Music Express, Germany
How about quoting Lester Bangs for a change? He once wrote, the Eagles
could sing a song about nuns having an sex-orgy and it would sound as
if angels were rejoicing. Mister Roxette also has this gift: 'The
World According To Gessle' is not just clean, it's absolutely pure.
The male part of the swedish pop-duo hovers over his first real
solo-album - the two first ones were only taken note of by the
Scandinavians - on a pink 'boy meets girl and the beat goes on, but
not farther than the pre-chorus-cloud. Rather 'Yummy Yummy Yummy'-Bubblegum
than "Gabba Gabba Hey'-Rock, no matter how loud the electric guitars
wail and the drums hit. Per Gessle fills his candy-colored Jukebox
with all sorts of known ingredients, or, said in a less friendly manner:
He steals himself through four decades of pop, that the beams break.
Luckily he just shakes catchy pop-records out of his sleeve in rows:
Sometimes it sounds like the Monkees come from the Mersey River ('Do
You Wanna Be My Baby?), sometimes like Elvis Costello, who mixed up the
pair of intellectual-glasses with the Ray-Ban ('Reporter'), sometimes
like Abba on Speed ('Elvis In Germany'), like surfing at Skagerak
('B-Any-1-U-Wanna-B') and then as if the little sanso sheep was making
a wight of it with Status Quo ('Saturday'). 'I Want You To Know' is a
joss-stick-ballad with psychedelic reverbation, 'Wish You The Best' a
furry hypocrite, for 'I'll Be Alright' would every ten-year-old give
away his favorite blanket and for 'Lay Down Your Arms' Phil Collins
would even sell his grandmother.
****
(out of 6)
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