In the weeks ahead of his Eurovision 2015 win, Måns Zelmerlöw put the finishing touches on his fourth studio album, Perfectly Damaged. The album — out June 8 — follows in the very deep tracks laid by “Heroes”. It makes its mark as a decent pop album and another sound step in Måns’ music career. His success at Eurovision was not a one-off.
Måns’ new album gets off to a strong start, with the first three songs (“Stir It Up”, “Heroes” and “Someday”) being about as perfect an opening as anyone could wish for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MF2ld9_1Mw
You can still hear the indie rock sound of Måns’ previous album The Barcelona Sessions, but without the overly earnest tone that threatened to turn that album into a cure for insomnia. There’s been obvious inspiration taken from the anthemic sound of “Heroes”, giving the album a sometimes very full-on feeling.
That’s both the greatest strength and weakness of Perfectly Damaged. When the big songs hit their mark, it’s pop perfection. When they don’t, it’s just more shouting. The album’s weaker tracks all work as individual songs, but in the context of the album, at times there’s a lack of variety. But sooner or later a killer hook comes along and all is forgiven.
It’s because of this that one of the album’s stand-out tracks is one of the less shouty ones. “Should’ve Gone Home” seems to directly address Måns’ well publicised history of philandering and his realisation that screwing around isn’t always the answer. It’s a tale of romance and regret and he delivers it with heartfelt emotion.
Other highlights include the decent anthem “Fade Away” and the very disco sounding “Unbreakable”, which is reminiscent of the stuff Daft Punk recently did with Giorgio Moroder crossed with a bit of Bruno Mars. In other words, there’s no shortage of potential singles.
But the stand-out track is “Someday”, one of the two tracks co-written by Måns and the “Heroes” songwriters. With its moody, dirty sexual synth pop vibe, as well as being super catchy, the song’s sound makes it one of the few tracks that sounds solidly rooted in 2015. It’s so good that it makes up for the dud tracks. Seriously, this has to be the next single.
For a Eurovision winner, the two worst scenarios are to either rush out a hastily produced album or to wait so long that the artist loses the momentum from their win. Perfectly Damaged is neither, and the hardworking Måns has made a decent album to launch his pop career in Europe.
Score: 4/5
PLEASE release on AMERICAN iTunes
boring and overproduced plastic Swedish pop that will fail to chart outside villages of Dalarna and Norrland
I wasn’t really a big fan of him during the contest (I was rooting for Polina), but having listened to the album, it’s a decent & current pop record & his vocals are growing on me. I guess it was the right time to have a male winner, and a media-savvy person with a media-friendly image. I do hope he gets fame outside the Eurovision community. Good luck Mans!
@chris
Well I guess you are right, but you know maybe he would reply like “Yes, that is me” which would probably end up in me screaming from happiness. He is awesome and I am a big fan now.
Last post was for Fusty
It must hurt. I suspect you’re not swedish, by your thoughts. If you were you would know this guy always come out with his head first. I do smell a new star.
Already a star in Sweden but destined to become another One Hit Wonder everywhere else.
Heroes, new entry at No 5 last week in The UK, now dropped 28places to No 39 in only it’s second week, not good 🙁
I suspect the only time most of us outside Sweden will ever see him again is when he hands over the trophy in 2016.
After that, just another Eurovision Memory.
@ Deniz
How do you imagine we could check if it is real Mans? We just cannot.
terrible album!
You guys should write an article about Elina Born’s album…
How come you post about Mans’ album, but not Elina Born’s????
I’ve always loved Mans’ music so I wish him the best of luck in his career. I still have to listen to the album myself, but I have high hopes. The one thing which annoys me though, is the fact that he always wears that grey t-shirt…hes been in it since Melodifestivalen…I think with his Eurovision winnings, he should buy a whole new wardrobe and ditch that grey thing.
He can keep the leather pants though 😉
Why is nobody flipping out that Mans replied here?? or was it a fake account and am I just dumb?? He is awesome, I really want to know if that was him or not.
Kingdom* 😀
I agree with the review. I also love “Kindom In The Sky”. I also thought about if “Should have gone home” had something to do with his problems with staying faithful to his girlfriends. In the past anyway. A well known story in Sweden. It’s a great song and he’s not trying to hide it.
Leon: I simply have nothing more to say cause I totally agree whit you. And I too, love Kingdom in the sky. And I’m a very proud Swede.
I wish they bring his cd here in Greece.I want to buy it! Also cara mia is very good.I wish for him a european career!
@lazy – I thought that’s what this post was about hahaha…Feel free to read my full review of the cd. I’m totally bored at work so decided to give it a full listen from start to finish and write what I felt after each song.
Here’s my in dept review of the CD track by track: 1. Stir it Up – An up tempo record with soft rock elements and guitar. After listening to the whole song, it makes sense why this song opens the record. It’s a great opener “Stir it up, show the word you’re new in town”. It almost feels like the song lays the foundation of what the rest of the record will be like 9.5/10 2. Heroes – No need to review this. Everyone knows this song. Definitely the most uptempo song in the record. Not sure if it’s my… Read more »
Måns will become the next ESC winner superstar
Leon: Nice that someone finally said something about the music… Cause that’s what it’s all about.
I literally love every single one of the songs in the CD. It’s a great mix of pop with some alternate fused in. Hero is definitely the most up beat song in the CD, but Kingdom in the Sky and Stir it up are the best tracks. Great work 8.5/10
@ BooMans
Everybody knew the rules and nobody denied them. He is a fair winner. You should have protested BEFORE the contest. Now it is groundless.
@BooMans shut up and grow some balls. Stop complaining that Sweden shouldn’t have won. Fully deserved winner so please go hate somewhere else….
Wait, was that really Mans?
He’s a leather hunk. Great guy, great music, great looks.
Totally agree that ‘Someday’ HAS to be the next single!
As for @booMans – he/shehas to be a pathetic, bad loser. As someone else wrote: Grow up. Move on.
@BooMans – yeah, like he was guilty of that. Grow up and move on.
@BooMans
It feels amazing, thanks for asking
I have listened to a lot of songs since he won. I really like Run for your life and Cara Mia.
How does it feel to be the first Eurovision winner not winning televote (when it presents), Mans?
A pretty accurate review here, I’d say!! Obviously it’s all subjective, but since I agree with basically everything you said, I’m calling accuracy ???? Someday, Should’ve Gone Home, Unbreakable, Kingdom In The Sky and What’s In Your Eyes are my highlights (besides Heroes) on an album where Måns seems to have settled on the “sound” that suits him best. I have to admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of the Barcelona Sessions, but this reinvention is working quite nicely for me. I find it oddly amusing that the 2015 Eurovision winner’s first post-win release came fairly hot on the… Read more »