Amazon.co.uk Review
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

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