STOCKHOLM (Updated) -

The Daily Roxette is proud to present the title and sleeve of the new single, which is "En händig man" (3.01) The b-side is called "Vet du vad jag egentligen vill?" (2.03) ("Do You Know What I Really Want?") and is according to Per a version of a song named "Solen kom från ingenstans" ("The Sun Appeared from Nowhere") from "En händig EP." Photos by Anton Corbijn.
Planned radio date is May 21, and it will be in stores the 23.

HALMSTAD (Updated) - Per has been kind enough to send us another update on the new project. He says the single has been chosen, and he will get back with the title. The b-side will be exclusive to the single. Regarding the album Per says that it will be relased in three different versions: a twelve page booklet, a 24 page booklet and a "deluxe" version which will include an EP ("En händig EP") with four extra tracks not available on the "normal" album. (Which will have 14 tracks.) "We're still talking about an LP [vinyl] version, but I'll get back about that. Believe it or not, but we're still mixing, we'll be done tomorrow, Sunday!"

Per comments about the EP. The songs on the EP are not left-overs, they are as great as all the other songs. "The reason I made a 14+4 scenario is that 18 songs on one single album is too much in my book! The album would be too long (I think)," Per explains. "The EP is just as good as the 'normal' album, but a unit of its own."

Update: Word has just arrived that there will be an LP. Seven tracks on each side, all in all 41 minutes. Simple division shows us that the average song on "En händig man" is 2.56.

HALMSTAD - Gyllene Tider's "Småstad" and Per Gessle's "På en promenad genom stan" are featured on the compilation album "Halmstads Greatest vol 1." All the songs on the album are performed by artists from the city of Halmstad, reports the local newspaper Hallandsposten. The album is the first release by Halmstad Records, a new label founded by Per's friend, Gyllene Tider guitarist Mats "M.P." Persson and businessman Bengt Petersson.

"Halmstads Greatest" will be released in mid-May. A big release party will be held in Hotel Tylösand with all the artists featured on the album invited.

Editor's note: Hallandsposten article also has a nice picture of the famous T&A Studio in M.P.'s basement where many of Per's demos are recorded.

April 11 EMI released new versions of Gyllene Tider's first four albums - "Gyllene Tider," Moderna Tider," "Puls" and "The Heartland Café." What's new with these is that "Heartland" is finally remastered and no album contains bonus tracks anymore. The price is low; 79 SEK, which is about €9.

Gyllene Tider's albums have now been released on CD three times; 1990 (jewel cases, bonus tracks), 2004 (digipaks, bonus tracks and remastering) and 2007 (jewel cases,) except "Heartland" - 1990 and 2007.

FORT MYERS - Written by Mark Marymont for NewsPress.com, Southwest Florida.

Roxette "Their 20 Greatest Songs" (Capitol/EMI)

This Swedish duo scored more than a dozen international hits between 1989 and '99. Featuring the strong vocals of Marie Fredriksson and the writing, producing and singing skills of Per Gessle, they specialized in glossy, danceable pop. This two-disc set includes 18 of their most popular songs — i.e. "The Look," "Joyride," "Listen To Your Heart" — and a couple of new works on one CD. An accompanying DVD sports 18 stylish videos. It's all a bit dated, but still a strong chronicle of their hit-making acumen.

Roxwriter contributed to this article.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - The next single off of "Hits!" is "Reveal" as The Daily Roxette revealed a while ago. We can now present the tracklist and sleeve for you. It seems EMI and Roxette decided to use the Kleerup remix after all. Kleerup has worked with Robyn, among others, but also does music on his own.

While the Kleerup remix is a slower, heavy with drums and strings, dance mix, The Attic remake is a poppy ditty that reminds one of early Depeche Mode.

01: Reveal (The Attic remake) 3:29
02: Reveal (Kleerup remix) 3:41
03: Reveal (single version) 3:43
04: One Wish Video

The confirmed release date is February 14. Click the titles for snippets.

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - January 23 Roxette's next single "Reveal" will be released "here and there," as expected. The single will most probably contain at least two remixes of the song, including one which is called "The Attic Remake." The Attic being a new band signed by EMI. "Reveal" is already out as a radio single, slightly remixed and with a different middle-eight.

LJUSDAL - So finally it is here, the mystical, mythical and long spoken about RoxBox – full name: The RoxBox - Roxette 86-06. I have it in my hand, it is a hefty piece, very well manufactured. The box contains four fully-crammed CDs, a thick, attached booklet and a DVD of "all Roxette's videos" (which certainly can be debated…) and the legendary MTV Unplugged show from 1993, in full!
Let's start with the box itself. It's made like a book, with the four CDs attached two to each cover, with a very lovely booklet in-between. So where is the DVD? It's in a cardboard sleeve at the very back of the booklet. Not a good place to put it, I would say, as the DVD is double-sided and DVDs are easily scratched. The booklet is written by well-known reporter Janne Gradvall, who has a definite stamp-of-approval from Per. Gradvall is a Swedish pop journalist with a long and genuine background, respected by many of Sweden's pop stars and music business people. The text has been translated by Sven Åke Peterson. The text itself is very informative and has tons of bits and pieces of nice Roxette trivia. I also like the translation, most of it at least. What is a "dropping-bottle" really? I would call that a "drip" or "drip-feed," but hey, that's me! The photos in the booklet are both familiar and unfamiliar, all in truly nice quality. What I miss in the booklet is an explanation from Per and Marie why they selected the tracks that made the box.
Now we get to the DVD(s) and unfortunately I can't say that I'm overjoyed about them. I say "them" because in reality there's two. The disc is a "flipper" (two sided). Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely fabulous to finally get the missing tracks of the Unplugged concert. I'm glad that someone convinced MTV to let Roxette use them. But why, oh why, do it in this poor quality?? I'm sure the original Beta masters were used to render the DVD, but the Mbit/s is only 6.16 which is VERY poor (and it gets worse). The sound is available in both Dolby Digital and DTS stereo, which is fine, however the bonus tracks have plenty of audio clicks and glitches. That may come from the original source material though. Oh well, the Unplugged concert looks decent on a regular 29" TV, but is hard to view at all on a 42" plasma.
Regarding the "video" side of the DVD, it contains 37 Roxette videos, not all videos ever made. And frankly, I doubt we'll ever see that compilation. The bitrate of the video side is an appalling 3.57 Mbit per second! That, my friends, is about as low as you can go on a DVD. And it's quite noticable while watching; for instance in "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore," where the whole picture is pixelated most of the time. I can buy perhaps that the earlier videos have low quality sources, but this is way beyond that. It's not acceptable for a company to release the third lousy (quality-wise) video compilation in a row… Other companies release good DVDs all the time, why not EMI? Read more…

HAMBURG - An Internet site based in Austria, along with a German online retailer, have listed a “Roxette - Live in Concert” DVD (German version) reportedly due to be released in June 2007 by Black Hill Pictures GmbH.

  Reached at his office in Hamburg, Andreas Dautzenberg, the managing director of Black Hill Pictures, tells The Daily Roxette that “this must be a mistake. This is not on our release schedule and we are not in negotiations with Roxette.”

  Black Hill releases about 80 titles a year, of which 25 percent are music videos.

• Geizhals’s Roxette DVD page
• Computer Universe’s page

Holland, Switzerland, Poland and Spain have all decided to release the new Roxette material – the “Hits” CDs and the Rox Box. Some countries will release a physical single, some will stay with a digital-only release.

  The Daily Roxette has also learned that the limited edition CD/DVD will not be in the digipak format, but rather the super jewel box format. The super jewel box is the one normally found on SACDs (Super Audio CD) and it has thicker plastic with rounded corners.

  “A stronger, more durable replacement for the traditional ’jewel box’ CD case,” according to the makers.


Additional reporting by Marc de Kort and Thomas Evensson.