Roxette Bag of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults 3CD

Bag of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults – is four-record collection of 46 previously unreleased or long since deleted Roxette recordings—demos, alternative mixes, Spanish versions, bonus tracks and other fun stuff from the Swedish band’s long, illustrious and extraordinary successful career 1986 - 2016.

Volume One of ”Bag Of Trix” consists of 12 songs recorded over a 30-year period: from the demo of ”Like Lovers Do” recorded during an early pre-recording session for Roxette’s debut album ”Pearls Of Passion” in the summer of 1986, to the new single ”Let Your Heart Dance With Me” which was a leftover from the ”Good Karma” recordings in 2016.

”Bag Of Trix” offers unique insights in one of Sweden’s most fascinating pop group careers. Check out Brian Malouf’s American single mix of ”Joyride”, Roxette’s fourth #1 record  on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1991. In its album version the song is a classic in the Roxette catalogue, but few outside of the US has probably heard this intense and in-your-face single mix.

”Bag Of Trix” also offers Marie Fredriksson’s and Per Gessle’s acoustic demo  of ”Hotblooded”, as well as an unplugged version of their second US #1 ”Listen To Your Heart” which together with their version of the Beatles masterpiece ”Help!” was recorded in the Abbey Road studios in London during the Autumn of 1995.

And for Marie Fredriksson’s millions of fans all over it might be with extra anticipation they will approach the three home-recorded demo versions of her own songs ”Pocketful Of Rain”, ”Beautiful Boy” and ”Waiting For The Rain”—of which only the last one ended up on a Roxette album.

Both Marie and I loved to be in the studio and record our music, and looking back at it now it’s quite overwhelming how much material we did produce—a lot more than we ever released. But I guess we were so spurred on by the whole fantastic Roxette circus we were in at the time, Per Gessle says with a smile.

A lot of what was then ”only” put out as bonus material on CD singles in Japan or maybe didn’t see a release at all, today feels like an interesting part of our catalogue. And that’s why I think that the ”Bag Of Trix” trip can offer quite an interesting listening experience, especially if you have followed us over the years.