Music / Look Sharp!

I'm gonna get dressed for success
Shaping me up for the big time

Walking like a man
Hitting like a hammer
She's a juvenile scam
Never was a quitter
Tasty like a raindrop
She's got the look

Heavenly bound
'Cause heaven's got a number
When she's spinnin' me around
Kissin' is a colour
Her lovin' is a wild dog
She's got the look

—"The Look"

Look Sharp! is the second studio album recorded by Swedish pop duo Roxette. It was released through EMI on 21 October 1988.

For this album, EMI and bandmate Per Gessle decided to place the focus on Marie Fredriksson. This would color the performance of the album.

While critics liked the singles, they felt the rest of the tracks were nowhere near as strong. But a chance purchase would take the band a completely different direction.

An American exchange student that liked the band purchased a couple copies of the album, and brought it home to Minneapolis. He gave one to a local Top 40 station, who started playing its fourth single, "The Look".

It proved popular enough to enter the top half of the Billboard Hot 100 with zero official promotion.

This caused EMI America to reconsider a previous rejection of the band as "unsuitable", and officially release the album in the United States. They were signed, and the album was released in the United States.

"The Look" would eventually hit #1. Despite American critics seeing it as "disposable", the public loved it. In their native Sweden, Look Sharp! would go six-times Platinum. They raked up a ton of Platinum records all over Europe, and ultimately went Platinum in both the United States and United Kingdom.

Five singles were released to support the album: "Dressed for Success", "Listen to Your Heart", "Chances", "The Look", and "Dangerous". "Listen to Your Heart" also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with four singles being hits in the US, and three in the UK.

The album was remastered in 2009, and re-issued again for its 30th anniversary in 2018. The 2009 re-issue included three bonus tracks on its physical CD, and five more digital-only tracks. The 30th anniversary re-issue further added a bonus disc with demos.

Not to be confused with the 1979 debut album of the same title (including exclamation point!) by British singer-songwriter Joe Jackson.

Tracklist

1. "The Look" (3:57)
2. "Dressed for Success" (4:09)
3. "Sleeping Single" (4:38)
4. "Paint" (3:30)
5. "Dance Away" (3:25)
6. "Cry" (5:19)
7. "Chances" (4:57)
8. "Dangerous" (3:48)
9. "Half a Woman, Half a Shadow" (3:35)
10. "View from a Hill" (3:40)
11. "(I Could Never) Give You Up"* (3:58)
12. "Shadow of a Doubt" (4:14)
13. "Listen to Your Heart" (5:28)

* = This track was CD-only

"Hold on tight, these tropes are a little bit dangerous:"

• Album Title Drop: Actually comes from "Dressed For Success", taking place right before a Per Gessle guitar solo.
• Singer Name Drop: Towards the start of "Dance Away", the band's name was whispered.
• Stealth Parody: Per Gessle has stated "Listen To Your Heart" was "us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd."
• Word Salad Lyrics: "The Look" doesn't make much sense. That's because the original lyrics were guide lyrics written to steer the backing music. Per was unable to figure out good English lyrics to replace them with, so he just used it.

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