Room Service (Roxette Album) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Room Service received a mixed response from critics. "Probably the best Roxette album since Joyride", wrote Leslie Mathew of Allmusic. "Room Service is an exciting, immediate, high-gloss pop gem that contains very little filler indeed." Chili Paddy from MTV Asia also praised the album, saying "There are many potential hit singles here such as the glorious chirpy sing-along 'Real Sugar'". Carol Sullivan from UK newspaper The Guardian disliked the album, and wrote, "Fredriksson's vocals are compelling yet curiously unengaged as she tries to negotiate Per Gessle's lyrics."

Per Bjurman, from Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, bluntly put: "It is not very good", and thought the album was not original. "Many songs sound like covers of old Roxette material. Perhaps inevitable when you return to 'roots', but a little more imagination may be required." However, he did praise the three singles, "Real Sugar", "The Centre of the Heart" and "Milk and Toast and Honey", which he called "Roxette's strongest ballad since 'It Must Have Been Love' and 'Listen to Your Heart'", but ended the review with "Roxette is not finished. But soon, I suspect."

The verse from "Jefferson": "Jefferson was always out of luck/I remember when we both grew up/ Jefferson got hit by a westbound truck/I guess that didn't make him look like a million bucks", also brought a mixed response. Simon P. Ward from Yahoo! Music called the verse a "lyrical gem", while Carol Sullivan from The Guardian called it "one of the worst first verses in history." Ward additionally noted that "Make My Head Go Pop", "...has everything and the kitchen sink thrown into it - keyboards, techno beats, the guitar riff from the Stones' 'Satisfaction' and strings."

In more recent years, Anders Nunstedt from Expressen gave a more critical overview to the album. Speaking of the album in relation to Roxette's other studio albums, he said it was, "Outdated, unattractive and also relatively unmusical." While in another comment he stated "On Have a Nice Day, you heard a band that has lost its compass. You do not have to listen carefully to Room Service to hear the sound of a duo who have been lost in the woods so long that the search ended."