Charm School

A return no one awaited

It may as well be so that they waited a little bit more to release this record in 2011, and not in 20110 or 2009. The Swedish duo Roxette’s fresh studio work, Charm School, is issued accurately ten years after the release of its predecessor, Room Service. Of course, it is the beauty, the magic, the power of numbers. In fact, beautiful, powerful and magical is the very fact of the Swedish formation’s comeback to the big stage. Two years ago, when they enlarged their discography with remastered versions of their old albums, a great many people believed this was a good bye gesture from the band which failed to scrape efforts to make another new record. But then it was announced that Roxette were actually going to deliver a CD with new material; and the duet’s supporters shared a great joy about the fact that the band was still alive. Roxette has always been something else beside music. They have always been a performance on the stage, a story about musicians, and a great lot of other things which were not directly linked with music. The band’s fans did not put much trust and expectation into the music of Charm School, being perfectly aware that ten years is a very long span, that it more than enough for you to get far behind those has not waste it.

Music lost in time

Charm School is in essence a mammoth dug out of the ground only today and destined to live in a different time. These songs sound a bit naпve, and this is what makes them particularly fascinating especially to those who have been hungry for something new from Roxette through all these years. The Swedes seem to have deliberately made no changes to their music at all. This is still that kind of pop music that claims to have some sincerity and originality of emotions, which comes to please even those who do not like pop. In the meantime, amongst these structurally primitive songs and familiar vocal parts keeping no secrets from you, you discover sweet melodies. You have got quite a variety of them here, which makes Charm School one of the Roxette’s most melodic albums ever. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) was picked up as a single for the right reason: it catches your memory faster than any other track here. Charm School contains quite a lot of ballad material, which is not surprise, as Roxette have always been acknowledged manufacturers thereof. No One Makes It On Her Own, and I’m Glad You Called are the best items from this category. However, you are not going to yearn with the Swedes for all forty minutes. The record features a group of lively tracks, including the summer-time After All, a too bright and light song for the coldness and sadness of Sweden.

To be continued?

Charm School has no bad mistakes and totally indigestible songs, but its main flaw is of a different kind. When you hear these songs, you can not but feel the suspicion that for the first time in their career Roxette made them like that not because they wanted, but because they had to. After keeping low-profile in silence for ten years, they returned to the stage and found out that a lot has changed there. And they could not change. Charm School looks most like an effort made by Roxette to restore the times they treasure deep in their hearts. The band exposes no desire to move further or seek anything new. This means that their fresh long player is going to please those particularly fond of the band’s past achievements and those who still love to listen to what the Swedes released two decades ago. The concerns with the duet’s future are even darker and deeper after this release. It looks like we even want Roxette to leave, but this only because we are used to seeing the band young, energetic and strong. Charm School is an excellent album if seen as a separate studio work. But if you look at it as a part of the Roxette’s history, it is rather a sad story than an optimistic episode.