BILTHOVEN - The Per Gessle Archives - A demo lover's paradise!

In September, the Per Gessle Archives box set will be released in eleven volumes containing 10 CDs and a vinyl. The first two volumes will be released on iTunes in June and the first was made available on Spotify just today. This time, we decided not to do the traditional album review but I write a more personal article as a Per Gessle demo fanatic.

"Finally, it's here! Now THIS is what I love!". Those were my initial thoughts when the first album of the Per Gessle Archives was released. When I started listening to Roxette at the age of twelve, I started collecting singles and I soon discovered that for some reason I listened to the B-sides and demos at least as often as the singles and album tracks on Roxette, Gyllene Tider and solo records. Since then I've been collecting demos. I was pretty impressed with the collection I managed to gather and made my own compilation albums to play in my discman and later car.

This release is, I think, one of the most exciting releases for me, eleven volumes to top off my own collection, there is so much goodness here! Hearing Per perform his songs in their purest form just has something special for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the production on the album releases but I always feel more of the 'magic' when listening to the demos. The first album is full of special demos, with interviews about the songs. Every song is discussed in an individual track, Sven and Per discuss the origin of the song in English. Very welcome for someone like me who doesn't speak more than a few words Swedish (except those learned from listening to Gyllene Tider of course).

Listening to this album is pure joy for me. The first track is amazing! "Walk on, Lonely Eyes" is a great opener for the album, although I had honestly expected a more uptempo track. The song is very powerful, nonetheless and a beautiful demo from T&A. The lyricss are used in “Easy Way Out”, and part of the chorus is from “View from a Bridge.” Great to hear things like this!

The song I most looked forward to was the second track on the album, "Being With You". This has been one of my favourite songs since I heard it years and years ago and I still find myself whistling it occasionally. This song was originally recorded for the "Have A Nice Day" album back in 1997. The version on this album is a refreshed acoustic version of the song, bit slower than the other version if I remember correctly. I've always thought this should should have been released so I'm glad it's finally out there, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! And the version I heard is on Vol 2...

There are bits and pieces in most of the songs we have heard before, like “Hjärta av glas” for instance, which has parts of “Shadow of a Doubt” and "I Don't Believe In Accidents" in it. Or “Black Sails” which turned into “Run, Run, Run”...

Like I said before, we're not going to discuss all the songs in this article because Sven did a great job interviewing Per about all the songs and I'm not going to copy that here, so head on over to Spotify and have a listen for yourself, highly recommended!