The Daily Roxette

Some days before the release of Travelling, the The Daily Roxette team “got together” again to do another (hopefully) classic review of Roxette’s new and highly anticipated album. Travelling is a follow-up to the 1992 album Tourism. Will it hold up? Is it awesome? Does Per wear black nailpolish? The questions are many, and there are actually some answers! Scroll down to the bottom to read our final verdict. Enjoy! (Or feel free to hate it.) The reviewers are Judith Seuma, Kai-Uwe Heinze, Colin van der Bel, Paul Belben and Thomas Evensson. Oh and by the way, click the track titles to hear Roxette's comments about the songs.

1. Me & You & Terry & Julie
Thomas: Per said “This is the craziest song we've recorded in ages - and maybe the best?” Crazy: yes, the best: no. Strange choice for an album opener. But I like it, it’s no “Cadillac,” that’s for sure! Wonderful but weird keyboard solo from Clair. Kudos to Clair for hating “Cadillac.”
Paul: Hey, I still love “Cadillac”!  As I have mentioned to you before Thomas, I love this too.  The verse with Per & Marie’s voices harmonizing is superb! I think it’s a brave move to open the album up with a song like this, but I think it works. It works because it shows that this is a ‘new’ Roxette.  Roxette: ‘The Band’
Thomas: You're nuts. Yes a fresh move so to speak. The more I hear it the more it grows on me. The chorus is a bit like “Soul Deep,” at least the beat.
Kai: This solo has a touch of GT to it. Starting off with a tune that very much reminds me of the middle eight of “Wish You The Best”... later, turning into a “Shopping With Mother” kind of crazy blend of instruments. What a mix, fitting the constantly altering themes of the song! Which to me creates the illusion of a small town train station platform. Calm atmosphere, from time to time interrupted by trains passing through, arriving, people rushing by. Just close your eyes...
Colin: It’s crazy to start an album with a song like this, all quiet at the start and then kick in the drums! It’s really upbeat and uplifting. I can see them start a live show with this one?
Thomas: Not unless it’s a world hit, ha ha!
Paul: Gotta agree with Thomas - can’t see them opening concerts with this.  However, it would make a nice change to “Dressed For Success!”
Kai: Word, Paul. Much better would it have fit to the end of the album. It’s more like a reprise. Not melody-wise, rather it sounds like a summary of this very unusual album. Yet I think we have a much better album closer with “IMHBL”, more about that later maybe.
Does anyone else hear a tad of Gessle’s “Hold On My Heart” demo in the chorus?
Judith: I don’t see a big issue with this song being the opener of the album. But I’ve never been picky on this, I look more at the middle and end of the album, some albums tend to get boring to the extent that you press the “replay album” before it has even finished. I must confess it happens to me sometimes with a couple of Rox & related too. My summary: great start! Makes me want to go on listening. I like the "hidden" sounds.
Paul: Big yawn anyone...??
Thomas: Nope.
Paul: I was referring to the yawn in the 2nd verse...!
Thomas: Ha ha! Duh!

2. Lover Lover Lover
Kai: Ah, this is my train! Steam train, I’d say. Laid back but strong.
Thomas: What a song! I hear Jeff Lynne and George Harrison in this. The guitar solo is sweeeet. A mid-tempo track which I would say sounds a tad like “Church of Your Heart”... if you know what I mean, or rather like the Traveling Wilburys.  One of my favorites.
Paul: The production of this song is superb, along with another fine example of Per and Marie’s voices harmonizing wonderfully.
Colin:  The first time I heard this song I wasn't convinced, but like some of those songs do, it grew on me and eventually found myself humming the melody.
Kai: A tune that will stay in your head for a while. Good old guitar pop. The campfire kind of song. Worth being played in a loop.
Thomas: Indeed! This song sticks in your mind...
Paul: The instrumental section is fantastic. Can imagine this will be added to the concert setlist, especially has Per has mentioned several times that this is his favorite on the album.
Thomas: Yes, Per also says he expects it to show up live.
Kai: Oh, another nice sing-along-song in this case.
Judith: When I heard the 30-second snippet I thought “Beatles!”. I still do after having heard the full song. I have a thing with this album: I still haven’t made up my mind which song (of the new ones) I like best. As Kai says, very much of a campfire-sing-along feeling with this one. Nice!

3. Turn of the Tide
Colin: One of those elusive songs from way back. Most of us knew the title but had never heard the song. I always thought the demo sounded a bit too high for Per’s voice, happy to hear Marie performing this one. Still, for some reason the song doesn’t really do it for me - I rather skip to the next one!
Thomas: I like it! It’s like “I’m Glad You Called” from Charm School only better I guess. Acoustic guitars (“steadily” played by Per, Chris and Clair) with strings, drums and Marie’s voice. Clarence plays around with his ancient keyboards in this as well.
Paul:  I got those goosebumps when I heard this song for the first time.  I’m guessing this is the track that Per was talking about when he said that Marie has just recorded her best vocals since 2000.  The voice sounds amazing!  A very typical Roxette ballad, which could have been recorded in 1991, 1999 or 2001.  In other words: timeless!
Kai: A ride on the bicycle through the fields. Sunny, airy, slightly windy, relaxed. It’s the way they produced ballads during CBB times. Strings, hi-hats, supported by gently weeping guitars. Dreamy mood with a lot of power thanks to Marie’s voice.
Thomas: Yes!
Judith: I had to gasp for air when I heard the song for the first time. Imagine: my mouth open, goosebumps and tears. “What has she done here?” Marie at her best. One of Roxette’s big ballads, but fresh, different. Excellent.
Thomas: What I like most about it is that it starts like “I’m Glad You Called” but grows and explodes almost like “Listen To Your Heart.”

LONDON - After being contacted by lots of fans based in the UK about the delayed release of the "It's Possible" single on the usual retail download sites, The Daily Roxette contacted EMI in the UK to see what the plan was for releasing the new material in the UK.  Today we heard from Head of Marketing, for both EMI UK and EMI Svenska:

There have been several factors contributing to the delay in the UK release of "It's Possible", one of them being some 'fine-tuning' to the music by Roxette.  EMI UK has also used a brand new release solution which unfortunately required more work than first thought.  However, EMI confirmed that the song has now been sent to the UK arms of iTunes, Amazon, Play etc and should be available for download in the next 2/3 days.  

The communication ended with EMI confirming their commitment to Roxette and the release of their forthcoming album Travelling. 

The tracklist of Travelling has now been revealed in full. See below with comments from Per Gessle:

1. Me & You & Terry & Julie
   Terry & Julie are the two youngsters from the Kinks’ "Waterloo Sunset" but everyone knows that, right??? This is the craziest song we've recorded in ages - and maybe the best?
2. Lover Lover Lover
3. Turn of the Tide
   Totally new recording (in Sun City) of a song we never used for Have A Nice Day.
4. Touched by the Hand of God
   Used to be called "Charm School." This track is happier than happy!
5. Easy Way Out
   A country song.
6. It's Possible
   Rocking version á la "Radio," kicks ass!
7. Perfect Excuse
   From Party Crasher, this is a duet between Marie and Helena, I was busy checking things out. This version is not slower, but more acoustic.
8. Excuse Me, Sir, Do You Want Me to Check on Your Wife?
   "Excuse Me Sir" is one of those songs where we sound like Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
9. Angel Passing
   A ballad.
10. Stars [live from Dubai soundcheck]
11. The Weight of the World
    New fabulous mix of the old track.
12. She's Got Nothing on (But the Radio) [live in Rio]
13. See Me
    Totally new recording except Marie's vox. It's amazing!!
14. It's Possible ­[version two]
    Summer version, in Gyllene Tider's "Hjärta utan hem" arrangement.
15. It Must Have Been Love [live in Rotterdam]
    It's the NOTP strings with new drums by Pelle and new vox by Marie, no guitars or anything... Also amazing!

"I must say it looks to me like a fine record," says Per to The Daily Roxette.

MELBOURNE - With just 90 minutes before showtime, I had the great honor of sitting down with Per Gessle back stage at Rod Laver Arena for Roxette's second Melbourne concert. We discussed all topics from Travelling to Charm School to the exciting soon-to-be-announced North American Tour and everything inbetween. Enough talk: enjoy this exclusive Daily Roxette interview.

TDR: OK, so first up, let's talk about Travelling. We've had Tourism 2, 2rism, T2 and now Travelling, how did you finally decide on a title?

PG: My idea was to call it Tourism 2, I thought it sort of made sense because the whole idea with the album was sort of the same (as Tourism) sort of a sequel, but it was actually our record company which didn't like the idea because they said people are gonna get confused and they'll mix it up with Tourism number one, personally, I didn't get that. So then we said, OK, how about T2? But then they said no because a title with a number wasn't good and I said how about the Adele's record 21... and they didn't answer that one (laughs). At the end of the day, Marie and I fooled around with different ideas and I came up with this Travelling thing because it's like, Roxette is travelling at the moment so we decided we liked it even more and chose that instead of having these quarrels all the time... But we kept the same subtitle “songs from studios, stages, hotel rooms and other strange places”. For some reason, some people find things complicated...

TDR: The concept reminded me of the KISS live album(s) Alive, they have Alive 2, Alive 3, Alive 4, sort of a continuing legacy...

PG: ...yeah and I think that's a cool thing. It's like Bat out of Hell...

TDR: ...same as Welcome 2 My Nightmare by Alice Cooper...

PG: ...yeah, for me, I always thought that was a smart commercial move... but obviously I was wrong (laughs) ...but like I said, instead of having a big fight about it, we just decided to use something else and yeah, I guess it was a little confusing for those reading on the websites etc.

TDR: OK, so I'm guessing you're not going to reveal too much about the new album, but what can you tell me and talk me through the structure, how many new songs and so on?

PG: There are quite a lot of new songs, more than we were supposed to have. We came up with certain ideas, I revealed a couple of titles the other day, but I can reveal some more, for instance there is a version of "Perfect Excuse" from Party Crasher sung by Marie, which is a very cool version and it's there because basically, I always wanted to hear Marie sing that song, 'cause it's a beautiful song. On my album it's me singing the verse and Helena is doing the chorus and this is just Marie and Helena singing it, it's very slow and very different to the original...

TDR: ...so you don't sing on that song now at all?

Here are some of the new songs on Travelling, what do you think?

"Me & You & Terry & Julie"
"Lover Lover Lover"
"It’s Possible"
"Excuse Me, Sir, Do You Want Me To Check On Your Wife?"
"Touched By The Hand Of God" (including the happy small town poetry 'I guess my kind of talking was misplaced like hell Just like the "funk" in Art Garfunkel')

P.

PS. Terry & Julie are the two youngsters from the Kinks’ "Waterloo Sunset" but everyone knows that, right???

MELBOURNE - Some quick words from Melbourne to honor Roxette’s return, back since 1995.

The sold out concert at the great Rod Laver Arena (home of the Australian Open Grand Slam) was well worth attending. Having attended so many other Roxette concerts, I don’t think full house in big stadiums was ever a prospect, ever again. Not here... not a single seat was empty!

This reporter though new to the Melbourne scene, was bracing himself to the “unknown Roxette experience”. Melbournians are known for their engagement in any type of Sport and Cultural event. Not one year goes by without having big international acts visiting. And the support is there. Coming from Spain, where we go crazy just by recognizing 3 chords on radio or someone else’s stereo, I was excited to see the band again after an 11 year wait.

Setting the scene, just imagine over 10,000 fans walking toward the stadium from the main strip... we are all there for the same reason. Some though, haven’t seen them since 1992... in fact, my bet was that MOST hadn’t.

As our friend Stevo Petkovic from Sydney pointed out, the concert only took a nice Roxy vibe when the tune was recognized... and so, apart from losing "Opportunity Nox" from the set list, all went well as the build up to the second half of the concert was coming. As a Roxette fan, no flaws... great to see Marie back on stage, and Per and Christoffer running around. However, the audience was quite laid back probably nervous early on that most of the songs would be “new” and so "The Big L." helped everyone get into the mood with "It Must Have Been Love" getting full crowd engagement. Per’s golden nugget obviously paid off, even 25 years after.

SYDNEY - After seventeen years, they came, they saw and they kicked some serious ass!

Australians are a notoriously reserved crowd, our laid back culture unfortunately tends not to lend itself too well to a live rock show, but to their credit, Sydney stepped up its game... and in turn, noticing and responding to the crowd's overwhelming energy, Roxette met their match... and then some!

From the crunching opening chords to "Dressed for Success," Per and Marie were quickly shuffling around the stage busily recreating their standard poses, aware of the photographers at the front, Marie did her usual pouts and Per was jumping around like any well-choreographed classic Roxette music video. It almost seemed like a ritual or initiation to test the temperature of the crowd as the band were posed with a metaphorical question, "do we keep falling into our standard rock clichés and simply jam with our buddies on stage? Or will this crowd do their part and become part of the show and we can relax and let the music take over?" And the answer? Sydney overwhelmingly kicked ass! By the time The Big L started to pound the venue, the band had begun to relax as they were feeding off a starved audience and the show took on a more natural tone as it seemed for this performance, Roxette had recruited a new band member, over 10,000 hungry Roxette fans. From here on in, it got wilder and wilder.

Despite his cocky swagger and vintage swinging guitar rock moves, it was obvious Per was giddy as a school girl, cracking smiles in disbelief, surely a surreal moment knowing that 17 years on, that their once old stomping ground had come out in force to welcome back the band with open arms.

For non-Australian readers, perhaps a little perspective is needed. Roxette has not had a Top 40 single on the Aussie charts since 1994's "Sleeping in my Car," and despite regular airplay of "It Must Have Been Love" on classic FM stations, there was a reason why it took so long for the band to announce an Australian show as part of their tour. Was there enough interest? Roxette had been knocked back not once, but twice from two separate Australian promoters and were insulted during the process when referred to as a "mouldy old project". Live Nation Australia took a punt and 100,000 tickets and 10 shows later, Roxette has confirmed what we, the fans, always knew; last night was more than a rock show, last night was vindication and any Rox-doubters were noted by their absence or they were simply drowned in the hysteria of the crowd. This was a night for the people, this was a night for the starved Roxers who waited patiently, the night belonged to us!

As expected, the crowd reacted overwhelmingly to the "usual" hits and they were perhaps more reserved during their lesser known tracks but a true testament to the band and their talent was the thundering reception they received post "7Twenty7." The crowd weren't familiar with this guitar thumping track, after all, Have A Nice Day only peaked at #62 on the ARIA Charts, but despite their unfamiliarity, a wild applause at the conclusion of the song erupted as the Sydney Entertainment Centre had just witnessed one of the greatest live performance from a pop... err, rock band, they had ever seen, and the beaming smile emanating from Clarence Öfwerman's face post his psychedelic keyboard solo confirmed just that!

Here is a special Christmas greeting from Marie and Per:

2011 turned out to be something very special indeed. We don’t really know where to start! The ”She’s Got Nothing On”-single that made it all the way to the-4th-most-played-song-in-the-world for a couple of weeks? The Charm School album that felt like the perfect comeback for this young couple? Or The World Tour that kicked off in February? Oh yeah, let’s start there!

No one expected this kind of reception we got from you guys, we couldn’t even dream of filling huge arenas again. Almost 800,000 people came to the shows this year. That’s an awful lot of tickets!

And you know, we say it again and again, nothing would have been possible without the support, friendship, love + affection we get on a daily basis from YOU; The Rox Aficionados all over the world!!! You make things so much easier.

We certainly hope we’ll meet all of you again in 2012. Looks like this tour will have another 65 shows to go before the finale in October. New cities + new countries are in the can as well as some jolly returns to favourite places.

And, hey, as we’re writing this... we’re just wrapping up the recordings of the new T2 – Tourism 2-album. It feels like we’re having a splendid one coming up, recorded while touring, filled with the positive energy from you + from the superb bunch of musicians we’re blessed to work with.
We la-la-la-la-love it! Have a feeling you’re gonna love it too!

So, folks…..have a wonderful xmas + a mighty 2012.

Cheers,
Marie + Per

As you may or may not know, before every tour Per spends a night in front of his stereo system with a bottle of wine to put together the perfect mix tape to play while fans all over the world wait for Roxette to come on stage. This tour is no different. If you have access to Spotify, just click the link. Songs marked with * are not available on Spotify.

Rox World Tour 2011 II by Mr. Gee

Eddie & the Hot Rods, Do anything you wanna do
Madness, My girl
Lynn Anderson, Rose garden
Kraftwerk, The model
The Mascots, A sad boy
Madonna, Dress you up
Kirsty MacColl, Days
The Marvelettes, Please Mr. Postman
Kleerup, Longing for lullabies (w/ Titiyo)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Make sure you click on the jump to read Paul's exclusive interview with Per and a particularly well-written comment from Tholmes1138. Note also the addition of a link to a reader's full account of the show.]

LONDON – After a long 17 year wait, Roxette finally brought their epic World Tour to the UK last night.  Wembley Arena was packed to the rafters with about 12,000 fans who, in this reporters opinion, were full of energy and sang along to all of the songs.  

The setlist was, as expected, identical to previous concerts in the re-launched tour (minus "Soul Deep" within "......Radio") and both Per and Marie were in top shape, so we won't cover much on the actual show. However, Chris did an amazing, frenzied version of "God Save The Queen" as the "Joyride" intro.

For a more complete report and review, Brandon Veevers, one of our readers who won a slot at the Meet & Greet, filed this report afterwards for a UK entertainment site.

The Meet and Greet, organised through this newspaper in conjunction with d&d Management and Live Nation, was a great success.  The fans that were lucky enough to win our contest were each able to have one item signed by Marie and Per. One such item was a rare blue vinyl edition of Marie's "Ännu doftar kärlek."  Marie was clearly very surprised when she saw this!  

The Daily Roxette also managed to grab some time with Per for an interview and to answer some questions put to him by you, the readers of TDR!

Photos of the show and Meet & Greet to follow...

(Click read more for the exclusive pre-show interview with Per.)