Roxette's first new studio album in 10 years!

Although they’ve put out a handful of new songs (generally in conjunction with new “greatest hits” compilations) in the interim, it’s been 10 years since the Roxette released their last studio album, 2001’s Room Service. The Swedish pop duo are best known for a string of epic pop ballads in the late 80s and early 90s including “Listen to Your Heart”, “Fading Like a Flower” and “It Must Have Been Love” from the Pretty Woman soundtrack, not to mention their star-making power-pop classic “The Look”.

But even as their commercial fortunes waned in the late 90s, they kept making music both together and solo, with Per Gessle releasing five solo albums (including one as Son of a Plumber) and a 2005 reunion album with his pre-Roxette band Gyllene Tider. Marie Fredrikkson also put out several solo albums, mostly in Swedish, but was forced into semi-retirement when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002. But in the fall of 2009, with a new live band, Gessle and Fredrikkson reunited for a series of smaller-scale shows throughout eastern Europe, and last year they started recording a new album, scheduled to be released internationally this month, called Charm School. Here’s the lead single from the new album: “She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)”.

As is their practice, this first single is an upbeat dance-rocker driven by Gessle’s (weaker) lead vocals, but it’s got glittery 70s-style guitar riffage, a verse that knowingly nods to a 20-year-old Red Hot Chili Peppers song, and a chorus that, over a shimmer of mirror-ball synthesizers, promises to make itself at home in your brain for days. It’s nowhere near the instant pop classic that “The Look” or “Joyride” were, but it’s still proof that Per and Marie can still make a smart, fun, three-minute pop song – and make it look easy. Here’s hoping they’ve got one of their trademark ballads in store for us soon.