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Måns Zelmerlöw — beloved winner of Eurovision 2015 — has seen his career go from strength-to-strength since the contest. And on Friday he sent his månsters into meltdown with the release of his seventh album Chameleon, which you can purchase on iTunes.

Three of his previous albums have already charted at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart, with the latest, Perfectly Damaged, going platinum. But surprisingly Måns says it’s taken a lot of time to develop confidence and self-belief.

Speaking in a press release timed with today’s album launch he said: “As a singer, I was actually quite disposed of in the beginning! It feels as if the audience saw my potential before I did.”

The “Heroes” singer made it clear he’s found meaning in his music.

“It’s all about finding your own voice, to know that it holds and singing things that really matter to you. When you go into the studio and turn out the lights, it becomes very clear if you’re rooted in the songs and the lyrics.”

Review of Chameleon

Måns’s latest single “Glorious” serves as a perfect opener for Chameleon. With its anthemic intro that eventually bursts into a breakbeat chorus, it makes an intriguing start.

But after such a heroic entrance, what follows is a little underwhelming. “Beautiful Lie”, “Happy Land”, “Renegades” and “Fire in the Rain” all sound too familiar. “Fire in the Rain” is undoubtedly the best out of four — and a very good song in its own right. But it’s listed after the other three, so it might fail to set you on fire.

The album’s upbeat tracks — “Whistleblower” and “Primal” — do not exactly scream originality, but at least they bring some excitement. Stylistically “Whistleblower” is among the most radio-friendly. It’s something new for Måns and he does it very well.

“Glorious”, “Hanging on to Nothing” and “Wrong Decision” emerge as the standout tracks. “Wrong Decision” might sound reminiscent of Enrique Iglesias’s “Hero”, but lyrics-wise it’s probably the best track on the album. “Hanging on to Nothing” features a more soulful sound and is probably Måns’s best vocal performance of the lot. His voice is dead sexy.

Final verdict

Chameleon embodies Måns’s wish to mix it up — showing that he’s a master of genres including pop, electropop, pop rock, folktronica and even soul. That he can contort his tongue and style and slay each genre is great. But at times it seems he has made a mish-mash collection of genres that are currently popular simply to make sure the album is a commercial success.

Regardless of the motives, Chameleon is a quality pop record. Every song is well-produced and the lyrics possess far more depth than most songs you’ll find in the charts. It’s obvious he and his team approached this with great care, and it’s worth a download.

So what’s your verdict? Is Måns truly a musical chameleon, or is he still dancing with the demons in his mind? Tell us what you think in the comments section below

Order Chameleon on iTunes

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Jonas
Jonas
8 years ago

Yeah, it’s a solid if totally uninspired record. Not really much progression from the last one. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I kinda wish he would make a more schlager-esque return to the style of Hope & Glory but that’s unlikely to happen.

Loo
Loo
8 years ago

Listened to the whole album today and it’s great. You can tell that he is very passionate about this album and it is his best to date. Måns is very talented and versatile. I wish him all the best.

@bella Well with the Melfest line-up I can say that it’s not impossible that he will return as a host in 2018 😉

Lieve
Lieve
8 years ago

Yes, he is still our hero. his music means so much to me. whenever I feel down, I just put his music on and it really helps me to getting through that day. This new album is his best by far. His voice is so amazing specially when he sings Happyland. I think it’s time that the Swedish people gonna realise what a great artist he is and that they give him the respect that he deserve’s .

Jenneke
Jenneke
8 years ago

In my opinion: The best CD Måns made so far. I love every song of it. It has been on repeat on Spotify for me all day long. And that never happened with any artist before. Hope the CD will be a great success for him in Sweden but especially abroad.

A
A
8 years ago

I really love this album and I’m sure he’s still our hero! ??

Davve
Davve
8 years ago

, Nanne Grönvall (ESC96) son Charlie Grönvall has made it to the final of Swedish Idol next week. His grandfather is Björn Ulveus of ABBA as well!

James
James
8 years ago

I was actually hoping he would release more follow-up singles from Perfectly Damaged after “Should’ve Gone Home” since it’s been at least a year (as far as I know) since the album became available in the market.

With that said though, “Glorious” sounds like a good opening song indeed. Looking forward to hear more from the album.

Crispycookie
Crispycookie
8 years ago

All his music is so freaking bland..

It still astounds me how he won in such a strong year, literally every song in the top 10 was better than his.

Gav
Gav
8 years ago

The album is a bit ‘ploddy’ and the same. Nothing new or inventive to make this stand out or show off Mans and his talent. (I’m a Fan of the Mans).

What do others think?

bella
bella
8 years ago

He will always be a hero.He is a very talented man.I hope that he will get the success he wants and that we willsee him as a presenter of eurovision soon again.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
8 years ago

Just like his previous album was Heroes + 11 forgettable fillers, this one is no different. A collection of bland songs.

Chance
Chance
8 years ago

Hey noah, STFU. If you don’t like what wiwibloggs does THEN GO TO ANOTHER WEBSITE. This is not your website, you are not in control of the content. If you want to control the content of a website then MAKE YOUR OWN and report about the dates of Eesti Laul and the song releases there. Jesus christ, you people spend so much time complaining about everything but never do anything about it. Not to mention for a website you apparently can’t stand because of how much time they spend talking about the Swedes (which have one of the biggest and… Read more »

lily
lily
8 years ago

I have the feeling you read the swedish reviews before making your own. Nothing wrong with that except that they’ve given him the exact same review since his first album. The critics refuse to give him any credit if he doesn’t continue to be the familiar allround multitalent with the magical voice. To only do music (as he prefers) is a big no no! for one of the most beloved persona in Sweden. Anyway if Chameleon is a bit of a mix up it’s because it was originally supposed to be 2 two different EP’s (before hosting Esc’16 and timelimit… Read more »

Ron
Ron
8 years ago

I’m excited to listen to the album. Perfectly Damaged was a great record but unfortunately it lacked diversity.

Ana
Ana
8 years ago

,
Can you write about the poll about the artist who will represent Bulgaria. Here’s a link :
http://eurovision-bg.com/koi-shte-predstavi-bulgaria-2017/.
Can you make a poll here too

Adam
Adam
8 years ago

Such a pet peeve when certain people only comment to complain about wiwibloggs not doing enough of x or accusing them of being biased towards x. Like, if you don’t like it here then shut up and leave, it’s so simple.

And noah fence wiwibloggs already did an article almost a month ago on the Eesti Laul entries and artists with their songs, how is that silence? You don’t even know if one of the writers is actually working on an article in this moment! You’re ridiculous.

noah fence
noah fence
8 years ago

Wiwibloggs is only about Sweden and melfest. Estonia already announced the dates when EL songs are going to be releases. And total silence here. When Swedes did here was hundreds of posts about that. It was much cooler when wiwiblogs was neutral.