Roxette – It Just Happens

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I think the first time we could hear about the song It Just Happens was when Marie’s biography was published. It turns out that the song was recorded in September 2014 at Marie’s studio, Vinden. There was Marie, Per, Clarence and Christoffer to record it. In the book you can read it’s a typical Roxette ballad, like It Must Have Been Love, Vulnerable or Spending My Time.

This is what Per said about the song in October 2015:

Yes, I can now confirm that this is true. One of the brand new songs is called IT JUST HAPPENS. And it’s big and bold and done with love. It’s ready for mix, mastering and eventual human digestion. Stay tuned, folks. /P.

Mr. G confirmed in an interview done by Swedish Radio that the single would be out in April and a video is in the making.

It Just HappensThen came 1st April and the cover of the single popped up. Ojojoj. Most of us thought it was an April fools day joke. I mean the layout of the cover. What the hell is that butterfly with sun-go-down wings and guitar ass doing on the cover? It looks like a cheap and weak Photoshop attempt. Then more and more links appeared to the single and that the release date is 8th April. Oh well… it’s not the first time we don’t like the cover of a Roxette album and seeing this, I’m afraid it’s not the last time either. More important is how the song sounds. You know me, I’m usually one with the most positive approach towards Roxette and their stuff, no matter what they do, but this cover put my expectations and excitement at a lower level. So I hoped for an awesome song at least, if the cover is not the funkiest anyway.

Why to wait until the official release date? These days, in the world of digital music consumption new stuff is released digitally first and maybe even sooner than the official date. It has just happened now. The song is already available on Deezer [The link didn’t work for a while, since Deezer was too early to make it public. /PP] and on Roxette’s Soundcloud page. Oh yeah. The cover of the single is really THAT one. Gosh… I try to get over it, I promise.

The song, I thought it would be more of a sung-by-Marie type of typical Roxette ballad, so the first surprise came when I heard Per start to sing.  To me it’s a little bit of Vulnerable, yes, but more Cooper! A Thing About You and Speak To Me also came to my mind while listening to it. It Must Have Been Love? No, the song is definitely not of that caliber, I would say. But I don’t mind. I find the song attractive and powerful, sounds like classical Roxette, but fresh! I love Marie’s high tones and how Marie’s and Per’s voices blend. By the way, is it me or Per really sounds a bit like David Bowie here? The song is on repeat since at least an hour, so counting with its 3:46 length, I listened to it at least 15 times already. And hey, I can already sing along by heart! OK. Me likes the song and I almost forgot about the cover. 😉 Hopefully, there will be a physical release as well.

 

It Just Happens

It’s a cabaret, taking over on a quiet lazy backseat day
And it’s so beautiful
Like the sunshine on your balcony
Just yesterday

Don’t underestimate
Your heart is never late
And love will always find a way

It just happens
You don’t know what’s going on
If it’s new or if it’s been there since long
If it’s right or wrong
You fall in love
You fall in love

You don’t have a say
Just let it slide and close your eyes and watch the passion play
Don’t underestimate
Your heart can never wait
And love will always find a way

You’ll fall in love
It just happens
You’ll fall in love
It just happens

Don’t underestimate
Your heart can never wait
Love will always find a way

It just happens and you don’t know what’s going on

©Per Gessle

 

IJH makes me curious about the rest of the songs on the upcoming album. Hearing how It Just Happens starts, it is for sure not the intro song. Will it be an uptempo hit then? Most probably. We have to wait until 3rd June to find out. That is the release date of the new album. Oh and don’t forget, a video is coming, too! Hopefully, without any butterflies.

 

Per Gessle’s nine Swedish heroes

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Another Thursday, another part of Per Gessle’s podcast. Lovely to listen to. In this one Mr. G and Sven Lindström talk about those Swedish musicians and songs that had an effect on Per’s own music. The chosen songs are again from the ’60s and ’70s. Listen to the podcast or download it from HERE!

Per Gessle’s Top9 Swedish heroes:

9. Ola & The Janglers – Come And Stay With Me
8. Ola Magnell – Nya perspektiv
7. Tages – Fantasy Land
6. November – En Ny Tid Är Här
5. Ted Gärdestad – Come Give Me Love
4. Cornelis Vreeswijk – Balladen Om Fredrik Åkare Och Den Söta Fröken Cecilia Lind
3. Ulf Lundell – Sniglar och Krut
2. Pugh Rogefeldt – Klöver Linda
1. John Holm – Den Öde Stranden

Per has always been an Ola & The Janglers fan, because they have a unique sound. Come And Stay With Me he listened to many, many times. The lead member is called Ola Håkansson, so Per and Sven start talking about their second names and mention Per’s mum called him Per Håkan and Sven’s other name is Magnus. Mr. G says he also listened to Ola Magnell a lot in the ’70s. He is a great songwriter and a fantastic singer. Tages is a band from Gothenburg and Per still likes them very much, their songs still sound great. November is a band that also formed Per’s songwriting, he listened to them a lot as well. He sees November in his world as a pop band. Per listened to Ted Gärdestad a lot when he grew up. Come Give Me Love is one of the nicest and most brilliant Swedish songs, Mr. G thinks. Per compares TG to Paul McCartney. Cornelis Vreeswijk has very good lyrics and he is a unique artist, Per thinks. Ulf Lundell’s best song according to PG is Sniglar och Krut that’s why it’s at No. 3 on his Swedish heroes list. Pugh Rogefeldt’s 2nd album, Pughish is the best Swedish album of all times, with fantastic songs and production. Per chose a song from that album as the 2nd on his list.

No surprise that John Holm is at No. 1 on Mr. G’s list. He is Per’s greatest Swedish idol. You surely remember he met John last year after John’s concert in Halmstad and got a wonderful hug from him. So heartwarming to think about it. Per says John has a very special voice, he does great music and melodies. Den Öde Stranden is a very attractive song to Per, he even covered it on his first solo album in 1983.

Next podcast part will be available next Thursday.

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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.