GESSLE
The World According To (EMI)
Beat Magazine (Melbourne) - Wednesday December 17th 1997
The last Roxette album from 1994 "Crash! Boom! Bang!", on which they toured
OZ, really showed signs of (him) Per Gessle (guitars/vox) taking over.
There was less emphasis on (her) Marie and keys. The rock like tracks on
display I hoped would point to the future. Well within '95's "Greatest
Hits" two of the four new cuts really nailed it to the floor! Now there
was even greater hope ahead. Well here in late '97 comes the solo album I
knew Per had in him.
"The World According To" really encapsulates all plus the "of today" pop
ideas that this guy possesses. Apart from the four ballads, here are nine
vibrant uplifting pop tunes that whether you resist or not, are gonna bury
'emselves into the recesses of your memory!
Opener "Stupid" infectiously chugs along, "Saturday" hooks you on its
familiar riff, "Kix" pumps on a disco rhythm, while "Reporter", with its
Who styled opening leaps into commercial rock terrain.
Lyrically Per still walks the late Marc Bolan trail - "My hometown is
smaller than your house; you make me feel so (Stupid)" and the humour, "She
wants lunch with British Royalty; she wants access to the ANC; she wants
the management to tell her where; she can interview Marie and Per
(Reporter)".
Of the ballads "I Want You To Know" and "I'll Be Alright" (such original
titles) are true to the Roxette formula (relaxed and building). Gessle
instinctively knows how to add on and colour with odd, though fitting
instrumentation!
Per is his most dynamic, instant, spacious and crystalline on the first
single "Do You Wanna Be My Baby" made for that car radio, as is the
suggested follow-up (hey EMI?) "There Is My Baby" (again excuse the
titles). Here is that commercial rock territory I spoke of - superb!
Overall Mr. Gessle has always sung audibly, low, distinct and way cool.
Forget Oasis and Blur. Here is a Swedish guy who comes from a Byrds/Small
Faces/Tom Petty background, who with five Roxette albums jointly to his
credit since '86 has a package here that if given the chance possesses all
the chart action of 1991's "Joyride"!
Finally I know this sounds fashionably unhip to those of only "the now
factor", but Per Gessle is one of the greatest solo show songwriters in
modern music!!!
(9/10)
/DAVID TYLER
|