1. Roxette Central
  2. 2024
  3. April
  4. 9

Crash! Boom! Bang! XL

  • Barry Mieny with Martin Odendaal
  • Roxette XL

We’ve reached the halfway mark — for the studio albums — and this one’s very relevant today since Crash! Boom! Bang! is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary on this very day! According to rumours, the thirtieth-anniversary edition of the album won’t be out until later this year, so maybe this can serve as a bit of inspiration.

Crash! Boom! Bang!: XL Edition

I won’t call this artwork lazy, but having seen other photos taken during the session in the intervening years, some other options could have fared better. Seeing where the typography ended up by the last single, the type on the album cover seems a bit busy in comparison. The layout also isn’t amenable to changes or additions, so I’ve done my best. Inspired by the cassette (and the Crash! Boom! Bang! single), I condensed the album title and added “XL Edition” to the end. It’s not the prettiest, but it gets the job done.

Album

For the first time since Pearls of Passion, there’s no specific track listing to choose or adjust since there is a single track listing shared between all mediums1.

  1. Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky) (3:45)
  2. Crash! Boom! Bang! (5:02)
  3. Fireworks (3:58)
  4. Run to You (3:39)
  5. Sleeping in My Car (3:46)
  6. Vulnerable (5:01)
  7. The First Girl on the Moon (3:00)
  8. Place Your Love (3:10)
  9. I Love the Sound of Crashing Guitars (4:48)
  10. What’s She Like? (4:14)
  11. Do You Wanna Go the Whole Way? (4:09)
  12. Lies (3:34)
  13. I’m Sorry (3:14)
  14. Love Is All (Shine Your Light on Me) (6:45)
  15. Go to Sleep (3:59)

Demos

Most of the demos for the album have been released, with the sole holdouts being: “The First Girl on the Moon,” “I Love the Sound of Crashing Guitars,” and “Lies.” Whether Per presented any other demos is unknown, but you never know. I sometimes wonder how “What’s She Like?” and “Vulnerable” would have sounded had they been recorded during the Joyride sessions and not ended up on this album.

  1. See (demo, 18 June 1989: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle
  2. What’s She Like? (demo, 1990: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:16)
  3. Vulnerable (demo, 28 December 1990: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:44)
  4. Before You Go to Sleep (demo, 23 October 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:56)
  5. Place Your Love (demo, 10 November 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:00)
  6. Before You Go to Sleep (demo, 23 November 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:06)
  7. She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (demo, December 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle
  8. Run to You (demo, 12 December 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:45)
  9. Sweet Thing (demo, 16 December 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:46)
  10. Love Is All (demo, 17 December 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:16)
  11. Always Breaking My Heart (demo, 27 December 1992: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:53)
  12. Fireworks (demo, 30 January 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:28)
  13. Pocketful of Rain (demo, February 1993: Skinnarviksringen) — Marie Fredriksson (4:11)
  14. Go to Sleep (demo, February 1993: Skinnarviksringen) — Marie Fredriksson (5:03)
  15. Almost Unreal2 (demo, February 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:25)
  16. Gone Gone Gone (demo, 25 February 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:59)
  17. Sweet Emotions2:1 (demo, 26 February 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:29)
  18. It Hurts (demo, 7 March 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:57)
  19. I’m Sorry (demo, 18 March 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:21)
  20. Do You Wanna Go the Whole Way? (demo, 21 March 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:21)
  21. Crash! Boom! Bang! (demo, 6 May 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:14)
  22. Blue Umbrella (demo, 15 June 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:19)
  23. Crazy About You (demo, 20 June 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:46)
  24. Harleys and Indians (demo, 10 August 1993: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:26)
  25. Sleeping in My Car (demo, December 1993: EMI Studio 2, Stockholm) (3:13)

Outtakes, B-sides and non-album tracks

There are only two outtakes here, complemented by three tracks from the MTV Unplugged concert. It would be great to include the complete MTV Unplugged set list, but that deserves to be released in full by itself.

  1. Almost Unreal2:2 (3:58)
  2. Crazy About You3 (4:04)
  3. See Me (3:46)
  4. She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
  5. The Look (live, 9 January 1993: MTV Unplugged, Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden) (5:11)
  6. Joyride (live, 9 January 1993: MTV Unplugged, Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden) (5:37)
  7. Dangerous (live, 9 January 1993: MTV Unplugged, Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden) (3:13)

Mixes and edits

Only “Fireworks” was remixed, with the remainder being single edits for radio. While I love the demos and unplugged tracks that filled the singles, they could have done with a few more remixes. If “Spending My Time” could be remixed, so could the ballads from this album.

  1. Almost Unreal (US adult contemporary mix) (3:56)
  2. Almost Unreal (end credits long version)4 (3:56)
  3. Almost Unreal (end credits short version)4:1 (3:45)
  4. Sleeping in My Car (single edit) (3:33)
  5. Crash! Boom! Bang! (single edit) (4:28)
  6. Fireworks (single edit) (3:40)
  7. Fireworks (Jesus Jones remix) (4:11)
    Remixed by Mike Edwards
  8. Vulnerable (single edit) (4:30)

The recording of this album took almost as long as Joyride, but it unfortunately didn’t have quite the same impact or breadth of bonus material. We’ll find out later this year how many hidden gems remain, but judging from the tracks already released on The Per Gessle Archives and Bag of Trix, I don’t think we’ll see much extra.

  1. I admit, the Japanese release included a track named “It’s Almost Unreal” (sic). Japan is known for having bonus tracks, so I’m ignoring this track listing, and “Almost Unreal” is featured elsewhere here. ↩︎

  2. “Almost Unreal” and “Sweet Emotions” are included since Almost Unreal was recorded after Tourism’s promotion process had finished and work had already started on Crash! Boom! Bang! That makes it a bit more at home here. Also, see the previous point. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. This is the original mix, not the version released as a B-side to “You Don’t Understand Me”. ↩︎

  4. These versions feature a different intro than the one released on the soundtrack and single. The long version has a roughly 20-second guitar intro with keyboards about halfway through, whereas the short version trims about half of that, including the keyboards. ↩︎ ↩︎