"Piece of Cake" is a song by Swedish

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

duo Roxette, released on 20 November 2020 as the fourth single from their compilation album ''

Bag of Trix ''Bag of Trix'' (subtitled ''Music from the Roxette Vaults'') is the third box set compilation by Swedish pop duo Roxette. It was issued physically by Roxette Recordings and Parlophone on 11 December 2020, as a quadruple LP and triple CD set ...

''. Originally recorded for their 2016 album ''

Good Karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...

'', it was the last song

Per Gessle Per Håkan Gessle (; born 12 January 1959) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the male half and primary songwriter of the Swedish pop rock duo Roxette, which he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986 and which was ...

wrote for Roxette, and features the final vocal

Marie Fredriksson Gun-Marie Fredriksson (; 30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, pianist and painter, who was best known internationally as the lead vocalist of pop rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo ...

recorded for the duo prior to her death in December 2019. A music video was created for the song, consisting of archive footage of the band on previous tours.

Background and recording

The track was originally recorded for Roxette's tenth studio album ''

'' in 2016; it was the last song

wrote for Roxette, and contains the final vocal

recorded for Roxette prior to her death in December 2019. Gessle said ''Good Karma'' "took forever to make, and by the end everyone was pretty exhausted so we never really got around to finishing Piece of Cake'. While compiling the ''

'' compilation, Gessle said he listened to the track and realised he had "all the pieces" needed to create a finalised version, saying: "All that's left to do is get a good mix." The song was mixed by Ronny Lahti, who also mixed Roxette's 2001 studio album ''

Room Service Room service or in-room dining is a hotel service enabling guests to choose items of food and drink for delivery to their hotel room for consumption. Room service is organized as a subdivision within the food and beverage department of high-end ...

''. Gessle wrote about the song in the introductory prose of his 2014 book ''Songs, Sketches & Reflections: The English Part'', saying the lyric is "quite typical of my way of writing English lyrics. Someone used that expression recently, and it stuck in my mind. That’s the way it’s worked for me ever since I started writing lyrics, and especially English lyrics. You catch words and phrases that probably get a partially different meaning for me than for someone with English as their native tongue." He described "Piece of Cake" as "an unusual title to work with, since it's pretty obvious. And since it means that something is dead easy, I will automatically focus on the opposite; I write the lyric about how hard everything is, but that thanks to one thing or the other it will become a 'piece of cake'."

Release and promotion

A music video was created for "Piece of Cake" using archive footage of the band on tour. The video premiered on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

on 20 November, the same day a 3-track single was released digitally: this single featured their previous two singles, "

Let Your Heart Dance with Me "Let Your Heart Dance with Me" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 2 October 2020 as the second single from their compilation album '' Bag of Trix''. The song was written by Per Gessle, and contains vocals by Marie Fredrikss ...

" and " Tú No Me Comprendes", as

b-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

. "Piece of Cake" was chosen as the 'Song of the Week' on

Sveriges Radio P4 P4 (''pe fyra'') is a national radio channel produced by the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. P4 was started in 1987 as a network of regional stations, but national programming was added in 1993 when P3 was relaunched as a specialist you ...

Critical reception

Polish website

Interia Interia, formerly Interia.pl, is a large Polish web portal created in 2000 in Kraków, Poland. It offers, among others: new email accounts, free web hosting, and domain name registration. The list of its 130 services includes the national and int ...

commended Ronny Lahti's mix, saying he gave ''Room Service'' a "holiday lightness" while saying his participation on "Piece of Cake" resulted in a song which was "full of summer, sunshine and optimism, even if it was written during Marie's last days." Norwegian newspaper ''

Verdens Gang ''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...

'' gave the song a mixed review, describing it a track Roxette fans would both enjoy and dread, elaborating it was "the last song Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson recorded together. It is unfortunately a mess of misunderstood production and strange sounds that do not really belong anywhere. In many ways, it is akin to '

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

'. That is, they tried to make something danceable and catchy at the same time." Their writer went on to compliment Fredriksson's vocals, but said that overall the song "sounds weaker than most would like to admit."

Track listing

Track 1 written by Per Gessle and Mats "MP" Persson; track 2 written by Gessle; track 3 written by Gessle, Desmond Child and Luis Gómez Escolar. *Digital download # "Piece of Cake" – 3:15 # "

" – 3:07 # " Tú No Me Comprendes" – 4:25

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. *

–

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

– lead and background vocals and production * Christoffer Lundquist – background vocals, programming,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

and production *

Clarence Öfwerman Clarence Öfwerman (born 22 November 1957) is a Swedish record producer, best known as the longtime producer of Roxette, having been with the band from their debut album '' Pearls of Passion'' in 1986 through to 2016's '' Good Karma'', Roxette ...

– keyboards, programming, production and mixing * Addeboy vs. Cliff – production * Luis Gómez Escolar – translator * Ronny Lahti – mixing

References

{{Roxette singles 2020 singles 2020 songs Parlophone singles Roxette songs Song recordings produced by Clarence Öfwerman Songs written by Per Gessle