On February 11 the unlikely becomes reality. After 25 years
as a world-famous act with 70 million albums sold, one of Sweden's biggest pop
groups steps back into the spotlight, a decade after their last studio album "Room
Service".
They do it with "Charm School", a new album with
twelve songs in a style that's best described as "updated classic Roxette",
from the initial power pop fireworks of "Way Out" to the bittersweet
closer "Sitting On Top Of The World".
The chances that this would
ever happen looked slim when Marie Fredriksson in the autumn of 2002 was diagnosed
with a brain tumour. But Marie managed to defeat the illness, and during 2009
the pieces gradually fell together.
First Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle
were reunited on stage to perform "It Must Have Been Love" and "The
Look" during Per's "Party Crasher" tour in Amsterdam. And before
the fans knew it, Roxette made a full-scale comeback as headliners during the
"Night of the Proms" tour in front of more than 600 000 people in Holland,
Belgium and Germany.
"By then we started to think ahead and plan for
the possibility of making a new album - an album that captured everything that's
good about Roxette while still looking ahead", says Per Gessle. Said and
done. During the tour, the band's hotel rooms were transformed into recording
studios where a string of new Roxette songs took shape.
Back home in Sweden
the work continued during the spring and autumn of 2010. Just as when the band
recorded during their heyday there were lots of songs to choose from. The sensitive
ballad "In My Own Way", for example, is a rediscovered gem from 1984,
when the dream of international recognition still was just a dream.
The
album's first single is the extremely infectious groove-master "She's Got
Nothing On (But The Radio)". The single will be released digitally on January
7. In-between there's everything that has made Roxette one of the world's most
radio played pop groups; the clinging melodies, the passionate delivery, the humorous
pop sense and the unique mix of Marie Fredriksson's and Per Gessle's voices. All
wrapped up in a musical package that is unmistakably 2011.
"For me
the starting point has always been to write songs for Marie's voice. She got this
ability to make you believe every word she sings, and that's why she brings the
stories to life. As a songwriter that's an incredible gift to be a part of",
Gessle says.
The album is recorded in the south of Sweden and Stockholm
with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundqvist as producers (together with
Per and Marie). "Charm School" is a magnificent return to form after
ten years of trials and challenges. Or as Marie Fredriksson sings in one of the
album's quintessential tracks: "No One Makes It On Her Own". Hear the
school bell ring on February 11.
'Charm School' is available now.
