”Vi har nåtts av det tråkiga beskedet att sångerskan Marie Fredriksson gått ur tiden. För många i vårt land, även i min familj, är hennes musik nära förknippad med minnen från särskilt viktiga stunder i livet”. King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Swedish: SVT NYHETER (Sveriges Television AB), English: Wikipedia
-We have been struck by the sad news that singer Marie Fredriksson has passed away. For many in our country, even in my family, her music is closely associated with memories from particularly important moments in life.-
The Swedish king’s sympathetic words upon the passing of Marie Fredriksson described the legacy of Roxette and Marie the best. Since Roxette shocked the rest of the world outside of their native Sweden with “The Look” in 1989, their numerous masterpieces were the staples of our daily lives. Their aggressive rock songs such as “The Look”, “Dressed for Success”, “Soul Deep”, and “Hotblooded” instantly heated up their fans with positive joy. “Church Of Your Heart” was a perfect wedding song. Roxette was also notable as a hitmaker duo of winter heartbreak ballads. “Listen to Your Heart”, “Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)”, and “It Must Have Been Love”….different heartbreak stories, always cold winter like Sweden. Many fans might find similarities with the bitter love stories behind those lyrics. Their music shareable with our life stories is one of the reasons Roxette still maintains their high popularity along with their eternal masterpieces.
I love all three albums in Roxette’s golden era equally. Look Sharp!, Joyride, and Tourism…I really can’t compare. I write about Look Sharp! because that was the album that blow my mind like their many other fans.
Look Sharp!, “The Look”…those titles had already described Roxette’s crash landing in America perfectly back in 1989 when they were still unknown out of Sweden.
Americans had never really seen a female/male duo like them before although they might look similar to other hair bands. We made a look at a blond, sparky, short-haired slender beautiful lady in tight black leather pants and a black sparky-haired dude singing, and both looked sharp playing their guitars together. And they had techniques. “Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer”…the shock was hitting like a hammer, both in looks and sound.
No, we really hadn’t heard that type of sound before, even though, again, that might sound familiar. Absolute rock, completely glam, but not metal unlike glam metal occupied the 80s music scene. Sounded rockabilly influenced but not rockabilly. Musically stylish, “The Look” was more glam than typical American glam metal in the era. A lot of sharp and cutting guitar sounds were buffering all over the rock song. The sound was futuristic. And the duet. The rusty male voice and the big, sharp, female rock voice. Enough to get addicted along with the catchy melodies. Roxette didn’t sell any sexuality, beauty, or trends, but instantly influenced new fans with unforgettable excitement. They became crazy rushing to record stores and requesting the song to radio stations across the U.S. It was a matter of time before Roxette became a new rock star with many manias just like the album cover of Look Sharp! became reality, but 8 weeks prior to the #1 position of “The Look”, nobody knew Roxette in the promised land. At least when the album was released, the album cover was their fantasy.
Roxette’s rock sensation suddenly popped up like a rocket from Minneapolis, another north wonderland that held many unique talents like Prince, Babes in Toyland, Soul Asylum, and Doomtree (I like P.O.S.). Look Sharp!, Roxette’s second studio recording album initially released only in Europe in 1988, was a too-good-to-be-true rock success story in the U.S. and beyond. An American exchange student was hooked up to the album while studying in Sweden and brought the CD to his hometown’s radio station after returning to Minneapolis in the winter of 1989. The radio station initially ignored his request to play. Obviously, the radio station wasn’t hyped about the new style, especially European. Typical in the era. Only interested in mainstream trends for their dollars and didn’t want to waste their time on new discoveries. They just neglected the CD. But after they once tried, they were also hooked up instantly. The radio station finally played “The Look” on the air, and the rest is history. At that time, Roxette even didn’t have a recording contract in the U.S.
“The Look” instantly spread all over America and became heavy rotation across radio stations nationwide…and MTV/VH1. They took only 8 weeks to bring Roxette to #1 stardom from the totally unknown. The third Swedish musician to achieve number 1 on Billboard Hot 100. No internet and no streaming service in 1989. Absolutely no YouTube, either. The music industry heavily relied on radio stations and MTV/VH1 other than concerts. The problem with the media was stereotypes…and being closed to foreigners. They didn’t want to take risks (at that time, the U.S. was in the middle of a long economic depression). Sweden had had a few musicians successful in the U.S. Particuraly Europe around that time. Yngwie Malmsteen, ABBA, Blue Swede…that’s it. Europe and Yngwie gained success in the U.S. after the concert tours. Roxette made a very rare breakout through radios and TV as a foreign band. And the breakout spread out overseas.
The sensation was the same with me who was a high school student. My classmate brought a tape to me saying he discovered a cool band that shocked the American market. We didn’t neglect the tape like the Minneapolis radio station. We listened to the first song, “The Look”, and it was a brain blow by electric waves. “So fucking cool!!”. We immediately became Roxette manias by the time listening to the whole album. A few years later, I made it to Roxette’s concert at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA during their “Join The Joyride” tour.
My friend and I were actually heavy metal kids, but Roxette’s style had a lot of appeal to us. First, they were guitar-oriented with a bunch of unforgettable riffs and melodies. “The Look” was absolutely guitar-oriented with sticky metallic riffs. “Dressed for Success”, the guitar was so boogie. “Dance Away”, “Chances”, and “Dangerous”…many songs featured cool guitar sounds. Even the rock ballad “Listen to Your Heart” mainly featured thick layers of dramatic and sentimental guitars except in the beginning. Of course, it was because Per Gessle, one of the duo, was a guitarist/vocalist. Personally, Per Gessle using Rickenbacker was a huge plus. Rickenbacker is my favorite guitar.
Another instant appeal was Marie Fredriksson’s vocal. The rock voice. Solid like steel. Strong, powerful, and straightforward without losing femininity and catchiness. No matter what type of songs she sang, either powerful “Dressed for Success” or emotional “Listen to Your Heart”, Marie’s voice was always attractively rock. And her voice made perfect chemistry with Per’s glamorous guitar sounds and contributed to making Roxette the one and only. Marie wasn’t the main vocalist of “The Look”, the first song of the album when Roxette was introduced to the world, but why did fans gain the impression that Marie was the face of Roxette and a main vocalist? Not because she was a female. It was because she had an impressively powerful voice. Upon listening to the beginning of Marie’s voice on the second “Dressed for Success”, the intro consisted of “yeah, yeah, yeah”, my impression was “oh, shit!” with her banging vocal performance, and the initial impression continued throughout the album even today. Per had an impressive husky voice, too, and the odd characteristics of their voice made Roxette different from other bands. But Marie’s voice was the front runner of Roxette.
The most notable thing of the album was, needless to say, many everlasting songs. Should I name those masterpieces again? Still vivid and never fade even after 35 years. The album is still my heavy rotation, and so are other Roxette fans. “The Look” is perfect when we feel like gaining attention. “Dressed for Success”, “Dance Away”, and “Dangerous” were energizers. When you’re endearing someone you can’t be together yet, “Sleeping Single” is for you. We all have been there. For the stormy love, “Shadow of a Doubt”. And “Listen to Your Heart”. Be honest. How many people did listen to the song when we were in the process of making a difficult choice about love? How many people did listen to your heart while thinking about ending love by listening to the song? I did. Many times. While listening to the beautifully heavy yet sad frosty melodies. “Closely associated with memories from particularly important moments in life”…indeed. Most of the songs were composed by Per Gessle, he was absolutely a fanatics songwriter.
The promotional video for “Listen to Your Heart” also made me attracted to beautiful Sweden. The roofless Borgholm Castle in southern Sweden was a mysterious Scandinavian cultural heritage for me. Not only “Listen to Your Heart”, but Roxette also showed beautiful Stockholm through the video of “Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)”. I definitely want to visit Sweden and the castle.
Roxette made a fortunate start of success in the U.S. compared with other foreign musicians in the era. First, they succeeded to implant their new fans that Roxette was a rock band, not a ballad band, with the mega-hit “The Look”. Many ballad hits followed, which were amazing because they were all beautiful songs, but Roxette broke the tradition to fall into another “ballad band” category because they kicked start with their hardest rock song in the U.S. and the majority of the world (although I’m sure the most of the rock bands in the era didn’t target their ballads as the main source of success). They still maintained hit rock songs, “Dangerous” and “Dressed for Success” as well. The first impression is very important. If their first success was “Listen to Your Heart”, the history would be different. The rock-inspiring band name, which was taken from a song title of a British band, Dr. Feelsgood, also contributed to providing the rock band impression. The second was they were never a one-hit-wonder. While many foreign artists disappeared from the U.S. scene after one hit song, Roxette gained equivalent success with the next Joyride album and another number 1 rock song with the same title. Roxette became a hot hitmaker between 1989 and 1992.
Roxette itself is no longer active after the passing of Marie Fredriksson in 2019, resulted from her long battle with cancer after a brain tumor. Marie was a true fighter. She never gave up. She continued making music and international concert tours until the very last possible time. Many fans, including me, were encouraged by her bravely. And Per Gessle perfectly supported Marie’s strong will to continue the music. “She’s a juvenile scam, never was a quitter…”. Marie, you were never a juvenile scam like your number one song but indeed tough like that and never a quitter.
I also would like to pay respect to Per Gessle. He was the majority songwriter and the brain of Roxette. He deserved all the right to keep the name of Roxette…but he didn’t. Per currently continues his music activity under PG Roxette as well as his own name for solo works. I think this is a great hybrid idea. If Marie Fredriksson was not another half of the duo, that wouldn’t be Roxette. She was not replaceable. While respecting Marie’s legacy by ending Roxette’s history, he continues to shine the legacy of both his own and Roxette’s by adding his initials. The Roxette fans obviously expect Per to keep singing Roxette’s hit songs, and this new name made him able to do so as well as his own songs. Also, I assume he had difficulties while supporting Marie Fredriksson who was not in perfect condition. I was impressed by Per always standing strong together with Marie. Because of his and Marie’s true strength and talent, Roxette will remain looking sharp in history.
OVERALL POINTS: 99/100
- Eternal dopeness: ★★★★★
- Overall integrity: ★★★★★
- Songs: ★★★★+3/4
- Originality: ★★★★★
- Song orders: ★★★★★
- Vocal:★★★★+3/4
- Background: ★★★★★
- Sound: ★★★★★
- Production: ★★★★★
- Strong songs: “The Look”, “Dress For Success”, “Chances”, “Dangerous”, “Half a Woman, Half a Shadow”, “Shadow of a Doubt”, “Listen to Your Heart”
EXTRA (NOT COUNTED TOWARD THE OVERALL POINTS)
- Title: A
- Album cover: B+
RELEASED DATE (Sweden): 10/21/1988
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