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. 😉

 

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9 songs Per Gessle wishes he had written

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As we already informed you about it, Per has his own podcast on Swedish radio together with Sven Lindström. The first part was made available this morning. Listen to the 57-minute-long show HERE!

It’s about 9 songs Mr. G wishes he had written. Earlier on Nordic Rox there was a Twelve Peaks show where Per listed 12 songs he wished he had written and discussed his choice with Sven. The list from today is completely different, which shows there are many awesome so well written songs mainly from the ’60s.

It’s always very entertaining to listen to these 2 pop nerds who know everything about music. They know when the songs came out, if those hits were on the charts and at which position, who the songwriter is, etc. While they are talking about the songs on the list, of course Per’s songwriting is a topic as well. This way they relate to Roxette and Gyllene Tider. Per and Sven also discuss what songs they were listening to in the ’60s and ’70s and how those songs effected them.

Here are the Top 9 songs Mr. G came up with during the show:

9. Petula Clark: Downtown (1963)
8. The Byrds: Goin’ Back (1967)
7. The Carpenters: Yesterday Once More (1973)
6. B.J. Thomas: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head (1969)
5. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Something Big (1981)
4. The Young Rascals: How Can I Be Sure (1967)
3. The Kinks: Waterloo Sunset (1967)
2. Astrud Gilberto: Never My Love (first released by The Association in 1967; Astrud G. in 1968)
1. The Beach Boys: God Only Knows (1966)

Per says he remembers he was listening to her sister’s singles when he was 8-9 years old. Besides Presley’s Jailhouse Rock and The Beatles, Petula Clark was also among those singles. He says he was never a real fan of The Carpenters, because it’s a bit too nice music for him, but Yesterday Once More is a well-produced song, it has a feel-good feeling and he loves the sha-la-la-la in it. He mentions that one of the songwriters he likes the most is Burt Bacharach. They also talk about B.J. Thomas and they have no clue what his real name was (Billy Joe Thomas). Per says Tom Petty always had an important place in his heart, he likes his lyrics and his storytelling style. How Can I Be Sure charmed him with its damn good lyrics and the waltz tempo. Terry and Julie from Waterloo Sunset appear in the Roxette song Me & You & Terry & Julie. All in all, these 9 songs are either catchy pop songs or wonderful love ballads, they are easy to listening to and all of them are masterpieces. One can’t stop listening to them.

The show is an awesome listening even if you don’t speak Swedish. Hearing 2 friends chatting, having much fun while talking about their favourite topic, laughing a lot, kidding each other. Fab start into the day! Is it next Thursday yet?

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Poll! Marie’s biography in other languages?

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Picture by Patrícia Peres

karlekentill_inb_lowMarie’s biography “Kärleken till livet” was released in Sweden in October 2015. There was huge interest for the book in Sweden, as the fans who travelled to Stockholm for the signing session in December could appreciate. Long queues to get to meet Marie and get the book signed by Marie herself and the co-author Helena von Zweigbergk.

We also know that many of you don’t speak Swedish and are longing to read Marie’s biography. The book should really be available in as many languages as possible and reach as many people as possible. For its strength, the story of a fight for life, for inspiration.

We heard some bits of information last year about the book being translated into other languages like English. Now we have been informed that a literary agent is working to sell translation rights in order to make Marie’s biography book available in other languages and your input regarding the language you would like to read the book in is very much appreciated!

Please answer this question until end of this week:

[yop_poll id=”20″]

We will forward the results to the literary agent and Marie’s management by early next week.

 

 

 

Video to the new Roxette single

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As you could read in our article this morning, Per starts a radio podcast on 24th March. A great chance to practice your Swedish by listening to 2 nerds chatting about music.

Today Per visited Swedish Radio P4 Halland and talked about the podcast. In the short interview he also mentioned that he is busy with other things as well. Besides that he started his own record label Space Station 12, there are also a lot of things happening around Roxette. The new album is out in summer, the single is out in April and he confirmed there will be a video to the single which they are shooting next week. Too cool!

Another interesting thing Mr. G mentioned is that they are playing 18 shows in Europe this summer. We know about 14 dates so far, so there are at least 4 more to come. Sounds promising!

Listen to Per HERE!

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Per Gessle’s podcast on Swedish Radio

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According to today’s news, Per Gessle will have a podcast on Swedish Radio P4 together with Sven Lindström. The title of the program is Gessles nio i topp (Gessle’s Top 9).

It will premiere on 24th March and will have 10 parts:

  • 24 March: Nio låtar jag önskar att jag skrivit (Nine songs I wish I had written)
  • 31 March: Nio svenska hjältar (Nine Swedish heroes)
  • 7 April: Nio bästa sångerskorna (Nine best female singers)
  • 14 April: 60-tal – de nio just nu bästa (’60s – the nine best right now)
  • 21 April: 70-tal – de nio just nu bästa (’70s – the nine best right now)
  • 28 April: 80-tal – de nio just nu bästa (’80s – the nine best right now)
  • 5 May: Nio new wave från England (Nine new wave songs from England)
  • 12 May: Nio bästa producenterna i rockhistorien (Nine best producers in rock history)
  • 19 May: Nio bästa Beatleslåtarna sjungna av John Winston Lennon (Nine best Beatles songs sung by John Winston Lennon)
  • 26 May: Nio bästa gitarriffen i rockhistorien (Nine best guitar riffs in rock history)

How exciting! Listening to Per and Sven talking about music is one of the best things in life. And now we will have some ear candy each Thursday!

When Per was asked about the idea by Per Scholander from P4, he never hesitated. He says it was obvious to say yes.

Sven and I like to talk at once and have no respect for each other’s opinions. Perfect breeding ground for a podcast.

The podcast will be available HERE!

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