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Roxette: Look Sharp!

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: EMI Records
Released: 1988.10.21
Time:
 53:12
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Clarence Öfwerman, Adam Moseley
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] The Look (P.Gessle) - 3:57
[2] Dressed for Success (P.Gessle) - 4:09
[3] Sleeping Single (P.Gessle) - 4:38
[4] Paint (P.Gessle) - 3:30
[5] Dance Away (M.Fredriksson/P.Gessle) - 3:25
[6] Cry (M.Fredriksson/P.Gessle) - 5:19
[7] Chances (P.Gessle) - 4:57
[8] Dangerous (P.Gessle) - 3:48
[9] Half a Woman, Half a Shadow (M.Fredriksson/P.Gessle) - 3:35
[10] View From a Hill (P.Gessle) - 3:40
[11] (I Could Never) Give You Up (P.Gessle) - 3:58
[12] Shadow of a Doubt (P.Gessle/M.MP.Persson) - 4:14
[13] Listen to Your Heart (P.Gessle/M.MP.Persson) - 5:28

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Per Gessle - Vocals
Marie Fredriksson - Vocals

Pelle Alsing - Cymbals, Drums, Hi Hat
Anders Herrlin - Programming & Bass, Engineer
Graham Edwards - Bass on [6,7,10]
Erik Häusler - Saxophone
Adam McCulloch - Saxophone on [6,10]
Jonas Isacsson - Electric & Acoustic Guitars
Morris Michael - Electric & Acoustic Guitars on [6,7,10]
Jalle Lorensson - Harmonica
Janne Oldaeus - Slide Guitar
Erik Borelius - Spanish Guitar
Clarence Öfwerman - Main Programming & Keyboards, Producer on [1-5,8,9,11-13]
Andrew Wright - Main Programming & Keyboards on [6,7,10]

Adam Moseley - Engineer, Producer on  on [6,7,10]
Alar Suurna - Engineer
Julian Adair - Assistant Engineer

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in March-June 1988 at the EMI Studios, Stockholm, Sweden & Trident II Studios, London.



Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson exploded onto the pop radar screen with Look Sharp!, which spawned four big hits: the bright, shiny "The Look," the punchy, hopeful "Dressed for Success," the A/C-leaning "Dangerous," and the bland, overproduced "Listen to Your Heart." The cuts that weren't released as singles aren't necessarily filler, but they also aren't as strong as many of the cuts that made up Roxette albums that followed, particularly Joyride and Tourism (Songs From Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places). The non-releases are nothing memorable, and they don't age well, "Paint" and "Dance Away" in particular being pretty average in terms of production and melody. Only "Chances" and "Shadow of a Doubt" show glimmers of the skills the duo would soon flourish. Gessle and Fredriksson became artists at crafting superb pop melodies and surrounding them with amazing production, so think of this album as basic training.

Bryan Buss - All Music Guide



Look Sharp! is the second studio album by the Swedish rock duo Roxette. It was recorded at EMI Studios in Stockholm and at Trident II Studios in London between March and June 1988. The album was released on 21 October 1988, two years after their debut Pearls of Passion (1986). The album became an international hit, reaching #1 in the group's native Sweden and being certified 6x platinum. In the United States, the album reached #23 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum. It spawned the major hit singles "The Look" (U.S. #1), "Listen to Your Heart" (U.S. #1), "Dressed for Success" (U.S. #14), and "Dangerous" (U.S. #2). Because of the worldwide success of the album and its singles, Look Sharp! is considered as Roxette's breakthrough. The album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

"The Look", "Chances", "Dressed for Success", "Listen to Your Heart" and "Dangerous" were released as singles. In native Sweden, "Dressed for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart" were chosen as the first two singles, as Gessle and EMI Svenska chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing. The singles reached #2 and #3 on Swedish chart respectively. But despite huge popularity in their homeland Roxette were still unknown globally.

Everything changed when the third single "The Look" was released in Sweden. It was while studying in Sweden, that an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break. He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM. The station started playing "The Look" and based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular, and quickly spread to other radio stations. The song became a radio hit before any Roxette music had been commercially released or promoted in the US market. The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden, making for good press for many years, with Gessle telling this as the story which highlighted the beginning of their international success.

As of July 2009, Look Sharp! had sold over 9 million copies worldwide including over 1 million copies in US alone, which gave the album platinum certification by RIAA in January 1990 (it has sold 402,000 since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991). Look Sharp! peaked at #4 in UK, where it stayed on the charts for 53 weeks and was certified platinum by BPI in the UK in December 1990 for sales in excess of 300,000. It is also the second best selling album in Swedish music history (only behind ABBA's Arrival) where it held the top spot for 14 weeks and has gone 6× platinum. Furthermore Look Sharp! collected gold and platinum certifications all around the world.

The CD edition of the album features the track "(I Could Never) Give You Up", which was omitted from both the cassette and vinyl editions. "Chances" is also 40 seconds longer.

Gessle won his first Grammy Award for Best Composer. Roxette also received two Rockbjörnen awards for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Group.

Wikipedia.org
 

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