well...it will be a theory, and it may sound stupid...but in this case, the ’hommage’ of per comes in the form of a song that ’remembers’ the many ’drug-talk’ oriented hits of the 70’s. the lyrics (party in my head, just knock on the door, just drop me a line) along with those floutes (south america were and it is the homebirth and main core of drug traffic in the world) in my opinion, make an allusion to that. drugs + music - that’s the typical scenario of 70’s where per hitted his final stage in ’music’ growth.

if I’m right or wrong, the fact is - real ’per’ songs, his best ones, always motivate fans or listeners to speculate about it. the boy from Halmstad is really back - and in english!

way to go, per! XXXCELENT!

p.s.: here’s my suggestion for singles list (i don’t remember the ’official’ one, already posted here)

1. Jo-Anna Says
2. Late, Later On
3. C’Mon (for the summer!! perfect!!)
4. I like it like that
5. Come back tomorrow
6. Hey Mr DJ

not sure if people will take mr dj in this time of year, more like an adult contemporary genre song. it must be the last choice in the list of singles. really good song, though. well...gotta say the guitar in the bridge is the one responsable for ’saving’ it of the complete classification as ’contemporary’ away from pop.