Last night, as I was chatting with the oh-so-fabulous _miss_frost...
... a song by Roxette came up on my Winamp player.
Way back in the year of 1991., pre war, pre drama, pre anything that could ever be considered a burden, my mom came home from work one evening and got me an MC album. You remember those, right? Little plastic box thingy with two little wheels on the inside and magnetic tape rolled onto one of them that you put into your cassette player and when you pressed ‘play’ music came out of the speakers for about half an hour, and then you had to take it out, switch sides and press play again for the music to start again? Yeah. Google it.
Anyway, she got me the Joyride album by Roxette. It was my first very own album - the first one I ever got. I did, however, have Madonna’s Like A Prayer album and Dirty Dancing Soundtrack to listen to, but Joyride was mine mine mine, while Madonna and DD Soundtrack were officially my mom’s.
After many years and many different artists and genres of music I had the pleasure to enjoy in, that album by Roxette is still my very favorite. I have played it so many times the tape in the cassette literally broke, a few times. I think I bought that same album two more times because of it.
To this very day Roxette is still one of my favorite bands, even though after their Crash Boom Bang album they haven’t been the same.
So last night, after _miss_frost and I said our goodbyes, I went and searched for news on the band to see what was up, are they still around, do they still record, and is there any chance they will ever go back to that power pop sound they played so well up until the late 90s.
Sadly, no. The band that marked my childhood and most of my teenage years, the band I grew up with, the band whose songs no other band’s songs in the world could ever overshadow is no longer what I knew and loved. Marie and Per, two brilliant musicians whose faces I had plastered all over my room’s walls ever since they looked like this and they rocked on heavy guitar riffs, crooning about love found and lost, are now two faded pop renegades rockers who need to get a better sense of personal fashion now that they are in their fifties. Especially Per. Dude, you’re 49-years-old. What’s with the painted fingernails? Come on! I can’t believe I was so desperately in love with that man, growing up. Too bad my gay gene didn’t wake up sooner, because Marie sure looks fine even after she’s hit 50.
If you like pop-bordering-on-rock music and you’ve never listened to Roxette, you should. Since 1988. to 1998. they were one of the best European bands. Sweden’s finest.