Marion Raven is from Norway and used to be in the pop act M2M. Remember them? they had quite a few pop hits including Don't Say You Love Me and Mirror Mirror. Marion released her first solo record Here I Am in 2005 and became a rock chick.
26 March 2007: Martin from Sweden told me that
Peter Svensson who co-wrote Little by Little for Marion Raven is the guitarist-songwriter of The Cardigans. I didn't know that! Thanks Martin.
Martin also highlighted Max Martin's work with M2M. I dug out my M2M albums and checking the songwriting credits, Max Martin was executive producer of the song Pretty Boy on the Shade of Purple Album. Pretty Boy is written by Bottolf Lodemel/Nora Skaug and produced and arranged by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger for Cheiron Productions.
Marion's solo debut is a pop/rock album. Marion co-writes almost all songs on this album. Though some songs are a little similar to Kelly Clarkson/Avril Lavigne/Ana Johnsson, other songs are quite dark. Definitely a different sound for Max Martin and Rami, perhaps due to Marion's songwriting.
I have to admit I was expecting more, but overall it's a pretty good album and enough songs to sing-along to.
So far this album only seems to be released in Sweden and parts of Asia including Japan.
