1. Why Dontcha
  2. It Just Happens
  3. Good Karma
  4. This One
  5. You Make It Sound So Simple
  6. From A Distance
  7. Some Other Summer
  8. Why Don´t You Bring Me Flowers
  9. You Can´t Do This To Me Anymore
  10. 20 BPM
  11. April Clouds

 

On July 8 1986 a newly formed pop duo called Roxette released their debut single ”Neverending Love”, kicking off a pop circus rarely to be repeated.

30 years later the band can look back on a career that has resulted in four US #1 singles, more Top 10 hits than we can mention here, a staggering 75 million records sold and numerous world tours that has given them diehard fans all over the globe.

But despite having earned the right to look back on three decades of success, Roxette still looks straight into the future - for example by joining forces with innovative Swedish producer duo Addeboy vs Cliff.

”Good Karma”- Roxette’s tenth studio album since their debut ”Pearls Of Passion” in 1986 - is their third album since they came back on the scene in 2009, following seven long years of inactivity while Marie Fredriksson successfully defeated an almost fatal brain tumour. And once again she gets the chance to show why “Roxers” all over the world gets misty-eyed whenever she sings.

Comparing with its immediate predecessors ”Charm School” (2011) and ”Travelling” (2012), ”Good Karma” is a more coherent album with all the songs being written specifically for this album.

- ”Charm School” was a way for us to see what we could do after the long break. And “Travelling” was a tour album of sorts, where we wanted to capture the feeling of a band on the road. In both cases the result was a mix of new material and stuff I dug up from the vault, Roxette’s chief songwriter Per Gessle says.

- But ”Good Karma” was a different project from the start, with the goal being to make an updated album while at the same time leaning against a classic Roxette tradition. That’s why all the songs were written especially for this album. And listening to it, it’s pretty obvious that it’s is a more coherent production.

Which means that ”Good Karma” sounds like a solid Roxette album with a mix of ballads giving Marie the opportunity to shine, while Gessle lets his raspberry flavoured bubblegum hits pop up when given the chance. But this time a large portion of the material is also treated to a slight electronic chock in the process.

Unexpected cooperations - This is mostly due to the new constellation of producers. Ever since Roxette started, Clarence Öfwerman has been the group’s keyboardist and main producer, adding his flavour with the kind of melodic piano figures that gives many of the group’s biggest hits their special character.

Together with the multitalented Christoffer Lundqvist (who besides programming and mixing also plays numerous instruments), Öfwerman forms Roxette’s core producing team since the late 90’s.

Now add Swedish producer duo Addeboy vs Cliff, who has coproduced four songs and co-written three, and you’ve got an interesting setup of different musical backgrounds and methods.


- The interesting thing in the cooperation with producers and songwriters that are much younger than us is that we complement each other by thinking quite different, Per Gessle says.

- In Roxette we’ve always been very keen on fine-tuning a lot of details in the music; small things that could be added in the second verse only, a flow of details to spice up the overall sound and make a song more interesting to listen to as you discover new things.

- But that’s not the way you produce contemporary electronic pop and dance music, so there was an interesting mix of cultures to start with. And together we created a nice hybrid that has made quite an impact on our sound.

The recharged atmosphere is notable already in the album’s opening track ”Why Dontcha?”, a fast-talking power popster driven by Per’s acoustic guitar, a primitive drum machine and Christoffer Lundqvist’s debut as a honking saxophone player.

The first single ”It Just Happens” follows, a melodic ballad with Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle trading vocals in classic Roxette manner. The band keeps digging in its musical past with the album’s title track, a restrained power rocker with Marie on lead vocals while frail piano figures meets the most out-and-out rock guitar sound since 1989.

- Nobody does things like that anymore, smiles Per Gessle. That’s why you can’t resist doing it.

The playfulness continues one ”This One”, equipped with a chorus that sticks in your memory in a way that explains why Roxette are still on radio playlists all over the world. Pop sensibility might be the word. And it feels as present now as on ”Pearls Of Passion” 30 years ago.   

Roxette’s tenth album offers eleven varied songs, where you never really can guess what’s up next. For example, the two Addeboy vs Cliff-cooperations ”You Make It Sound So Simple” and ”From A Distance” wraps up Per’s and Marie’s voices in an atmospheric electronic universe that feels new and familiar at the same time.

And while ”Some Other Summer” is elbowing it’s way ahead with all the self confidence of a natural summer pop hit, ”Why Don’t You Bring Me Flowers?” peels off almost every musical layer until only Marie’s melancholic voice and yet another one of these haunting Roxette melodies remains.

Addeboy vs Cliff returns in the album’s possibly most extreme experiment, the pattering electronic popster ”20 BPM”, before the closing ”April Clouds” looks inwards again. With the final lyric line ”I wish you the best” Marie Fredriksson wraps up a comeback album that definitely is here and now.

And if Marie Fredriksson is to be believed, “Good Karma” is the best album Roxette has made. So far.

Good Karma • Good Karma • Good Karma • Good Karma •

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