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Look Sharp!

 
Album Review: Look Sharp!
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Look Sharp!

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  • Artist: Roxette
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1988
  • Total Time: 53:12
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson exploded onto the pop radar screen with Look Sharp!, which spawned four big hits: the bright, shiny "The Look," the punchy, hopeful "Dressed for Success," the A/C-leaning "Dangerous," and the bland, overproduced "Listen to Your Heart." The cuts that weren't released as singles aren't necessarily filler, but they also aren't as strong as many of the cuts that made up Roxette albums that followed, particularly Joyride and Tourism (Songs From Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places). The non-releases are nothing memorable, and they don't age well, "Paint" and "Dance Away" in particular being pretty average in terms of production and melody. Only "Chances" and "Shadow of a Doubt" show glimmers of the skills the duo would soon flourish. Gessle and Fredriksson became artists at crafting superb pop melodies and surrounding them with amazing production, so think of this album as basic training. ~ Bryan Buss, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
The Look Per Gessle Roxette (3:57)
Dressed for Success (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (4:09)
Sleeping Single (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (4:38)
Paint (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (3:30)
Dance Away (Lyrics) Per Gessle, Marie Frediksson Roxette (3:25)
Cry (Lyrics) Per Gessle, Marie Frediksson Roxette (5:19)
Chances (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (4:57)
Dangerous (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (3:49)
Half a Woman, Half a Shadow (Lyrics) Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle Roxette (3:35)
View from a Hill (Lyrics) Per Gessle Roxette (3:40)
(I Could Never) Give You Up Per Gessle Roxette (3:58)
Shadow of a Doubt (Lyrics) Per Gessle, M.P. Persson Roxette (4:14)
Listen to Your Heart (Lyrics) Per Gessle, Mats Persson Roxette (5:29)

Credits

Roxette (Main Performer), Pelle Alsing (Cymbals), Pelle Alsing (Drums), Pelle Alsing (Hi Hat), Erik Borelius (Guitar), Erik Borelius (Spanish Guitar), Graham Edward (Guitar (Bass)), Erik Hausler (Saxophone), Anders Herrlin (Bass), Anders Herrlin (Programming), Anders Herrlin (Engineer), Jonas Isacsson (Guitar (Acoustic)), Jonas Isacsson (Guitar), Jonas Isacsson (Guitar (Electric)), Jalle Lorensson (Harmonica), Adam McCullough (Saxophone), Morris Michael (Guitar (Acoustic)), Morris Michael (Guitar), Morris Michael (Guitar (Electric)), Adam Moseley (Engineer), Clarence Ofwerman (Keyboards), Clarence Ofwerman (Programming), Clarence Ofwerman (Producer), Janne Oldaeus (Slide Guitar), Alar Suurna (Engineer), Andrew Wright (Keyboards), Andrew Wright (Programming), Graham Edwards (Bass), Adam McCulloch (Saxophone), Julian Adair (Assistant Engineer)
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Wikipedia: Look Sharp! (Roxette album)
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Look Sharp!
Studio album by Roxette
Released October 19, 1988
Recorded EMI Studios, Stockholm (March-June 1988)
Trident II Studios, London (June 1988)
Genre Pop/Rock/New Wave/Dance
Length 54:19
Label EMI
Producer Clarence Öfwerman,
Adam Moseley
Professional reviews
Roxette chronology
Dance Passion
(1987)		 Look Sharp!
(1988)		 Joyride
(1991)
Singles from Look Sharp!
  1. "Chances"
    Released: 1988
  2. "The Look"
    Released: 1989
  3. "Dressed for Success"
    Released: 1989
  4. "Listen to Your Heart"
    Released: 1989
  5. "Dangerous"
    Released: 1989

Look Sharp! is the second studio album by the Swedish pop and rock duo Roxette. It was recorded at EMI Studios in Stockholm between March and June 1988 and at Trident II Studios in London in June 1988. The album was released on October 19, 1988, two years after their debut Pearls of Passion, and became a worldwide bestseller. Look Sharp! is often considered as Roxette's breakthrough.

Contents

Background

"The Look", "Chances", "Dressed for Success", "Listen to Your Heart" and "Dangerous" were released as singles. In native Sweden, "Dressed for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart" were chosen as the first two singles, as Gessle and EMI Svenska chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing. The singles reached #2 and #3 on Swedish chart respectively. But despite huge popularity in their homeland Roxette were still unknown globally.

Everything changed when the third single "The Look" was released in Sweden. It was while studying in Sweden, that an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman[1], heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break.[2][3] He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station[2][3], KDWB 101.3 FM.[4] The station started playing "The Look" and based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular[3][4], and quickly spread to other radio stations.[3] The song became a radio hit before any Roxette product had been commercially released or promoted in the US market.[3] The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden, making for good press for many years, with Gessle telling this as the story which highlighted the beginning of their international success.[4]

Until 2009 Look Sharp! has sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide including over 1 million copies in US alone, which gave the album platinum certification by RIAA in January 1990[5] (it has sold 402,000 since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991).[6] Look Sharp! peaked at #4 in UK, where stayed on charts for 53 weeks and eventually was certified platinum by BPI in the UK in December 1990 for sales in excess of 300,000. It is also the second best selling album in Swedish music history (only behind ABBA's Arrival) where it held the top spot for 14 weeks and has gone 6x platinum. Furthermore Look Sharp! collected gold and platinum certifications all around the world.

Track listings

CD original release

All songs written and composed by Per Gessle, except where noted. 

# Title Length
1. "The Look"    
2. "Dressed for Success"    
3. "Sleeping Single"    
4. "Paint"    
5. "Dance Away" (Marie Fredriksson, Gessle)  
6. "Cry" (Fredriksson, Gessle)  
7. "Chances"    
8. "Dangerous"    
9. "Half a Woman, Half a Shadow" (Fredriksson, Gessle)  
10. "View From a Hill"    
11. "(I Could Never) Give You Up"    
12. "Shadow of a Doubt" (Fredriksson, Gessle)  
13. "Listen to Your Heart" (Gessle, Mats MP Persson)  
54:19




Singles

  • "Chances"
  1. "Chances"
  2. "Silver Blue" (Demo)
  • "The Look"
  1. "The Look"
  2. "Silver Blue" (Demo)
  • "Dressed for Success"
  1. "Dressed for Success"
  2. "The Voice"
  • "Listen to Your Heart"
  1. "Listen to Your Heart"
  2. "(I Could Never) Give You Up"
  • "Dangerous"
  1. "Dangerous"
  2. "Surrender"/"Neverending Love" (Live)

Charts

Country Chart Peak Certification
Australia ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart 2
Austria 2 2x platinum
Canada Canadian Albums Chart 8 6x Platinum
Germany Media Control Charts Top 100 Albums 7 2x Platinum
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart 12 2x Platinum
Norway VG-lista Top 40 1
Sweden 1 6x Platinum
Switzerland 2 2x Platinum
UK UK Albums Chart 4 Platinum
U.S. Billboard 200 23 Platinum

Credits

  • Vocals — Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson
  • Drums — Pelle Alsing
  • Programming and bass — Anders Herrlin
  • Saxophone — Erik Häusler
  • Electric and acoustic guitars — Jonas Isacsson
  • Harmonica — Jalle Lorensson
  • Slide guitar — Janne Oldaeus
  • Spanish guitar — Erik Borelius
  • Main programming and keyboards — Clarence Öfwerman
  • Production — Clarence Öfwerman (except "Cry", "Chances" and "View From A Hill" produced by Adam Moseley)

References

  1. ^ "Expresson's article on Roxette's history (part 2)" (in Swedish). www.archive.org. http://web.archive.org/web/20010420035208/http://www.expressen.se/article.asp?id=63685. 
  2. ^ a b "Gessle bio. on Sirus Satellite Radio". sirus.com. http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=FlexContent&cid=1145993019609. 
  3. ^ a b c d e "Nokia Night Of The Proms (Roxette-Comeback)" (in German). Koeln.de. http://www.koeln.de/koeln/was_ist_los/gayszene/nokia_night_of_the_proms_mit_roxettecomeback_163503.html. 
  4. ^ a b c "BBC news Talking Shop: Roxette's Per Gessle". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7990226.stm. Retrieved 2009-07-12. 
  5. ^ "Awards for Roxette from RIAA.". www.riaa.com. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=Roxette&perPage=25. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 
  6. ^ "Ask Billboard section on billboard.com (2005)". www.billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts#/news/ask-billboard-1001015119.story. 

External links

v • d • e
Roxette
Per Gessle · Marie Fredriksson
Studio albums
Compilations
Live albums
Remix albums
Videography
Related articles

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Look Sharp! (Roxette album)".  Read more

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