Okay, this is going to be a lot more tricky than doing my top 50 ABBA songs. For a start, choosing a number one was not easy. I don't really have any "clear favourite" Roxette track that stands out from all the rest. Nevertheless, Queen Of Rain, which I believe is a magnificent ballad, takes the cake. Its video also is awesome. Stars takes the number two spot due to what I believe is a most flawless creating of a modern-disco-pop performance. Fading Like A Flower, which is often described as "the most American-sounding song" they ever did, again, it is easy to see why. Like Listen To Your Heart, it does a perfect job of recreating their FM rock sound that was all the big craze at the time, which becomes especially obvious towards the end.
Perfect Day was the closing track on their biggest album. I love the uniqueness of the way that song seems to acknowledge that something awful has happened and there's no return... but also sounds so relaxed over it, almost happy, even. Very unusual melody. Silver Blue, however, falls more into the Queen Of Rain category, of a sad beautiful rosey ballad, although this one is faster. The Heart Shaped Sea, unusually being a ballad sung by a man, makes me think of being in a dinghy over the sea during a sunset *random vision*.
Listen To Your Heart is the most perfect recreation of postmodern American FM rock that ever existed. Anyone, a previous personal favourite, is a more dark song about relationships. Not everyone likes this song, but it does speak from the heart. Call of the Wild falls together with Queen of Rain and Silver Blue into the "flowery, rosey, tender beautiful ballad" camp. And Run To You is just another brilliantly bland pop song.
Other notable appearances throughout number 11 to 50: Neverending Love, the band's first single ever and one of their most relatable-sounding rock songs of all, was amazingly only released in Sweden and never released internationally. I know these days there are many bands who write great songs that never make it out of their own country, but this song is particularly like this, more than most. Crash! Boom! Bang! - some people find this rather immature, however it has to be said that it achieved the impossible by being a ballad and being inspired by Jailhouse Rock. Not a likely combination. And "Reveal", one of their more recent hits from 2007, falls into the "flowery emotional beautiful" song camp along with Queen Of Rain and all the others, only a little bit happier this time.
A notable entry at #21 ("Bla Bla Bla..."), a song that was actually never released originally and not released on any album, nevertheless takes Roxette down a different road of mastering the averageness of the sound of the more masculine vocals in a pop song. The Centre of the Heart (is a suburb to the brain) returned them to #1 in Sweden with a surprising lyric that I find utterly relatable. Watercolours In The Rain is a one of the few songs written by the female Marie Fredriksson (most were written by the male Per Gessle), but nonetheless its different style is definitely appealing, and again falls into the same category with "Queen of Rain" and "Silver Blue" and the others of... what was it again? Emotional, flowery, sad, beautiful... etc.
Always Breaking My Heart, believe it or not, was covered by Belinda Carlisle, and became a hit. I do however prefer the original male vocal version. Shadow of a Doubt has a melody that's all about finality - it's brutal, no holds bar, in realising that it's all over, almost a painful moment, like a sharp pointed stick. And 7Twenty7 takes the unusual turn in becoming a love song about describing the feeling of someone leaving someone on a plane, funnily enough, a Boeing 727.
1. Queen Of Rain
2. Stars
3. Fading Like A Flower
4. Perfect Day
5. Silver Blue
6. The Heart Shaped Sea
7. Listen To Your Heart
8. Anyone
9. Call Of The Wild
10. Run To You
11. Breathe
12. Neverending Love
13. It Will Take A Long Long Time
14. Salvation
15. Crash! Boom! Bang!
16. A Thing About You
17. Milk And Toast And Honey
18. Fingertips
19. I Don't Want To Get Hurt
20. Reveal
21. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart)
22. (Do You Get) Excited?
23. The Centre Of The Heart
24. Joyride
25. I'm Sorry
26. Never Is A Long Time
27. It Hurts
28. It Must Have Been Love
29. Vulnerable
30. The First Girl On The Moon
31. Soul Deep
32. Turn To Me
33. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye
34. Watercolours In The Rain
35. Things Will Never Be The Same
36. Crush On You
37. Always Breaking My Heart
38. She Doesn't Live Here Anymore
39. Goodbye To You
40. Real Sugar
41. What's She Like
42. The Rain
43. Spending My Time
44. Almost Unreal
45. You Don't Understand Me
46. Shadow Of A Doubt
47. Cooper
48. 7Twenty7
49. So Far Away
50. I Call Your Name
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