mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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joyride
Joyride The far from original Swedish duo delivers nearly shameful catchy, simple melodies without any second thoughts. The main songwriter Per Gessle is a big fan of classic rock and pop artists and spent most of his life falling in love with the sound of Tom Petty, The Beatles, The Kinks and the Beach Boys. However, Joyride is clearly meant to be commercially successful in the early 1990’s and the production is pretty dated and might be a turn off for the ones doubtful to arguably the most despised era of popular music: the 80’s. Production problems, the melodies tend to survive and whilst being a perfect album, Joyride is a fun album. Built up in a way nearly as obvious as the melodies, the album follows a pattern. The uptempo pop songs (title track, “The Big L.”, “Soul Deep”), tender ballads that most likely melt the young teenage hearts (“Perfect Day” which has nothing to do with the Lou Reed song, “Spending My Time”) and some tracks that lands somewhere inbetween (“Fading Like A Flower”). Not all of the songs are #1 material, but at least somewhat enjoyable. If nothing else it is fun to spot influences that floods the album. “The Big L.” For instance features some airplane sounds (“Back In The U.S.S.R.”) and borrows its main lick from the Beatles’ “I Want To Tell You”, the intro of the title track brings both “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Magical Mystery Tour” to mind. And so it keeps on through the album. Not offering any substance or emotional resonance, the duo manages to get away with it anyway. Fun, catchy and charmy. The word that sums it up is ‘pop’, I guess.
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