Per & Marie

Somehow I knew this was going to happen.. Today, I ended up listening to Roxette’s greatest hits (and it even wasn't the first time). This compilation, A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs! features many familiar songs from this Swedish pop duo.

Roxette has been around since the mid-80s. Their most recent new studio album Room Service came out in 2001. I was only 13 years old at that time, and I definitely was too young to notice that this music was actually quite topnotch. Luckily, it’s never too late to discover good music, and I can now dance along to both The Look from 1988 and The Centre Of The Heart from 2001 as well as enjoy any other Per Gessle’s amazing composition. I’m really just starting to realize how talented this man actually is.

Happy pop with lots of interesting influences, sung beautifully by Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle - that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Sleeping In My Car, How Do You Do and ballads such as Wish I Could Fly are irrefutably good. Also, I still have lots of Gyllene Tider to check out. Ah, those Swedes are so good. I almost feel like cheering for them every time there is a Finland vs. Sweden ice hockey match.. But yeah, that’s almost, I definitely won’t be seen commit treason any time soon.

I guess my next target is Abba. That’s one awesome group, too. Unfortunately, I will have to study my law books first..

Roxette at MySpace
Roxette Official Web site

Power Pop in Swedish!

The day before yesterday, I made a huge discovery. I certainly had heard the name Gyllene Tider before but for some reason I never found out that their music was actually great pop-rock, power pop in 80s style! I started listening to their music at MySpace and it sounded so good that I wanted to hear more of that stuff, lots of it. You can hear Farfisa organs in this music, and one of the best things about this band is that the singing language is Swedish!

The reason I never checked this band out before was probably that I knew Gyllene Tider had something to do with another Swedish band Roxette, and Roxette is something that I don't find mind-blowingly interesting (although I have to admit that I haven't listened to their music very much). Per Gessle is a part of that band, and as Roxette is very famous these days, he is the most famous member of Gyllene Tider.

Although most Finns probably aren’t very much fond of Swedish language, I really like Swedish. I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s a bit more difficult than English, and it’s great fun to listen to (and try to speak it yourself…). Swedish is a beautiful language, great for power pop, too!

Sommartider is Gyllene Tider’s most famous song. It’s played on Finnish radio every summer, but I haven’t heard the original version too many times. It seems like they like to play the cover by that some newer band – the original is of course much better. There are lots of Gyllene Tider songs that I instantly loved: Skicka ett vykort älskling, Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, (Dansar inte lika bra som) sjömän, and Flickorna på TV2 are all fabulous songs. Their cover version of The Rivieras’ California Sun (Tylo sun) is also totally fabulous. Gyllene Tider have dozens of great songs, I haven’t heard a single one I don’t like!

It’s great to find bands like this. I only wish I had more time. It’s gonna be busy with university entrance exams this spring, once again. Still, it’s amazing to have great Swedish pop to listen to during breaks!

Gyllene Tider at MySpace