MIKAEL ERLANDSSON – The 1 [Japanese Edition] (1994-1995) *HQ*

Swedish singer / songwriter MIKAEL ERLANDSSON has spanned a long career since being the frontman of the super group Secret Service for 12 years in packed arenas to works with Phenomena, Radioactive, Sapphire Eyes, Heartbreak Radio, Salute, Love Under Cover, and Last Autumn’s Dream (14 albums).
ERLANDSSON also released various solo albums, and 2024 is putting out ‘The Second 1’, the ‘second part’ of his first solo CD titled “The 1”. So here’s “The 1” in its Japanese CD pressing, a very good album plenty of melodic moments.
Co-produced by Mats M.P. Persson (Roxette), “The 1” mixes songs ranging from AOR and Melodic Rock to rock&pop. With a couple of well promoted singles and fine radio airplay, this ERLANDSSON debut disc sold very well all over Europe and Japan.
Opener ‘Wish You Were Here’ is a highlight, an ’80s sounding tune full of Scandinavian magic. Next midtempo ‘Show Me’ brings to mind 1989’s Richard Marx, ‘Reason’ adds really nice acoustics into the mix, while for dynamic melodic rockers we have ‘It’s Alright’ and the nicely guitar-driven ‘Can’t Keep Hiding’, another highlight.

You can hear Persson’s hand on the very poppy (but good) ‘Life Is A Hard Game To Play’, the cool ‘I Believe’, the radio ready ballad ‘For You’, and the very good suave rock&pop ballad title track ‘The 1’ where Mikael voice shines. The only weak track is ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’ where they added some calypso rhythms and fail.
“The 1” is a very strong lite AOR / pop-rock album written, excecuted & produced like if it was 1989. Of course, America didn’t noticed about this release in 1994-1995, but the rest of the world enjoyed a really well crated melodic collection of tunes.
Highly Recommended

01 – Wish You Were Here
02 – Show Me
03 – Reason
04 – Life Is A Hard Game To Play
05 – It’s Alright
06 – I Believe
07 – We Don’t Talk Anymore
08 – For You
09 – Can’t Keep Hiding
10 – Mr. Weirdstough
11 – The 1

Mikael Erlandsson – lead & backing vocals, keyboards
M.P. Persson – electric & acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, accordion
Aymeric Desombre – drums, percussion, bass, electric guitars
Morgan Hjalmarsson – acoustic guitars on “Reason”
Bengt Sandblom – acoustic guitar on “Reason”
Stigge Ljungolf – additional bass on “Reason”

Try here:
amazon.com/1-Mikael-Erlandsson/dp/B000092K8T