(Updated) - Brazilian portal UOL has somehow jumped the gun and made "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)" available for purchase today, even though the international release date is scheduled for January 7th.  A fan browsing UOL (which is extremely popular in Brazil) discovered this fact late Thursday evening (early Friday morning in Brazil) and purchased the song. Other fans in Brazil were then made aware of the availability of the song on UOL via a post on Orkut's (similar to Facebook) "Roxette Community" and by middle-of-the-night phone calls to each other.  How exactly this happened is unknown, but apparently there was either a breakdown in communication between EMI Brazil and UOL, or there was a programming error on UOL's side, as the site does cite 2011 as the release year.

UPDATE: EMI Sweden contacted EMI Brazil about this mistake, and they in turn contacted UOL.  The single is no longer available (until the proper release date). 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Obviously, this was a mistake. It's a mistake that — if not contained — has the potential of doing harm to Roxette's sales chart success, as a coordinated release has more impact and much effort has been put into marketing strategies.  We urge fans in Brazil (and now sadly elsewhere) to resist the temptation to "share" the song with others. We strongly believe that having waited this long for Roxette to make a complete return, that all of us can and should wait until the song's official release date.  We implore you not to think you are doing someone a favor by "sharing" the song with them, because in doing so… you are doing Roxette a disfavor.  It should also be noted that in writing this story and editoral, we became aware that the team behind RoxetteBrazil made a similar appeal.  —LEO 

LJUSDAL - First there was nothing, then there was "Wings over America." Now there's "Gessle over Europe"! The live CD/DVD combo awaited by many a fan. Was it worth the wait?

Yes. Yes it certainly was!

The CD is amazing, crystal clear sound, heavy bass and with a live feeling that puts you right back into the audience again. If you were there in the first place, that is… Kudos to Christoffer Lundqvist! The packaging is identical to the Roxette re-releases; a high glossy "eco" pack that looks like a small vinyl LP. Speaking of which, the album comes as a double LP with three bonus tracks as well, not reviewed here though.
The tracks on the album come from the best concerts available, and from what I can understand, some concerts were better than others. "Gessle over Europe" isn't mixed together to sound like one homogeneous concert so there are some fade ins and outs. This only affects the crowd noises though.
I won't review the concert again, so if you want to read about that, check that review out here.

In short: This album is a must have. I would recommend it to non-fans even. However, I have to mention some of the better tracks (and this is hard): "Doesn't Make Sense" is out of this world on this album, and so is "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart." I can go on and on, but I'll limit myself to these three. What I keep wondering is if they've cut the last part out of "Listen to Your Heart" as I want to remember it from the concert that Per sings "you tell her goodbye…" yet another time.

Now, Capitol is marketing this as a CD with a bonus-DVD, while I think the audience may see it the other way around.

Read more…

LJUSDAL (Updated) - 090909 the Beatles remasters were released (by EMI), both in stereo and in mono, now EMI is releasing Roxette's entire (well…) album catalog remastered, albeit only in stereo… "The Rox Archives." Which is more anticipated I cannot say, but from what I can gather both the Beatles's and Roxette's albums are released in this new "eco friendly" packaging. Which is a fancier name for a high gloss gatefold paper sleeve. The albums look very spiffy, with a collection name on the former jewel case spine; "ROX ARCHIVES VOL. X. FILE UNDER POP" written in the style of an old plastic strip type labeler - all labels of the releases follow this pattern. All the albums have the same back sleeve. Do the albums come with a booklet? Yes they do, and they are indeed redone, however, they are not better, in fact they are very plain with just the lyrics and the odd photo. These are not collector's items as Per stated, and mind you they are also not priced as new releases. So, to recap: very very nice looking sleeves, quite disappointing booklets. But the music, you ask? Hey, I'm getting there!

First, let me present to you some graphs of "Neverending Love." The top one is the 1986 release, the middle is from 1997 and the bottom is the new 2009 release. As you can see the sound has gotten more compact for every release. But is this a good thing? There's no right answer to that question, some songs are better more compressed and some aren't. In my opinion, pop music generally doesn't suffer from this, as long is it's not overly compressed and/or distorted. What gets lost is the dynamic range.
We're using "Neverending Love" as an example here and the song is much much louder on the new release, but I feel that the song sounds better than before so it's not just louder.

Read more…

(Updated) -

 EDITOR'S NOTE: TDR reporter Colin van der Bel files this additional account and review of the Party Crasher concert in Gent, Belgium. Update: Click here for a special TDR slideshow with more than 100 pictures of the concert!

GENT, Belgium —  It was a cloudy afternoon in Holland as this reporter began the drive down to Belgium to see Mr. G and his Heavy Metal Kids live in Gent's Handelsbeurs music venue later that night.

When I arrived, a large group of fans had already assembled and were pretty excited when Clarence and Pelle made a brief appearance. The show wasn't sold out completely, but surely the enthusiastic fans would made up for that!

The show started with support-act Martinique, who performed (singing, playing the guitar and even doing the elecric-boogie) a number of his songs. Also worth noting is that, in my opinion, the selection of music played before the show and during the intermission was excellent!

Read more…

As this article is being written, Per and his band are being called back on stage to perform an encore before a noisy, raucous crowd in Helsinki, Finland. It's the first night of the Party Crasher tour and, like many other international tours involving Per Gessle, Helsinki is again serving as the first stop.  It's an exciting moment, one to be repeated over the next few weeks in venues across Europe.

Partly as a result of the obligatory pre-tour publicity campaign — the tour after all ended up being subtitled "The Man from Roxette" — and partly the result of the natural progression in the timeline that has marked the remarkable recovery story of Marie Fredriksson, there's been considerable mention in the media recently of a possible reunion of Per and Marie as Roxette.

Both Per and Marie, in speaking to various journalists and reporters, have over the last few months mentioned the possibility of some kind of Roxette project surfacing again.  Lately, Per's been quoted in an article appearing on Chart Attack as saying "I'm sure something will happen."  With both Per and Marie talking out loud, on the record, to reporters… not just once but repeatedly… it's now seemingly safe to say that it's not just possible, but extremely likely that we'll at least be able to hear Per and Marie again performing together as Roxette. Per has said that he and Marie recently picked up some acoustic guitars and sang some of Roxette songs together… to see how it felt. Apparently, it felt good for them both.

We congratulate Per (and his partners-in-music) on tonight's premeire concert.   Untold numbers of our readers are looking forward to attending one of the upcoming concerts on this tour, and The Daily Roxette looks forward to providing extensive coverage.  These are good days for fans of Per Gessle's music.  Still, as we enjoy the Party Crasher album, and hear Per singing Roxette material on stage again…  we know we're not alone when thinking about Helsinki tonight.  We wonder if it's too much to hope for that this favored first-stop city might be called into service yet once again?  It's not so silly, really… to consider the possibilty of Per and Marie jetting to various locales to give their fans a treat.  For example, fellow Scandinavians a-ha just did that in Brazil… flying in to do one concert in Sao Paulo and one in Rio. 

Yes, we're all a bit older and have learned to manage our expectations, but for now at least we'll once again entertain the idea of seeing both Per and Marie on stage together.   Our prayers, after all, were answered once before.

Happy new year, readers of The Daily Roxette! A year has passed again and it's time to take a look back.

In 2008, there were two news items over the others. Per releasing a new solo album, "Party Crasher," and Marie joining the Stjärnklart tour and performing live after what seemed like forever. But let's start from the beginning of the year.

January went with no major news, but in February we reported about Marie's second art exhibition, "Ett bord i solen" ("A table in the sun"). Her art was on display at the same Stockholm gallery as the first time, although the gallery had changed its name since then. A beautiful, limited edition book of the exhibition was also released. In September, Marie's art was on display in a Gothenburg-based gallery.

Swedish TV4 interviewed Marie when her exhibition opened in Stockholm. In an open-hearted interview Marie revealed that the brain tumor took away the sight on her right eye. Marie also said that when she finally got a clean bill of health in the summer 2007, she became a new person. When the cancer was at its worst, Marie almost didn't have the energy to get out of bed. "The worst thing was that I didn't even want to sing. It's definitely a kick to be back," Marie said in the interview.

In May, Marie turned 50. Many fans sent their greetings to her and we got a lovely reply from Marie.

The world suddenly got bigger

In February, we announced probably the most unanticipated re-release of the decade: "The World According To Gessle - The Extended Edition," or "super duper extra turbo deluxe with cheese on it" edition as Per puts it. The final version of the re-released contained a whopping 26 bonus tracks of which most were previously unreleased. I say the "final version," because we were able to report you pretty much in real time how the track listing of the album changed. Check our articles for version 1, version 2, version 3 and finally version 4 of the listing.

The quality of the demos on the bonus disc is superb and there are real gems, such as "Elvis In Deutschland," a ballad version of "Elvis In Germany (Let's Celebrate)" with a different chorus, and "Writer," a demo of "Reporter" with pretty much no other differences than some parts of the lyrics (such as the title).

In May, we had an exclusive interview with Per about the TWATG re-release. In the interview, he talks about why the album was re-released and what it felt like going through his demo archives. Thomas also asked him if he ever feels like releasing another album like TWATG: "[H]ell yes, someday I'll make the definitive ultra-catchy-power-pop-guitars-skweeked-to-13-sort-of-record! It would be nice. I have it in my system somewhere. It pops up every other Saturday night when I make silly dance moves."

We didn't have to wait too long for that to happen…

Read more…

Visa: Here we are again, reviewing a new album together. This time, joining in are Thomas, Judith, Colin and I. We'll go through Per Gessle's new album "Party Crasher" song-by-song.
Colin: Yes, we're back! Yet again Per manages to surprise us and create an album that is totally different from anything else he's ever done - and yes, me like!
Judith: I'm very surprised, positively surprised, about this album. I was impressed by "Silly Really" from the first moment, and I actually expected the whole album to be like that, kind of disco feeling "let's dance!". The album, however, contains only a few fast songs. At the beginning one might think "Why is this called 'Party Crasher'?", but after listening to the album a couple of times, I started to understand what the title means to me. This release is a big party, a welcome back. For once, finally, I like most of the songs on the album! Any frequent reader of TDR will know, the past Gessle albums for me have been like "yeah, it's ok but nothing special" and I've forgotten about them after a few listenings and ended up with 2-3 songs of each in my mp3-player. This is totally different this time.
Thomas: Wow, time goes so fast, here is another album by the Man… This is the fifth Aerosol Grey Machine-album, and it sounds nothing like the other four. Let's get it on!

Silly Really

Visa: The first track and single shows the new direction of Per. Gone is the back-to-basics pop-rock of "Mazarin," "En händig man," and "Son of a Plumber," now it's time for computers and dance beats. "Silly Really" stands out on the album. I'm not sure if it's entirely a good thing. It feels a bit more polished, more "produced," if you will, than the other songs. It's hard to say if the other songs have the same hit potential. This song certainly has. And it's going all Michael Jackson-Thriller in the end. Gotta love it!
Thomas: I asked Per about the album's direction sometime this summer, and when he said "Thriller" I assumed he was joking, as usual. But turns out he wasn't! I love this song, it does stand out, but I wouldn't say too much? A perfect album opener, and you just gotta love the video… I do hope this gets a wider release. Remixes anyone??
Colin: Oh yes, let's get this party started (or should I say crashed?) - it kicks off with the single, groovy!

Read more…

12 months have gone by in a flash and it's again the time for The Daily Roxette's annual "Year in review" article.

2007 was something you can call a slow news year - Roxette wise. Per released a Swedish solo album, "En händig man," and did a summer tour, but there was not a single Roxette news article after March 2007.

Late December 2006 and a couple of days later in January 2007, Radio Halland aired an interesting two-part interview with Per Gessle. In the interview Per revealed for the first time that he's working on a new solo album. The reporter had also heard rumors of a summer tour and asked Per about it. According to Per, nothing had been decided at that point and that the "Mazarin" tour had been put together only two months before the premier night. In March the tour looked more likely when Expressen published a story about Per releasing an album soon with a tour following it.

Per also claimed he's working on a follow-up to Son of a Plumber album, but later Per admitted that he was only trying to fool people with it. Although, later in the year, Son of a Plumber did make a surprise comeback…

Read more…

LJUSDAL - Per Gessle approved this biography to be written by old friend and journalist Sven Lindström when Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with cancer. He felt that his story should be told while the people he had been hanging out with were still alive. Immediately the idea came up to use the quotation-technique used in the book "Please kill me," which both Sven and Per regard as a major inspiration. Sven drafted a few pages and sent to Per who immediately changed his mind, he didn't want people talking about him!
Then both Marie and Rolf at EMI got sick, so Per changed his mind again, and here we are!

Read more…

Mikael Bolyos - A Family Affair (EMI MBM 3971032)

Mikael has (somewhat unfairly) come in for quite a bit of criticism from Roxette fans over the years, especially since he started collaborating musically with Marie, as some fans felt that he had moved Marie's music into a direction they didn't like.

The surprising thing is that many of the same fans who criticised Micke's influence on albums such as “The Change” have been very positive about his latest project “A Family Affair”. I actually have really liked the work that Marie has done with her husband, and he was indeed responsible for my favourite song from “The Change”….”Mother”.

Personally, although this album is not going to make as one of my all time favourites of Roxette related material, I like the album a lot. It is a very eclectic mix of styles and sounds incorporating old sixties pop, jazz, eighties pop, and even more modern sounds. I think that this diversity is both the key to the record's success, and its downfall. At times I think it doesn't work very well because it jumps between too many different sounds and lacks cohesion, but then I also think that this is one of the attractions of the album: because it is a very personal collection, almost a story of Micke himself and his family, hence the title “A Family Affair”. Indeed, I can almost imagine Micke, Marie and their friends jamming away in their basement to the songs, as we saw in the Marie's “A Second Chance” documentary a few years ago.

Here are my thoughts on the individual tracks .

Merry Go Round:
A mid-tempo, very Beatles-esque kind of track. A very catchy little number, and one of my favourites. My only slight criticism would be Micke's voice. It's obvious he is not a natural singer. He sings in tune, but it is quite monotone and lacks emotion. However, it doesn't really detract anything from this song, as it is the kind of number that just plods along nicely anyway.

On&On&On:
A slower, bluesier number. Another song with a great hook. Marie is on backing vocals sounding great as usual!

Me & My Guitar:
“Yeah-eah-eah-yeah-yeah”….the song starts with Marie in her best rocky voice that we've come to know and love! This is a faster track, and I don't really think Micke's voice is strong enough to pull it off, but still a nice track.

When the Lord is About to Come:
One of my favourites on the album. A very different sound, with interesting lyrics. A duet with Mats Ronander, though I can't work out who is singing what!

Read more…