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While ABBA was the first super group to conquer the world with their music, the mid 1980’s saw the birth of Sweden’s next great musical export, Roxette. Similar to ABBA, Roxette was the formation of a group whose members were already well known and popular within Sweden. Per Gessle, Roxette’s male half of the duo, rose to fame within Sweden as a member of the popular rock group Gyllene Tider. Marie Fredriksson, the female half of Roxette, was becoming immensely popular in the mid 80’s with her self-penned albums in Swedish. It was after Gyllene Tider broke up and a couple of solo albums that Per’s popularity as an artist was on the decline when it was suggested that he should work with Marie Fredriksson on something that might have international appeal.

Those close to Marie thought Per’s declining popularity might kill some of the upward momentum of her own popularity within Sweden, but despite those reservations, Marie gave it a go. While Roxette was meant to be a side project for both Per and Marie, now that twenty years have passed and Roxette had exceeded both their expectations, there’s reason to celebrate the musical union of Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson as Roxette. There have been many ups and downs over the years from the truly global “Joyride” tour in the early 1990’s to Marie’s brain tumor in 2002 and her miraculous recovery. However, despite it all Roxette are back with two new songs and a collection to highlight the years that Roxette kept Sweden on the world’s charts following ABBA.

Measuring in at four CDs with 78 songs and a double sided DVD featuring all their videos and the complete MTV Unplugged episode complete with all the outtake songs that didn’t make the original program as well as good sized booklet to document the history of Roxette through the albums as well as provide detailed information on all the songs and the included DVD, the package overflows with a wealth of material. The title seemingly taken from many fan requests for a “Rox Box” over the years, the box set is called “The Rox Box: Roxette 86-06.” And the set includes the hits, several selected album cuts, b-sides, as well as a few demos sprinkled in for good measure along with the two newly recorded tracks.

While a lot of hardcore Roxette fans might find the set lacking in previously unreleased material (where many of the songs highlighted as “previously unreleased” on the track list have in fact seen the light of day as additional tracks on singles, as well as on limited edition versions of previous compilation collections, and even one demo that appeared as additional track to one of the singles from Per’s 1997 solo album, “The World According To Gessle.” Even the sole cover song appearing on the compact disc portion of the collection, “Help!” originated by the Beatles, while never officially being released has been previously available in Roxette fan circles due it’s being played during a radio interview around the time of Roxette’s first compilation album, 1995’s “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus ­ Roxette’s Greatest Hits.” The set was originally planned to have 3 discs of the hits and various songs and a fourth disc containing only rarities and demos, Per revealed in an interview that everyone involved in preparing the box set including himself was finding it hard to stay awake listening to a disc of all rarities and demos, so a more mixed grab bag format was decided upon to help keep the discs exciting to listen to. It’s been five years since the last full new album and three years since the last new songs added to a couple of compilations have come from Per and Marie. The most recent new songs were recorded just before Marie had the brain tumor incident that was quite a scare for Roxette fans around the world. At the time there were plans to try and use create a lot of global excitement for Roxette by reintroducing the general public to Roxette through a compilation of Roxette’s ballad hits and then roughly six months later putting out a second compilation of Roxette’s pop hits followed by new material and a tour, but that came to a grinding halt with Marie’s brain tumor, which she fell ill with while jogging on September 11, 2002.

The compilations got released but the new album and tour never materialized as Marie took time to recover, and while there has been solo releases by both Per and Marie in the meantime as well as Per reforming with Gyllene Tider for a new album and tour, it was Marie’s insistence “We had so much fun with Roxette. It would be a shame not to do anything more.” And with that two new Roxette songs were born in the summer of 2006. Where it goes from here, Per has stated is up to Marie. Following the tumor, her priorities in life have changed as the do when you have a near death experience. Even Per thought that Roxette was a completed chapter, so who knows, there might be more from Roxette in the future.

In the meantime, there’s several ways to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Roxette. In addition to the box set, a single disc compilation of some of the hits has been released for those looking for just the main hits, and a version of the package with a DVD of the videos has also been released. Additionally, Per Gessle has been allowing online listening (but not downloading) of a single Roxette demo every Monday since the start of November and it continues through the end of December. You do have to make a point to stop in each week to hear the demos as the previous ones get removed as the new one gets put up. To listen in, point your web browser to www.roxette.se.

With Roxette, I’ve always felt that I’ve gotten my money’s worth. The box set is practically overflowing with Roxette material. Each CD is generously packed, the first two have 19 songs each and the last two have 20 each. The DVD has an hour and half in the MTV Unplugged show, of which half an hour of which is newly released material (although I’ve never actually seen the show previously, but have heard the audio on a bootleg recording I bought years ago), and the other side of the DVD is two and half hours of Roxette videos. Although the new video for “One Wish” is noticeably absent but most likely wasn’t ready at the time the box set was compiled, it’s still a LOT of Roxette content. And add to the box set the demos Per has been making available to hear online, and it’s been enough to re-energize my excitement for Roxette and I’ve been playing them constantly on my iPod, even with other new albums added. Those get played and Roxette is back on. I haven’t had this kind of Roxette binge in years and I’m loving every minute of it. And it didn’t take long for Roxette’s new single, “One Wish” to knock Agnetha Fältskog’s “It I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind” off the top spot as the most played song on my iPod. “One Wish” has been played on my iPod a little more than 300 times and Agnetha is lagging behind at just under 200 plays and she’s had a year and half to get those 200 plays. Could that mean I’m more of a Roxette fan than an ABBA fan?? Maybe if Benny and Björn would release some demos and remixes, it might be enough to re-energize my ABBA fandom in the way Roxette’s box set has re-energized my Roxette fandom.

Ryan