Crank It Up To Eleven! 03.24.09: Guilty pleasures – Michael learns to rock
Posted by Sandeep Murali on 03.24.2009
Michael who? Learned to do what? A look back into the career of a soft-rock band that flew under the radar of the average music fan in the west.
Hello everyone and welcome back. Apologies for no-showing last week. A good friend of mine had a health scare, which had me going in and out of the hospital throughout the weekend (My usual writing days). A big thanks to Mitch and Ben for understanding the situation.
I Remember You... And your music:
Here folks, is perhaps the first (and quite possibly, the ONLY) column on the Danish band that made music that you're technically supposed to hate, but couldn't. Yes, Michael learns to rock is a guilty pleasure of mine and I'm not afraid to admit it.
To the uninitiated, Michael Learns To Rock or MLTR as they're popularly known, is a soft rock band that was more popular in Europe and Asia than North America. While mainstream 90's rock bands from America leaned towards the Grunge sound for commercial success, MLTR was one of the old guard that stuck to a melodious sound, positive lyrics and ballads throughout their career. The curiously named band owes its origins to the city of Aarhus in Denmark, where a singer named Jascha Richter and drummer Kåre Wanscher decided to form a band of their own. Guitarist Mikkel Lentz, a great finger style player in his own right, was recruited soon after and bassist Søren Madsen was the last to join. The band played around local venues for a whileand got their break at the city's talent show. In a hurry to name their band before the show, Richter and co. Named themselves after Michael Jackson. The idea was that they were pop artists like MJ, but with a rock edge to it. The band were initially ashamed of this name and wanted to change it, but the popularity of their debut album convinced them to do otherwise.
Speakin' of debut albums, MLTR's self-titled effort came out in 1991 to warm reception in the local market. It soon gained popularity in Scandinavia and surprisingly, the east as well. TV and radio in these regions were quick to pick the act up and the band's singles were regular fare on them soon after. The songs "The actor", "Crazy dream" and "I still carry on" in particular were extremely popular and I remember hearing them practically everywhere back then.
1993's Colours was a major success for the band and sold a million copies worldwide. The album again had a number of singles, of which the most prominent one was the massively popular "Sleeping child". This song, along with "Wild women", "Complicated heart" and "25 minutes" cemented the band's position as one of the top choices when it came to easy listening. Their soothing ballad style, simple lyrics and the rich melody may seem like a case study in "Safe" music to the naysayers, but there really wasn't anything worth hating in them either.
Played on pepper, released in 1995 was arguably the zenith of MLTR's career. The album sold 1.2 million copies worldwide and spawned their most famous song of all time, "Someday". The video of this song, which was shot in a single take, paid homage to their faithful asian fanbase and unsurprisingly, was seen on the TV channels there every other hour or so during this time period.. The band embarked upon a world tour to embark upon this success. The album showcased a slightly more mature MLTR, which kinda "Grew up" from the teen-pleasing sound the previous two albums offered. The ballads were musically very solid and the aforementioned "Someday" was a legit rock ballad with a nifty solo thrown in for good measure.
The band released a fourth album titled Paint my love, which was basically a compilation of their greatest hits to the date and a few extra tracks. For anyone interested in the band, I would gladly recommend this album because everything they have done worth a listen is in here. The next studio effort, Nothing to lose was released worldwide the following year. It featured some of the tracks seen in Paint my love, plus some new ones. The album was a disappointment as it wasn't a solid effort like Played on pepper. The band seemed like they were in two minds as to the general direction they were to take. It seemed like the international success of boybands didn't go unnoticed by MLTR as they severely toned down the "Rock" aspect of their sound for a much more sugar coated approach. This was seriously disheartening as a band that was capable of so much more were practically dumbing themselves down for commercial success.
Either way, MLTR was burned out by this time. The crew disbanded for an indefinite period of time, during which the members embarked upon solo projects. Bassist Søren Madsen decided to leave the band permanently and the rest of the members reunited to produce their next album, which came out a full three years after the last effort. Unfortunately, it appeared that time apart didn't really help replenish their creativity, as this album Blue Night had even less rock influences. It seemed like Michael had truly forgotten how to rock. The album was a big success in their home country and Asia though, thanks to some clever marketing. As a fan, this album marks the point where I gave up on the band.
MLTR released two more albums after this, 2004's Take me to your heart (Which was every bit as cheesy as the title suggests) and 2008's "Eternity", which fared slightly better. By this time, all pretenses of rock were truly thrown out of the window and the band metamorphosed into a proper pop band which aimed at pleasing teenage girls who were in search for the next N*SYNC. Unfortunately for the band, musical tastes of the average girl had metamorphosed too and boybands were considered staler than last week's bread. Will the band pull off another career changing move and do a Fall out boy? Only time will tell.
Never say goodbye:
MLTR was one of those bands I grew up with. Yes, I spent majority of my youth listening to thrash, glam and *shudder* grunge, but whenever I needed a change, I'd always pop in an MLTR cassette tape. Call it cheesy or safe or mainstream or whatever, they never failed to put a smile on my face with the simplicity of their music. I just wish the band as I had known them earlier in my life would return and resume business as usual.
