Opening track minor earth /major sky metallic sheen production and cranberries irish sounding vocals in the chorus seemed new and fresh.
Most likely. At least the post production. But I don't know for sure. I remember seeing pro tools screens showing in some a-ha website studio report during the making of Lifelines.
Have to say the the Waaktarr -Savoy songs are super .. Barley Hanging On and You'll Never Get Over Me spring to mind.Paul's tour de force mini pop opera song that gives this MEMS class is Mary Ellen Makes The Moment Count....and such a dramatic closing track.
The fall of 1998 I saw a frontpage on the norwegian newspaper VG ( I think) saying "a-ha is back". Inside it said they were scheduled to perform on the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in December. Me and my best bud decided to go. This was our very first chance to see a-ha live! A lot had changed since the previous album. Morten had made a successful solo carreer in Norway with Wild Seed. That album sold multiple times as much as Memorial Beach in our country. Also Savoy had a huge norwegian hit with Velvet and Magne had done a bunch of soundtracks. So this was strong individuals coming together despite the reported differences between them. Fast forward to the concert. It was full of big stars: Cranberries, Phil Collins, Alanis Morrissette etc. A completely different mood compared with a normal gig or festival. This was a serious occasion and people sat polite and clapped between songs. I remember being slightly nervous on a-ha's behalf. This was the band I loved and it was not always cool to like them. However after they had finished their brand new, never before heard song Summer Moved On it was standing ovations and then even more after The Sun Always Shines On TV in a new arrangement with the Lindvall brothers and Kjetil Bjerkestrand on stage. They were welcomed back and the new song was awesome! The following 15 months was a loong wait for the new album to come out but the new song sounded really promising. I recorded it on VHS and on cassette for the car so I got to know it well. I hoped the live version was a hint of the new sound. Organic but brighter and a bit more airy than Memorial Beach. It was all the hoping and hoping and reading rumours in newspapers that made my expectations go sky high for something like this to come. That was the background for me being a bit shocked by the sound of the album when it came out and as I said it took me months to get over it.. Will write a bit about what I think about the album itself now and a bit about the Vallhall concert when I got time... Now back to work
So, Minor Earth, Major Sky. I gave this a spin a few days ago as it is quite a while since I listened to it all of the way through. The first thing to say is that it is one of my two favourite A-ha album covers ever and one of my favourites by anyone. When I first saw it in my local branch of Our Price records it was a no brainer to buy it right there and then. By that time I had already heard the Summer Moved On and I liked it a great deal. That alongside Mary Ellen Makes The Moment Count are in my personal pantheon of A-ha songs There are other good songs too, including the title track but overall, it is not an album that stays with me. Even having listened to it as recently as last week there are still some tracks that I can't recall. It is a great sounding record but it is what I like to call a Chinese Meal album, throughly enjoyable when you are in the middle of it but an hour later you have forgotten all about it and feel hungry again. The good thing about MEMS is that it was successful enough both commercially and artistically as a comeback to ensure that the band had a future. I have to confess though that it is the last A-ha album that I bought upon release until Foot Of The Mountain. I came to both Lifelines & Analogue retrospectively.
I listened to the album yesterday. First time from start to finish in years. It was a strange experience as it was the soundtrack of my life 2000-2001. I could feel myself walking through Bergen as a student new to this part of Norway (have been living here ever since). As I explained earlier I had some issues with the sound and production when it came out because I had very different expectations. But I kind of got past it and was able to enjoy the album. Hearing it again now I feel that it is an album with both hits and misses. The production works well on some songs like the 3 main singles and a couple of other tracks but it becomes a bit worn out throughout the album. What was special about the following tour is that they had 9 of these songs on the standard set list. Very cool! But what is interesting is that the 4 songs that failed to make it is the 3 I think could be cut away from the album + one exeption. To Let You Win features some slightly cliche lyrics with a slightly corny syth bell sound. But it is something honest about it considering that Morten just had been through a divorce and I kind of like how his voice stays in the low register. Barely Hanging On belongs better as the B side is was for Summer Moved On. The Company Man is kind of their Have A Cigar but it's a bit too much inside the music business and a filler track for me. And I agree with Paul that I Won't Forget Her is ruined by bad production. The remaining 10 songs I think could make a stronger album. I remember that I liked Thought That It Was You very much at the time. A-ha's first song really handling spiritual subjects? However, even though it is one of the two songs in original version (not remixed) it kind of feels a bit dated now. Funny, as I would never believe that at the time. One that really stood the test of time I think is You'll Never Get Over Me. It just flows great and Lauren's voice actually fits perfectly as a counterweight to Morten's chorous line. Mary Ellen is also very good even though it worked much better as an intense live performance. Play it loud from the Vallhall DVD and you might get a bit of how it felt live that day. Speaking of that concert it was very special to me to see a-ha in a full set live for the first time. The production of that DVD is probably not on par with later concert DVD's and the stage lighting may seem a bit simple compared with later fancy screens etc but it worked very well as an experience there and then. Me and my friend bought 16 tickets together and invited a bunch of friends and relatives and it was an experience for life! The Nobel Peace Prize Concert and that night kind of frames the MEMS era for me. A-ha was indeed back!
Velvet is a great song and the video is awesome. Fun, cool and meaningful. Pål once said he wrote Velvet as a kind of respons to "All this Useless Beauty" by Elvis Costello. We are moved by and attracted to myths and art objects like beautiful Greek statues but regardless how much we try they never respond and in real life they would probably have disapointed us. If you let someone like Morten sing Velvet you add yet another layer to the interpretation. If he had sung Him/He instead of Her/She it could be a song about Morten himself in relationship to his devotees which he holds in his spell, all pining for his voice and body. The director Zwart saw this and brilliantly plays with it all in the video. Zwart makes a point of passify and heavily objectify Morten. He's really Adonis-statuesque and the nurses are in command and take full advantage of him. There are also references to alluring dangerous singing water creatures in Norse and Greek mythology like the Sirens, Näcken and Völvor. And of course the black humoristic reference to the never ending Scandinavian preoccupation with death.
Agree about the album cover. It is a bit Hipgnosis/Storm Thorgerson isn't it? Your other favorite a-ha album cover is? (Let me guess.. Scoundrel Days?)
I always liked this album because it was so varied. I think the Norsemen just came back thinking they had all these great ideas then had to wrestle (shirtless, of course) with the others to get their ideas through onto the album. Throw in those wily Germans and you have the makings of a raw record. This entire time I was thinking I was hearing the original mix but that's about par for the course for me. Brilliant when it doesn't really matter then eccentrically stupid when it does. Maybe this and Lifelines can be filed under the "they're learning how to be in a band again" category.
Personally, I think all of the MEMS tracks work much better live, as on the Valhal - Homecoming DVD, with Pauls guitar solo on You'll Never Get Over Me as an highlight. The Valhal live version of the title track is also excellent, including a great intro, build-up and flourishes by Paul throughout. Though, in my opinion, the definite live version is probably from the national Spellemann awards show (Spellemannsprisen). I always felt that Summer Moved On sounded better semi-acoustic, there's a great live version from the freebee concert at Frognerparken.
I think you're right. One of the goals Steve Lillywhite always had was to capture the live show in studio which, I don't think was really achieved on MEMS if there was even a live aspect to capture. There's a few versions of "Summer" where the tempo has a slight stutter to it that always made me prefer the recorded version but for the most part those songs work better live.
It would be hard for me to decide between MEMS album version vs. live versions. I like the variety and the contrasts. But I still maintain that the now legendary "German production" adds something special to this set of songs in their studio versions. On the other hand, the version of "Minor Earth Major Sky" (the song) on the farewell concert CD is totally stripped down and attains a different kind of majesty.
I thought there would have been be a lot more love for this album, certainly more major affection than minor.
I think the 2000 performance(Spellemann 1999) of Summer Moved On was playback because of the TV production but maybe you are refering to another performance? I think when they performed MEMS the following year, it was live.
Sorry, my post was confusing. I was referring to MEMS at Spellemann (in 2001?), that version was definitely live (and quite amazing). Btw Lars, I suppose you're the same Lars that's on the West Of The Moon forum?, if so, do you know anything new about the slated book on their recordings, is it still shelved?
Me too. To me, it's an almost perfect album. When the album came out, I personally made at least four people (who had never really known a-ha's music) into fans by playing this album for them. As an a-ha fan dying for new music, waiting those nine long years after Memorial Beach paid off in spades when they finally regrouped to release MEMS.
You got me! I was in touch with Chris Hopkins a few years ago. He was involved in the Deluxe Editions of the two first albums and have also been working on the book you mentioned. They aimed to make a book focusing in detail on their musical output rather than just their personal differences etc. My knowledge is limited but it seems to me that there have been a lot of heavy disagreements within the a-ha organization (I have no idea if that involves the band members or not) on the founding of this book. The project have been on and off several times and the latest messages suggests that the authors have had enough of this rollercoaster ride after years of work and have left the project for good. I hope the vast material will be kept and that we can see the project becoming real some time in the future. But right now it seems like we should not have too much hopes of this happening the next couple of years. Maybe they got a reason for it but someone in the organization/management whatever is being very difficult about it. Very sad!
I never was a big fan of a-ha before "Minor Earth Major Sky" came about. Of course as a Norwegian I knew of them and was proud of their accomplishments, but "Take on Me" never really grabbed me, I just thought of it as lightweight prettyboy synthpop. "Summer Moved On" changed it for me...it really blew me away first time I heard it....such a beautiful and majestic song...the voice of Morten really brung the chills. I love the whole album and it really made me appreciate a-ha more, they really were the kings of melancholic pop song
I seen them perform Summer Moved On .. on breakfast tv and the song clicked for me I had to immediately rush out and buy the cd.
