Haven’t we all asked ourselves how the heck the HAND album got its title? I mean, it wasn’t even part of the lyrics in any of the songs. Tourism? Quite an unusual title for an album. It’s up to debate if Tourism (which according to the liner notes was regarded a tour album rather than a live album) was meant to distinguish itself from the previous Live-Ism release which obviously was a live recording. But still, don’t let yourselves get mislead by facts here.
Look Sharp! was merely a shout in a song (or a reference to Joe Jackson who had an album with the same title back in 1979 already) but how did it make it onto the cover of a breakthrough album? Pearls of Passion, we got told that it was Pearls AND Passion at first but was changed later. Why would someone do this, except they follow a bigger plan (or just want the album’s initials to be POP but who knows?). Room Service… absolutely clueless except for the theory that they really wanted to have this photoshooting in the Madonna Inn hotel which turned out great in the end, to be fair.
So in short, why all these rather “random” album titles? Is there something else behind all this? A hidden message even? Could it be that Per hid a note to himself in it and we never noticed? A note that he had scribbled down at the very beginning of his career and has followed suit since? Or did he get this idea after a few albums only and then had to come up with funny album titles to achieve the goal eventually? Let’s take a look, shall we…

Here are the titles of all the regular Roxette albums (not counting in compilations, live albums and Baladas…):

Pearls of Passion
Look Sharp!
Joyride
Tourism
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Have a Nice Day
Room Service
Charm School
Travelling
Good Karma

If we only take the first letters of each album, we get PLJTCHRCTG and unless you grew up in Prague or Warsaw, this would be pretty hard to pronounce. Okay, forget this.

What if we take all these titles at once?

PEARLSOFPASSIONLOOKSHARPJOYRIDETOURISMCRASHBOOMBANGHAVEANICEDAYROOMSERVICECHARMSCHOOLTRAVELLINGGOODKARMA

Looks messy, right? Let’s sort the letters alphabetically…

AAAAAAAAAAAABBCCCCCDDDEEEEEEEFGGGHHHHHIIIIIIJKKLLLLLMMMMMNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPRRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSTTUVVVYY

Ahhh. Much better. Now, we can begin to form new words. Which words would you expect?

PER? MUSIC? STAR? FERRARI? HALMSTAD? MONEY?    Yes, they are all there, and more.

Is there still room for ASA, his wife? Yes, you’re quite good!

Fine, if you’re eager to find more words yourself, you should stop reading here but we can tell you already, what you are about to see makes sense in the end.

Again. This is a spoiler. If you want to find this secret message on your own, stop reading here.

We warned you. 🙂 Good then, scroll down….

Fine. You’re lazy, we get it. It’s okay, we all are somehow.

For the impatient ones, here comes Per’s master plan for his life and career, having been hidden in front of our eyes all the years.

V SOON I CAN HAVE LOADSAMONEY & COOL FERRARIS IN HALMSTAD! PER G, COMEDY MUSIC STAR & HIGH SCHOOL RAPPER. I LOVE ASA! BOOK BOJO & AGM! KRRR!

While the V in the beginning obviously is short for “VERY”, we are not sure about the KRRR part. Some say, he fell asleep right after writing and snored, some say this could be a hint on yet another album title that never came to be, with its letters missing to form more words in the line above to make sense. We will probably never know. Maybe you can find out what the name of the missing album could have been? If so, please write it in the comments.

Of course, we asked Per if he was willing to shed some light on the issue but all he replied was “OL’ LADY OF PARIS!”

Technical note: On some screens, the text line with all the 104 letters taken from the album titles may seem to be cut off but we can assure you that in reality it isn’t. If you want to see the full line, we advise you to use a higher screen resolution or a different device.