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Roxette: Charm School

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: EMI Records
Released: 2011.02.11
Time:
 40:57
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.roxette.se
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Way Out (P.Gessle) - 2:46
[2] No One Makes It on Her Own (P.Gessle) - 3:43
[3] She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio) (P.Gessle) - 3:34
[4] Speak to Me (P.Gessle) - 3:42
[5] I'm Glad You Called (P.Gessle) - 2:48
[6] Only When I Dream (P.Gessle) - 3:51
[7] Dream On (P.Gessle) - 3:09
[8] Big Black Cadillac (P.Gessle) - 3:05
[9] In My Own Way (P.Gessle) - 3:30
[10] After All (P.Gessle) - 3:15
[11] Happy on the Outside (P.Gessle) - 3:39
[12] Sitting on Top of the World (P.Gessle) - 3:55

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Marie Fredriksson - Vocals, Producer
Per Gessle - Vocals & Guitar, Producer

Clarence Öfwerman - Keyboards, Programming & String Arrangement, Producer
Christoffer Lundquist - Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Programming & String Arrangement, Producer
Jens Jansson - Live Drums

Lotta Weber Sjöholm - Strings
Emil Carlsson - Strings
Johanna Skoglund - Strings
Tomas Ebrelius - Strings

Mats M.P. Persson - Engineer
Lennart Haglund - Assistant Engineer
Ronny Lahti - Mixing
Tom Coyne - Mastering
Ekaterina Belinkata - Photography
Mikael Bolyos - Photography
Gabriel Gessle - Photography
Important Pete - Photography
Ulf Magnusson - Photography
Marie Dimberg - Management

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in 2009-2010, Aerosol Grey Machine Studio, Vallarum (Sweden).



Returning to action after a decade-long hiatus, Roxette don’t skip a beat on 2011’s Charm School. Roxette were never in the thick of things, never setting the pace, but they did reflect their times during their 1988-1991 peak. They still reflect those times 20 years later, still favoring the brightly colored productions of the late ‘80s, still relying on cavernous drums and squealing fuzz guitars skipping over tightly wound guitar riffs, piling on synth after synth, every element accentuating their enormous hooks. Roxette may be a band out of time on Charm School but, well, that’s their charm: they’re still unapologetically big pop, they still celebrate melody over everything else. Sometimes things crawl just a tad on Charm School - it’s not the power ballads that sag but the chugging midtempo tunes - but it serves up enough surging soft rock and fizzy pop like “Big Black Cadillac” and “She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)” to make this a successful comeback.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



An exhilarating, determined effort from the million-selling Swedes.

With a Hollywood-like sense of triumph over adversity, Roxette return with their first album since singer Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2002. She recovered, and the Swedish power-pop duo seems appropriately exhilarated.

Charm School is loaded with punchy, hook-riddled anthems that can only be described as absolute belters. From the opening surge of Way Out, a sonic sibling to Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll only even bigger, louder and dumber, this album consummately achieves its goals and then some. Resisting this tide of taut melodies, ringing guitars and precise production would take some doing. Seeing the title of first single She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio), your brain thinks, "That’s the most dreadful title since If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me," but your inner pop kid responds like a panting puppy to its unpretentious Donna Summer’s Love’s Unkind-meets-Xenomania chops. If they ever re-make Flashdance, and let’s face it we’re all praying for that day, this would surely score the key scene.

After a quarter-century of global massiveness, 70 million albums sold, Roxette know their way around an ABBA-esque structure and a heavyweight arrangement from the university of Alone by Heart. Speak to Me is a mid-tempo synth-based bubbler with a seductive verse and gigantic chorus. It’s more 80s than a Climie Fisher B side. No One Makes It on Her Own and In My Own Way take a breath and lurch toward sentimental balladry. Even so, it’s admirable how Roxette own their genre. Throughout, Marie’s vocals are rousing in a way that highlights how half-assed the current crop of teen Americans attempting this stuff are, and Per Gessle’s songs are laser-guided – although it’s a pity he occasionally sings, and has Limahl’s hair. On Dream On he emulates some nifty Byrds guitars. Finale Sitting on Top of the World will have you raising your lighter aloft, at least until you realise everybody else is raising their smart-phones.

Roxette don’t care if years have passed: they power on, a honed, determined joy machine.

Chris Roberts, 2011
BBC Review



Charm School is the eighth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 11 February 2011. It is Roxette's first studio album in 10 years since 2001's Room Service and was the duo's biggest chart success since 1992's Tourism in countries like Germany and Switzerland, where it reached number one.

According to their official website, the album was released on CD and LP. A deluxe edition, including a bonus CD with 12 live tracks was also available. These songs were recorded in Saint Petersburg, Halmstad and Stavanger during their 2010 Tour. Charm School had been certificated Gold in Sweden, Austria, Germany, Russia and Czech Republic within 4 months of its release, and was eventually certified Platinum in Germany for shipments of over 200,000 units.

A digital-only American release for the album was released on 26 July 2011. On 28 November 2011, the album was re-released under the title Charm School Revisited with a bonus disc containing demo versions of every track from the album, plus two remixes of "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)" and one of "Speak to Me".

Charm School was chosen as BBC Radio 2's album of the week for the week commencing 21 March 2011. It received a positive review from BBC music critic Chris Roberts, who commented, "Charm School is loaded with punchy, hook-riddled anthems that can only be described as absolute belters. From the opening surge of "Way Out", a sonic sibling to Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" only even bigger, louder and dumber, this album consummately achieves its goals and then some." Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic wrote, "Roxette may be a band out of time on Charm School but, well, that’s their charm: they’re still unapologetically big pop, they still celebrate melody over everything else."

Spin magazine voted Charm School the 15th best pop album in 2011, saying "Even more influential than ABBA on the Swedes behind Britney, Kelly and Ke$ha, these masters of the pre-grunge pop airwaves return from the near-dead for a thrilling third act of classic rock riffage, supercharged sugar hooks, and soul-aching choruses bigger than the national debt".

Reception from Swedish newspapers was less positive, Anders Nunstedt from Expressen wrote, "Charm School is a clear return to the successful sound the duo had. Just a little boring. Without the former charm." Charm School is middle-of-the-road pop at 70 kph with no specific destination." Andres Lokko form Svenska Dagbladet gave a scathing review, scoring the album one star and said "Often I found myself thinking about how there is too much pop music, to ever be able to find a single reason for this album's existence."

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