Per Gessle Albums (8)
What The Critics Say
Roxette were always sort of a guilty pleasure, even among those enlightened souls who understand that a well-deployed pop hook is its own reward. This was largely due to Per Gessle and Marie Fredricksson's lyrics. It's not that they were in any way "wrong" or anything: one of the most enduring urban myths about Swedish bands from ABBA to Roxette to the Cardigans is that their English lyrics were performed phonetically. In fact, English is a compulsory subject in the Swedish school system starting at about the age of seven, and frankly, many Swedes speak better English than some Americans do. It's just that as lightweight and fluffy as the hooks of songs like "Dressed for Success" or "It Must Have Been Love" were, the lyrics were even more insubstantial and meaningless. (In interviews, Gessle has admitted that the first couplet of their breakout hit "The Look," "Walking like a man/hitting like a hammer," had been merely a nonsense placeholder that he never bothered to improve.) It could well be that Gessle's lyrics in his native Swedish are just as dopey, repetitive, and hackneyed as his English lyrics, but many, many fewer English-speaking people are fluent in Swedish than vice versa, and the very real benefit of En Handig Man for that audience is that we can't understand the words! This allows the monolingual listener to appreciate Gessle's very real melodic gifts and knack for bright pop songcraft without distraction. Richly textured and almost entirely lacking in the sterile studio gloss that was Roxette's other major downfall, the 15 songs on En Handig Man are pure power pop in a style that seems likely to capture the fancy of fans of the Raspberries, Paul McCartney, George Michael, and other unapologetic seekers of The Lost Hook. Every track features expertly managed arrangements filled with just-so percussion, wordless falsetto harmonies, crunchy lead guitar riffs, and perfect touches like the female answer vocals on the sunny '60s pop wonder "Samma Gamla Vanliga Visa" and the jaunty clarinet fills on "Dixy," an apparent homage to McCartney's and Ray Davies' shared obsession with the British music hall. Nearly two decades since his international breakthrough, Per Gessle is still an underrated tunesmith, and En Handig Man shows him to his best advantage. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
'The World According to Per Gessle'
Release Date 1/1/1997
Tracks 13
Label Fundamental
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Per Gessle always was the most interesting part of Roxette. While that band did produce some of the catchiest mainstream pop music of the late '80s and early '90s, they often fell back upon weak, overly slick production and on their more Top 40 pop-oriented side, paying less attention to Gessle's excellent rockers. Gessle's gravelly voice and full-throttle guitar attack were always the reasons why Roxette stood out from their peers in the early '90s, and these are the same reasons why Gessle's first English solo album does just the same. Relying mostly on uptempo rockers and much less on ballads, this album is a catchy delight that's a must-have for both Roxette fans and power pop fans -- yes, power pop, not just mainstream pop. The album kicks off with one of the best sequences ever; the chord-heavy "Stupid" transitions to the Roxette-styled rocker "Do You Wanna Be My Baby?" before hitting the unabashed anthem "Saturday" and ending with the disco-driven "Kix." At its best moments, The World According to Per Gessle sounds like the Cars in their heyday, and that's quite a complimentary comparison. Gessle, however, still doesn't quite have as much lyrical skill as the Cars' Ocasek. The album is weighted down by lyrics that range from pedestrian to downright banal (especially in the musically excellent "Reporter"). Still, Per Gessle was never about being deep, he was about creating fun nuggets of three-minute pop, and he's never done it as well as on The World According to Per Gessle. Absolutely essential. ~ Jason Damas, All Music Guide
