Roxette Albums (6)
What The Critics Say
If proof were needed that Roxette are the new ABBA, the lack of critical respect should be enough. Like Abba, Roxette is a masterful pop band (with just the right amount of kitsch in its armor) that routinely gets slagged off for lacking substance, whatever that may be. Room Service showcases a band at the top of its form with its feet firm on the pedal: this album is a case study in songcraft and pop smarts. With its na-na-na choruses and sparkly guitars, Room Service is also trademark Roxette, a mostly no-surprises package that divides its time between the soaring, emotive power ballads and the rife-with-hooks rock-dance stompers that the band pretty much took patents out on back in the '80s and '90s. This is a group that has gotten really good at what it is doing, without getting bored doing it. Result? Probably the best Roxette album since Joyride. Opening tracks "Real Sugar" and "The Centre of the Heart" with their now-rock, now-disco, always-pop attack are effortless up-tempo smashes that deliver an unstoppable one-two sucker punch. On the other hand, "Milk and Toast and Honey" and "Bringing Me Down to My Knees" are big-ticket slow-burners that are as good as adult contemporary gets. "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" burgles the "Just a little bit" refrain from Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and uses it to spike the sort of lush, half-pensive ballad that Roxette can toss off in its sleep by now. "You Make My Heart Go Pop" is a noisy, overproduced Top-Ten-here-we-come sparkler that'll zoom straight to the trash-magnet center of your brain and stick there for weeks on end. This album also shows a lyrically sharper Roxette, less eager than before to compromise the words for the hooks. Sure, they may occasionally slip into cliché and overt sentimentalism, but they're never less than tuneful. Both Per Gessle and Marie Frederiksson are in fine vocal form, especially Marie, who's equally proficient whether she's doing elegiac laments or burning the house down. Room Service is an exciting, immediate, high-gloss pop gem that contains very little filler indeed. On it Roxette may not be making any great leaps forward, but when you're in such a great place why bother moving? ~ Leslie Mathew, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
In the five years between Roxette's last album, Crash, Boom, Bang, and this, their "comeback" album, pop music had changed considerably. Crash, Boom, Bang failed, in part, because it was completely out of step with the times; in 1994 grunge, alternative, and rap ruled the charts, but Roxette always produced a relatively crisp and clean brand of pop/rock. In the five years since then, however, Brit-pop brought alternative rock back towards pop, electronica made dance music "cool" again, and bubblegum pop bands like the Spice Girls made unabashed pop fun again. Also, Per Gessle was fresh off from his very rock-oriented 1997 solo album. What resulted, then, was really rather ambitious. Have A Nice Day is an effort to encapsulate Roxette's trademark sound with Brit-pop and electronica, and, by gosh, it works. It's easily as good as any other Roxette album, save maybe only the stellar Joyride, and it shows that artistically the band is still on top. There's a good deal of emphasis on dance music here, but instead of the indistinguishable dance-pop of the band's early days, the beats seem to be borrowed straight from Fatboy Slim records. That, mixed with Gessle's gritty guitars, makes for a good deal of up-tempo rockers ("Crush on You," "7Twenty7," "Stars"). There are also some excellent pop songs, such as the single "Wish I Could Fly" and Gessle's unforgettable "You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone," quite possibly the best song he's ever written. As is the case with any Roxette album, however, there are flaws, namely the presence of filler, mostly in the form of pace-destroying ballads. It's a small price to pay, however, for the return of one of the best mainstream pop bands in the past decade. ~ Jason Damas, All Music Guide
'Baladas En Espanol'
Release Date 1/14/1997
Tracks 12
Label EMI International
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson exploded onto the pop radar screen with Look Sharp!, which spawned four big hits: the bright, shiny "The Look," the punchy, hopeful "Dressed for Success," the A/C-leaning "Dangerous," and the bland, overproduced "Listen to Your Heart." The cuts that weren't released as singles aren't necessarily filler, but they also aren't as strong as many of the cuts that made up Roxette albums that followed, particularly Joyride and Tourism (Songs From Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places). The non-releases are nothing memorable, and they don't age well, "Paint" and "Dance Away" in particular being pretty average in terms of production and melody. Only "Chances" and "Shadow of a Doubt" show glimmers of the skills the duo would soon flourish. Gessle and Fredriksson became artists at crafting superb pop melodies and surrounding them with amazing production, so think of this album as basic training. ~ Bryan Buss, All Music Guide
