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Crazy ‘Bout You Baby – new single by Marie Fredriksson

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On Tuesday, 30th May, Marie Fredriksson would have turned 65. In the series of jazz and blues singles that were very close to Marie’s heart and that have been released, both before and after Marie’s passing, now comes a cover of Ike & Tina Turner’s song Crazy ‘Bout You Baby. The song was recorded in 2003 at Polar Studios after the recording of Marie’s solo album The Change. As a tribute to Marie and as a thank you to all the fans, the song is now being released – 20 years after it was recorded. It is a reminder of Marie’s versatility and greatness as an artist and how her musical legacy continues to live on.

Listen to the song HERE or on YouTube!

Vocals: Marie Fredriksson
Guitar: Staffan Astner
Drums: Nicci Notini
Bass: Peter Forss
Electric piano: Mikael Bolyos

It’s very sad that Tina Turner passed away 2 days before this release, at the age of 83, after a long illness.

 

Gyllene Tider – Detektiv is out!

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Gyllene Tider’s last surprise in their 40th anniversary year is to release a limited edition 7″ vinyl single in 500 copies on 6th December! Their new song, Detektiv is going to be on side A and 2, so far unreleased song versions, Tuff tuff tuff (som ett lokomotiv) and Du måste verkligen skämta will appear on side B. The B-side won’t be released digitally, but Detektiv is already out today on all streaming sites (Spotify, Deezer, iTunes).

Detektiv is not a completely unknown song to hardcore fans. It’s the Swedish recycling of Detective Jones. The guys recorded it in France for their last album, but as Per says, ”it’s an uptempo one, very catchy. But it didn’t fit the album. We’re old fashioned.” So it became a left-over song from Samma skrot och korn and is now out separately on single and on the compilation album. It’s nice to hear the detective story now in Swedish. Funny thing is that he doesn’t have a name in the Swedish version. Could have been Detektiv Johansson?

Tuff tuff tuff (som ett lokomotiv) was recorded in the rehearsal studio in Harplinge on 1st January 1981. Per’s comment to this song was: ”You may wonder how New Year’s Eve was…” Someone had a cold, that’s for sure.

Du måste verkligen skämta is a late jam session from the recordings of Finn 5 fel! down in Skåne. It’s a very… ehm… Per says it’s ”old fashioned stuff made with 90% joy + 10% wine!” Haha. You will have to judge it yourself once you hear it.

The limited edition single is already sold out in all webshops, but rumor has it there will be a few copies available in record stores in Sweden on release day. All three songs are much fun, so it’s worth trying your luck with obtaining 1 of those 500 copies.

Those who are not able to get hold of the physical single can enjoy Detektiv online and on the GT40 Hits! Made in Halmstad compilation being out also on 6th December. HERE you can check the details of that release.

Now, sing along!

Detektiv

De reste fort
En enkel plan, de ville få det gjort
De såg en kvinna på kvarterets krog
Hon märkte knappast att en slägga slog
Man hittade henne i en hög i en skog

Ännu ett fall för vår detektiv
Han zoomar objektiv så du kan sova
Ett SOS till vår detektiv
Hans styrka är massiv så du kan sova

Det fanns en man
Han skrev på nätet, allt var nästan sant
Sen föll han ner ifrån sitt trånga rum
Från sin balkong och grannen hon är stum
Allt är ett stort mysterium

Ett typiskt fall för vår detektiv
Han zoomar objektiv så du kan sova
Ett SOS till vår detektiv
Han visar nio liv så du kan sova

I vår stad
Där mörkret gömmer mörkermän
I vår stad
Han kikar vid en persienn

Ännu ett fall för vår detektiv
Han kryssar av motiv så du kan somna
Märkta ess för vår detektiv
Trimmad och effektiv så du kan somna om

Vår detektiv
Vår detektiv

© Per Gessle/Jimmy Fun Music

 

 

Roxette’s new single “It Just Happens” out tomorrow; album out on June 3

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April 8th is a special date for Roxette, as on that day back in 1989 Roxette reached #1 on the Billboard with The Look, their first number 1 in USA and the song that meant their brIt Just Happenseakthrough.

Twenty-seven (yes, 27!) years later, Roxette has decided to release their new single “It Just Happens” on this date. This is the first single off “Good Karma”, Roxette’s 10th album that will be released on June 3rd. The album will also be released on vinyl!

In the press release sent out today, Per explains “we wanted to mix the classic Roxette sound with a modern and somehow unpredictable production to create an interesting sound where one can both recognise us and experience something new”. The song “was one of the first songs written for the album and quickly became one of the key songs” and was therefore chosen as the first single.

Promotion for the song has just started, do not miss the butterfly on all social media! This is going to be a great 30th anniversary year!

Expressen (rating 3/5, “the production has style and fantasy”) and Aftonbladet (rating 3/5, stating the song is “surprisingly good” and “who would have thought Roxette do have so strong and melancholic melodies in 2016?”) also already reviewed the single.

 

The track list of the album is as follows:Good Karma

01. Why Don’tcha?
02. It Just Happens
03. Good Karma
04. This One
05. You Make It Sound So Simple
06. From a Distance
07. Some Other Summer
08. Why Don’t You Bring Me Flowers?
09. You Can’t Do This to Me Anymore
10. 20 bpm
11. April Clouds

Roxers’ favourite Roxette studio album covers

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Some days ago we asked you to list your Top3 favourite Roxette studio album covers. We got a lot of comments and after the collage had been shared both on Roxette’s official Facebook page and Instagram account, there were even more votes. It seemed to be obvious which covers would end up at the Top3 positions, but I was curious about the exact results. It’s of course not a representative sample, but who else could judge Roxette’s album covers better than Roxers?

After checking all the comments, I counted the votes / mentions and found out the Top2 were indeed quite obvious. Most people voted for Joyride and Look Sharp!. I would say the difference between the number of votes is so tiny, the 2 covers are equally strong. The third position is occupied by Crash! Boom! Bang!, but Tourism was very close to become the third as well. The difference is quite small here, too. The 5th best cover according to Roxers is that of Room Service.

The remaining 4 covers are well behind any of those in the Top5. No surprise poor Travelling (which was released 4 years ago today, by the way) is at the end of the list. I remember how excited we all were about the new album in 2011 and 2012 and when the cover was shared on Facebook, tons of us first thought it was a joke and that it couldn’t be the final design. Not that it wasn’t funny to see BoJo on the sleeve, but… ehm… Then we decided, OK if the content is awesome, we don’t really care about the cover. The songs turned out to be fab, so the sin made with the album cover was forgiven, so to say.

We like busy covers only if there is a real concept behind them (see Tourism) and we love professional, artistic photos of Marie and Per on the sleeve. We are not into weird Photoshop attempts (see Travelling) and busy covers with seemingly no concept behind them (see Charm School). Don’t get us wrong, we love seeing such non-pro pics, but it works much better on social media sites or in books than on album covers.

These days when music is consumed rather digitally, it might be even more important to have a great cover to catch the attention of those who still go and buy CDs at record shops. Come to think of it, even for digital use it is important to have a good-looking sleeve. At least I prefer seeing a clear, eye-catching cover pic on Spotify and similar sites when I listen to music either on computer or on my smartphone.

So anyone in charge of the upcoming album cover design, please make an attractive one! Now you can see which directions Roxers prefer. 😉

 

Roxette_studio_album_covers

 

Swedish Hitz Goes Metal – Vol. 2

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Swedish Hitz Goes Metal Vol IIYou surely remember the first Swedish Hitz Goes Metal album from 2011, as it included 4 Roxette covers, The Look, Joyride, Sleeping in My Car and Listen to Your Heart. Now it’s been announced that a second album is on its way, being released on 25th October.

 

According to the official tracklist, there is no Roxette cover on the worldwide release, BUT the Japanese edition will contain Dressed for Success. Somehow the song is already on YouTube, so you can listen to it by clicking here.

 

 

Original tracklist for the worldwide release:

01. Dancing Queen (ABBA)
02. Don´t Stop The Music (ROBYN)
03. Alive (DA BUZZ)
04. One Of Us (ABBA)
05. Tiger (ABBA)
06. Does Your Mother Know (ABBA)
07. Rock Me (ABBA)
08. Voulez-Vous (ABBA)
09. Take A Chance On Me (ABBA)
10. All About The Money (MEJA)
11. Euphoria (LOREEN)
12. My Favourite Game (THE CARDIGANS)

 

Japanese release:

01. My Favourite Game (The Cardigans) (4:00)
02. Dancing Queen (ABBA) (3:34)
03. Tiger (ABBA) (2:57)
04. Don’t Stop The Music (Robyn) (3:35)
05. One Of Us (ABBA) (3:49)
06. Rock Me (ABBA) (3:27)
07. Alive (Da Buzz) (3:19)
08. Dressed For Success (Roxette) (3:36)
09. Does Your Mother Know (ABBA) (3:23)
10. Take A Chance On Me (ABBA) (4:27)
11. Voulez-vous (ABBA) (5:08)
12. All’Bout The Money (Meja) (4:00)
13. Euphoria (Loreen) (Bonus Track For Japan) (3:34)