"Step right up, getcher tickets here, come on, join the joyride..."
Joyride is the third studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, and one of the last gasps of superproduced 80's Soft Rock in the United States. As of its April 1991 release, Joyride was state of the art pop-rock, stuffed to the brim with bells, whistles, and Rickenbackers
in an ultimately successful multi-tracked bid for chart-topping glory. The title track and the Power Ballad "Fading Like A Flower" rushed the Billboard top 5, representing the pair's last major US hits before trends shifted out from underneath them, relegating them to a European Quirky Work for the remainder of the decade.
Tracklist:
- "Joyride" - 4:24
- "Hotblooded"- 3:18
- "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)" - 3:52
- "Knockin' on Every Door" - 3:56
- "Spending My Time" - 4:36
- "I Remember You" - 3:54
- "Watercolours in the Rain" - 3:40
- "The Big L." - 4:26
- "Soul Deep" - 3:34
- "(Do You Get) Excited?" - 4:16
- "Church of Your Heart" - 3:16
- "Small Talk" - 3:53
- "Physical Fascination" - 3:27
- "Things Will Never Be the Same" - 4:26
- "Perfect Day" - 4:05
"Say a prayer for a sinner and a saint, the tropes list's coming back!":
- Book Ends: In a likely Shout-Out to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the album begins with a carnival barker encouraging listeners to "join the joyride" and ends with the same speaker directing everyone to the exits.
- Europop
- Face on the Cover: The band members are shown standing with their backs against each other.
- God-Is-Love Songs: Inverted with "Church of Your Heart".
- Intercourse with You: "Physical Fascination" starts with sex noises and generally satisfies trope requirements. Mostly.
- One-Word Title: "Joydride", "Hotblooded".
- Power Ballad: Wouldn't be a Roxette album otherwise. "Fading Like A Flower" and "Spending My Time" both qualify.
- Rearrange the Song/Re-release the Song: "Soul Deep" was a single from the band's first album, Pearls of Passion and appears here with (relatively) updated production and an emphasis on guitars over synthesizers.
- Singer Name Drop: Marie reminds you that this is "Rox-ETTE!" toward the end of "Joyride".
- Spoken Word in Music: The album begins and ends with a carnival barker talking, first welcoming them and then directing them to the exits.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Fading Like A Flower"
- You Fool!: A rare romantic example - Gessle's now-wife sent him a note beginning "Hello, you fool, I love you!", which led to the signature line of the title track.
