Artist: Roxette
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2011
Duration: 39.30
Rating: 4/5
Sweden’s most successful commercial pop rock export after ABBA, Roxette, are back with their first studio album in ten years. You could say the past decade was one of personal cleansing, growth and serious maturing for Roxette! Neither Marie nor Per sat idle during this time. The tragedy that hit Marie soon after the “Room Service” tour lifted her up and gave her wings. She’s a woman of Abrahamic years now, which she hides damn skillfully, and in 2004 she released the excellent solo album The Change. Per also devoted this period to his solo career with a few releases, and for a while he revived his pre-Roxette band Gyllene Tider. Roxette’s last decade was also marked by best-of compilations. The quiet spell ended in 2009, when the duo started writing material for the new album in the middle of the year and played a few “secret” gigs in Sweden.
“Charm School” brings 12 tracks. They’re all short, as compact as can be, and embody the typical songwriting approach lifted from the commercial pop rock of the eighties. Polished verses and grabby choruses with highly agreeable compatibility. Light, concise, yet sonically full and charming, just as the album’s title hints. A real little school of charm, of short, relaxed, to-the-point moves! Clearly a new outfit that suits the band down to the ground, now that they’re unburdened by any urge to chase hits.
The very first track, Way Out, points to how effectively the reborn Roxette embrace the built-in upgrades of new-era studio technology. At the same time it sketches out their eighties roots on equal footing, with a rocker riff that’s dialed in on the production side (it doesn’t push to the front), grabby in character and not far from flirting with some famous hard rock riffs. Funny thing is, this heavier “counterweight” doesn’t hit the listener right away. Simple as that. It’s craftily worked into the base of the production. Like a spice.
This time the album isn’t rushing anywhere. The songs are mostly mellow, with gentle but concise touches of sophistication and a refined feel for combining colorful musical collages, steering a masterful middle lane between pop and rock. That’s direct proof of the high artistic maturity the duo has reached in 2011. The songs unfold through mildly dark verses, often helped along by Per’s distinctive “indie” vocal, which is very handy for studio manipulation, and then gradually bloom in the atmosphere into highly melodic choruses led by Marie, which is the hallmark of a track like Speak to Me. The album goes deeper in its message than their past work. It’s personal and confessional, without a pinch of sugar or naivety, which was the trademark of the exuberant youthful days of Roxette’s golden era of hits. The intimate moments get under your skin most of all, like the calm I’m Glad You Called, then My Own Way, and especially the particularly subtle and quiet closing of the album with Happy On The Outside and Sitting On The Top Of The World. In all four of these songs, Marie shows off her innate talent and gift for exceptionally sensual interpretation.
Even Roxette and the jangle pop movement find a few shared frequencies in the revival of mild post-punk cosmetics through Only When I Dream, with a true retro sound of velvety, organic-sounding guitars that the song is masterfully dressed in. Per’s acoustic-leaning Dream On deepens the feeling even further. That “jangle” moment comes alive again in After All, which is really a kind of Roxette transcription of The Beatles’ legacy, breathed through the sound principles of a new era, of course, and the “marching” Big Black Cadillac doesn’t hide this flirtation either.
When hunting for the hits of the modern-day Roxette, we obviously can’t get around She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) and Big Black Cadillac. Both songs are built on a very similar principle. A modern, “cybernetic” opening to the verse is followed by an ultra-catchy chorus, deepened and built up melodically by the duo’s recognizable, highly compatible vocal harmonizing.
Roxette packed 12 tracks onto the album, and with the colorfulness and variety of their basic motifs they reach a thrilling dynamic. On top of that, the duo manages, in a very mature and sophisticated way, to steer the album through the waves of many different moods. That shows power, knowledge and talent made flesh, the estate of the greatest acts of the rock era, in other words.
The new album sums up the essence of Roxette really well. It captures the grandeur of an output that sold over 60 million records worldwide over the course of a career, while breathing life into modern production approaches, which proves that time hasn’t run the duo over. Quite the opposite. “Charm School” is a great comeback album that sounds incredibly fresh and offers exactly what the band’s fans demand. The fans have stayed the same at heart. They’ve aged and matured along with the band, so they don’t demand hits from it, only a feeling that can take them back nostalgically to their “teenage” years and the worship of Roxette’s former “heroic” feats. And Roxette have delivered their typical album, just dressed up in the rhetoric of new-era production, which keeps the duo’s essence intact in every way. With “Charm School,” the band stays firmly grounded in its recognizable musical character. It doesn’t force hit-single naivety on you. It wins you over with the depth of its artistic maturity in songwriting and expression. With “Charm School,” they’ve successfully bridged a ten-year break and, full of creative freshness and richer in confession, been born again.
Lineup
Marie Fredriksson – vocals
Per Gessle – vocals, guitar
Christoffer Lundquist – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, programming, string arrangements
Clarence Oefwerman – keyboards, programming, string arrangements
Jens Janson – drums
STRING QUARTET:
Tomas Ebrelius
Emil Carlsson
Johanna Skoglund
Lotta Weber Sjoholm
Production
Clarence Oefwerman, Christoffer Lundquist & Per Gessle
Track list
1. Way Out (2:45)
2. No One Makes It on Her Own (3:42)
3. She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio) (3:33)
4. Speak to Me (3:41)
5. I’m Glad You Called (2:48)
6. Only When I Dream (3:52)
7. Dream On (3:09)
8. Big Black Cadillac (3:05)
9. In My Own Way (3:30)
10. After All (3:15)
11. Happy on the Outside (3:37)
12. Sitting on Top of the World (3:55)
