2001-04-02
ROXETTE
ROOM SERVICE
724353204327
PRICE CODE: 261-01

You can stop climbing the walls. “Room Service” is here.

In a pop industry where fifteen minutes in the spotlight is considered a success, fifteen years must be considered almost unattainable. But it isn’t the world tours, the awards, all the loyal fans, 40 million albums sold, or 15 million singles that make Roxette unique. It’s the ability to sound as hungry as career-hungry debutants – on their seventh album.

Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are touchingly in agreement that “Room Service” is a return to everything they themselves think defines the term Roxette. “We just wanted to make a clear and straightforward record. No bloated epic. No sought-after hip factor. Twelve concentrated songs and a little over 40 minutes of playing time,” says Per.

The result is an unbeatable collection of potential hit singles that kicks off with the “Real Sugar” sticker and then never really lets go of the listener. Many of the songs have almost self-explanatory titles. That “Make My Head Go Pop” contains a lyrics reference to The Monkees is about as obvious as that “Milk and Toast and Honey” is filled to the brim with self-adhesive melody loops.

“Room Service” can actually be summed up in the sentence, “No one plays Roxette like Roxette.” But it’s not a greatest hits package. It just sounds like that. “This has been the most fun record we’ve ever made. I don’t think there is any other group that sounds like us,” says Marie. “Roxette is not a fabricated band with a stable of songwriters in the back. We are ourselves – there is nothing sought or constructed on the record”, says Per.

So true. “Room Service” is nothing strange at all. Just twelve new songs that will make your head go “pop.” Sweden’s biggest band is back. Badabing, badaboom.