Artist: Roxette
Title: Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition
Genre: Rock / Pop
Release Date: 26th November 2021
Label: Warner Music
Album Review
ROXETTE’s album ‘Joyride‘ is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and Universal Music released a special edition including tracks that were previously unreleased or can only be found on rare records B-sides or were hidden in the archives, because they were just demos, that never made it on a record. ROXETTE’s third release and commercially most successful album ‘Joyride’ that followed their 1989’s break-through album ‘Look Sharp’ comes as a box with 3 CD’s or with various vinyl options and a booklet that has more than 30 pages full of beautifully illustrated information.
This first CD comes with all the songs, that were on air when the author started listening to Rock and Pop music and it’s fascinating that many of the songs get lots of airplay nowadays. The songs bring you into a good mood, though it’s sad, that we will never see this legendary duo from Sweden live on stage again. In addition to the songs on the original tracklist of the album, when it was released back in 1991, there are the songs, that were added, when the album was re-issued in 2009. So for listeners from elder generations the tracks from track No. 16 might be totally new. A sheer blast is the song with the number eighteen ‘Fading Like A Flower (US Single version, Humberto Gatica mix)’. It sounds like digital-recording with the strong and clear sound they had live on stage and the wonderful echo effects, their live sound engineers came up with. I don’t use this rating often for a CD, but the first one of this edition is simply wonderful.
‘T&A studio’ was originally called ‘Studio Styr’ but was renamed and the idea was obviously inspired by ‘Little T&A’ by the ROLLING STONES. In this studio Anders Herrlin worked with ROXETTE and CD 2 comes with demos, that were recorded in this studio (where many of the bands greatest hits were recorded). If you compare the tracklist of CD 1 (the original released album) and CD2, you will realize that the tracklist is identical until you reach track No. 9 ‘Souldeep’. The song had already been published on the band’s first album ‘Pearls of Passion’, that was only released in selected countries. For ‘Joyride’, that was released worldwide, the song was simply rearranged a bit and newly mixed, so there was no need for a demo. To hear how the songs developed from their demo versions to the released songs is a wonderful experience and I recommend, to start listening CD2 first and then CD1.
Some songs almost sound like the finally released tracks, but ‘(Do You Get) Excited’ sounds more like a Synth Pop song and lacks ROXETTE’s trademark Rock elements. ‘Spending My Time’ is the best example how much a song can change from a demo to a released version. The demo has significantly less emotion, the keyboards reminded me of musicians playing in the streets with self-recorded keyboard backing tracks and the female vocal parts sound almost childish. I’m really glad, the song saw significant refining, before being recorded for the album to becoming one of the greatest hits of the Swedish duo.
The third CD comes with more takes recorded at T&A studio, not all of them songs that ended up on ‘Joyride’ like ‘Queen of Rain’ that was released on the compilation ‘Tourism’ in 1992. Two real highlights are to be found on this CD, as they were recorded as demos by ROXETTE but never released by them before. ‘Another Place, Another Time’ was written by Per Gessle and released by his previous band Gyllene Tider, but saw some rearrangement to make it fit with ROXETTE’s signature sound. The beat is quite dominated by the synth side, and only a plain electric guitar indicates, that the song is meant to be a song for ROXETTE and worth listening to. The second one is ‘Run Run Run‘ and the quality is a lot higher than the one or ‘Another Place, Another Time’. It sounds like it’s almost ready for a studio-take and sounds like pure ROXETTE.
A song you shouldn’t miss is ‘Joyrider’, it was recorded only one day before the demo of ‘Joyride’ that can be found on CD 2 and is an acoustic version, that comes with the powerful vocals and the beautiful chorus part, that gives the song so much intensity and power. The last two tracks on this CD bring back the amazing live energy and the excitement the band evoked everywhere they played on this planet. ‘Hotblood’ shows the Rock prone side of the Swedish Duo and the live version is more powerful and edgy than the album version. The album closes with ‘Fading Like A Flower’ and it’s a perfect choice, a wonderful memory of Marie Fredriksson who passed two years ago.
The album is a piece of music history and a timeless Pop album, if you are a die-hard ROXETTE fan and own every release so far , you want to own the unreleased tracks and demos. If you like ROXETTE and don’t have the album, you should get the ‘30th Anniversary Edition’, the price is pretty reasonable and the additional material that comes on top of the records will give you a good insight about the band and their music.
Tracklist
CD1
01. Joyride
02. Hotblooded
03. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
04. Knockin’ On Every Door
05. Spending My Time
06. I Remember You
07. Watercolours In The Rain
08. The Big L.
09. Soul Deep
10. (Do You Get) Excited?
11. Church Of Your Heart
12. Small Talk
13. Physical Fascination
14. Things Will Never Be The Same
15. Perfect Day
16. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye
17. Joyride (US Single version, Brain Malouf mix)
18. Fading Like A Flower (US Single version, Humberto Gatica mix)*
19. Soul deep (Tom Lord-Alge mix)
20. Church Of Your Heart (US adult contemporary mix)*
*previously unreleased
CD2
01. Joyride (T&A Demo – May 23, 1990)
02. Hotblooded (T&A Demo – Jan 23, 1990)*
03. Fading like a flower (T&A Demo – Aug 31, 1990)
04. Knockin’ on every door (T&A Demo – Aug 15, 1989)
05. Spending my time (T&A Demo – May 24, 1990)
06. I Remember You (T&A Demo – Apr 1, 1990)
07. Watercolours In The Rain (T&A Demo – Jan 24, 1990)
08. The Big L. (T&A Demo – Apr 1, 1990)
09. (Do You Get) Excited? (T&A Demo – Aug 19, 1989)
10. Small Talk (T&A Demo – Aug 30, 1990)*
11. Church Of Your Heart (T&A Demo – Jan 8, 1990) *
12. Physical Fascination (T&A Demo – Jan 3, 1990)*
13. Things Will Never Be The Same (T&A Demo – Jun 17, 1989)
14. Perfect Day (T&A Demo – Aug 23, 1990)
*previously unreleased
CD3
01. Sweet Thing (T&A Demo – Oct 28, 1990)*
02. Seduce Me (T&A Demo – Aug 22, 1990)
03. Run Run Run (T&A Demo – Jan 10, 1990)*
04. Things Will Never Be The Same (T&A Demo – Sep 17, 1989)*
05. Love Spins (T&A Demo – Jan 3, 1990)
06. Come Back (Before You Leave) (T&A Demo – Apr 8, 1990)
07. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye (T&A Demo – Mar 16, 1990)*
08. Hotblooded (T&A Demo – Dec 13, 1990)
09. Things Will Never Be The Same (T&A Demo – Dec 13, 1990)
10. Another Place, Another Time (T&A Demo – Jan 11, 1990)*
11. I Remember You (T&A Demo – Mar 15, 1990)*
12. Queen Of Rain (T&A Demo – Jan 2, 1990
13. The Big L. (T&A Demo – Mar 29, 1990)
14. Joyrider (T&A Demo – May 22, 1990)
15. Hotblooded (Live Sydney Dec 1991)
16. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave) (Live Sydney Dec 1991)
*previously unreleased
Line-up
Marie Fredriksson
Per Gessle
Website
https://roxette.se/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9.5
Sound: 9.5
Total: 9.5 / 10
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