Room Service XL

Knowing that this album still has twelve unreleased demos makes this the most exciting exploration yet. Based on the album’s final tracklist, I may have unattainable expectations for those demos, though. Not to be discouraged, I’m serving up a deluxe tracklist to you on a tray.

Jonas Åkerlund shot the photos for the album during the video shoot for The Centre of the Heart at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. They’re great, but I have mixed feelings about the album cover. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not terribly exciting. After Have a Nice Day, it feels a bit sedate. It does, however, make it easy to squeeze in the “XL Edition” wording.

Album

This tracklist isn’t the most spectacular, with more than half being filler. In my opinion, of course. Room Service is probably the Roxette album that’s aged the worst, and that’s an opinion held by not just me. I would easily have swapped out most of tracks 5–10 with the outtakes, but we got what we got.

1. Real Sugar (3:17)
2. The Centre of the Heart (3:22)
3. Milk and Toast and Honey (4:04)
4. Jefferson (3:51)
5. Little Girl (3:36)
6. Looking for Jane (3:19)
7. Bringing Me Down to My Knees (3:48)
8. Make My Head Go Pop (3:22)
9. Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) (3:13)
10. Fool (3:52)
11. It Takes You No Time to Get Here (3:35)
12. My World, My Love, My Life (4:02)

Demos

Per demoed 29 new songs, excluding songs originally presented for earlier albums. Of the tracks that ended up on the album, only “Make My Head Go Pop” and “It Takes You No Time to Get Here” haven’t seen their demos released yet. The others are a mystery, as I can only go according to what I find in other releases or photos. Hopefully, the twelve tracks still missing from this list will be released someday.

1. Every Day Outside My Window (demo, 28 December 1995: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:00)
2. The Centre of the Heart (Is a Suburb to the Brain) (demo, 2 October 1997: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:37)
3. Hold On My Heart (demo) — Per Gessle
4. Turn of the Tide (demo, 5 January 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:16)
5. Beautiful Girl (demo, 19 April 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:51)
6. Heaven Is Just a Motion Away (demo, 16 May 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:14)
7. When I Close My Eyes (No One Can See Me) (demo, 20 July 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:24)
8. When I Close My Eyes (No One Can See Me) (demo, 21 July 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:42)
9. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart) (demo, 27 July 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:36)
10. Milk and Toast and Honey (demo, 3 August 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:18)
11. Jefferson (demo, 11+16 August 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:51)
12. The Weight of the World (demo, 18 October 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (2:56)
13. Walk On, Lonely Eyes (Demo, 16 December 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:17)
14. Fool (demo, 27 December 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:44)
15. My World, My Love, My Life (demo, 28 December 1999: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (4:06)
16. Hold on My Heart (demo, 30 January 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:48)
17. Looking for Jane (demo, 15 February 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:20)
18. Bringing Me Down to My Knees (demo, 6 March 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:57)
19. Beautiful Boy (demo, March 2000: Studio Vinden) — Marie Fredriksson (3:29)
20. Every Day (demo, March 2000: Studio Vinden) — Marie Fredriksson (3:22)
21. Little Girl (demo, March 2000: Studio Vinden) — Marie Fredriksson (4:24)
22. Fish in a Bowl (demo, 30 April 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:40)
23. Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) (demo, 27 July 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:21)
24. Real Sugar (demo, 15 August 2000: Tits & Ass) — Per Gessle (3:16)

Outtakes, B-sides and non-album tracks

The tracks in this list are solid outtakes and would probably have been better on the album. We’re lucky to have gotten them after the fact.

1. It Takes You No Time to Get Here (long version) (3:52)
2. Entering Your Heart¹ (4:00)
3. Entering Your Heart (extended version)^1:1 (4:34)
4. Every Day (3:26)
5. The Weight of the World (2:52)
6. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart) (4:37)

Mixes and edits

Ten remixes are more than enough, with only three singles released from the album. The Shooting Star treatments were a nice respite, with the rest skewing heavily to club use.

1. The Centre of the Heart (StoneBridge club mix) (7:49)
   Remixed by StoneBridge
2. The Centre of the Heart (StoneBridge club mix edit) (3:37)
   Remixed by StoneBridge
3. The Centre of the Heart (StoneBridge Peak Hour dub) (6:36)
   Remixed by StoneBridge
4. The Centre of the Heart (StoneBridge More Vox dub) (6:36)
   Remixed by StoneBridge
5. The Centre of the Heart (Yoga remix) (3:29)
   Remixed by Yoga
6. Real Sugar (Shooting Star treatment) (4:22)
   Remixed by Shooting Star
7. Milk and Toast and Honey (Shooting Star treatment) (4:18)
   Remixed by Shooting Star
8. Milk and Toast and Honey (Active Dance remix) (3:49)
   Remixed by Linus Norden and Patrick Johansson
9. Milk and Toast and Honey (Active Dance remix, version 2) (3:48)
   Remixed by Linus Norden and Patrick Johansson
10. Milk and Toast and Honey (Active Dance remix, extended) (6:11)
    Remixed by Linus Norden and Patrick Johansson

With a potential twelve extra demo tracks still unreleased, a deluxe edition of Room Service could be a pretty nice package. The singles and their related videos were great, the outtakes pretty solid, the remixes not too bad, and the amount of demos quite impressive. If only the rest of the album wasn’t so lacklustre.