a-ha Appreciation Thread

You should go further than the first two albums, lots to enjoy.

 

Always meant to but never did - maybe time to catch up

I remember I had "The Blood That Moves The Body" off the TV on VHS with a bunch of other stuff from the time. Always loved that tape

 

It's time Sir! Some truly beautiful music awaits you.

 

Ok, I feel like an idiot. On my runs Ive been playing Take On Me over and over and over. Its one of those rare songs that I can play 20 times in a row and never tire of.

And thats all I know of them. Geesh.

After this thread, Im remedying that.

 

Your in for a very good find mpayan. Envy you not hearing and hearing other a-ha for the first time.

Morton Harket voice is outstanding and his solo Wild Seed is also worth getting.

 

It's been eons since I've played that entire cd and didn't remember this song. I just listened to it and you're correct - it's one of their best!

 

If you do seek out the rest of their material, I envy you as you'll be in for quite a treat. So much great music. I had great times getting to know each of their albums.

 

My copy of 25 - The Very Best Of arrived today and to my surprise it was the deluxe 2cd / 1 DVD version - wasn't expecting to see the music videos!

 

Wow - unbelievably good. And I've only listened to disc two so far (3x) since I was unfamiliar with everything on it.

I'll be digging into disc one today. I still think The Church is the most underrated band in the US, but A-ha just took my second slot!

 

Great starting point! The great thing is that they have a lot of album tracks that easily could have been decent singles as well so it is a lot to explore.

 

Yes, it's amazing that most of the "hits" are on Disc 1 of 25, but there is no drop-off in quality when you move to Disc 2. That whole collection is top-notch.

I also like your comparison between The Church and a-ha. I never thought about it before, but it makes sense!

 

Scoundrel Days is by far my favorite record by the band. The first album was a great introduction and is solid but I thought they perfected it with the second album. To my ears, the band members' respective solo efforts are not far from the band's output and also worth tracking down. I just received Harket's new CD, Brother, and am playing it as a I type this.

 

I'm looking forward to it Lars. Of course, most of the late period albums weren't even released here in the US so I'll be looking at imports...

One of the standouts to my ears was the swan song track "Butterfly, Butterfly". I have mixed feelings about them retiring on that high note!

At least all of the Church albums have been released over here!

 

Check out the acoustic Butterfly on the "Ending On A High Note" live album! Beautiful.

 

I will do that - was just looking at that dvd/blu ray on Amazon the other day.

So I finally made it through disc one a couple of times, and guess what, I strongly prefer the later period of this band. Nothing on disc one blew me away like Lifelines, or Butterfly, or Analogue. I was thinking my next purchase should be Minor Earth Major Sky album and work my way forwards through the unreleased in the US albums, and then maybe go back to the 80s records.

One minor criticism, the band seemed to follow a certain formula on many of their choruses with Morten's soaring tenor/falsetto and they all sound sort of samey when you listen to a "best of" like this. In fairness, these were mainly singles so the deeper album cuts may have more variety and experimentation.

Did one of the other guys sing backing vox? The liner notes only list vocals for Morten but some of the songs have a harmony vocal part.

 

Magne and Paul both contribute backing vocals.
That's interesting that you preferred the later material. I suspect that the earlier material might sound a bit more naive and poppy, if you've not heard it before. I don't say this as a criticism of the early songs, 'cos I love everything they've done.
Weirdly, Foot of the Mountain (their last album) is arguably the closest they came to returning to their early electropop style, though it has a maturity that marks it as a more complex album.

 

They had a very cool cartoon. I guess I should check out some more of their stuff.

 

I think you are right - if I were 16 listening to those early songs they would have meant something different to me than my current 46. There is also that 80s production to consider, but I agree that the maturity of the lyrics and their growth as songwriters is a large factor. In some ways their career arc is similar to Depeche Mode in that sense, though maybe not as drastic at either end of the light poppy/dark moody spectrum.

You should - I was genuinely surprised how much I liked these guys.

 

The Depeche Mode comparison is a good one, though the Mode - as you say - were always darker, even when the chirpy synths belied what the themes were. The shift from Just Can't Get Enough to Songs of Faith and Devotion could be seen as comparable to that of Take On Me to Memorial Beach.

 

It is very interesting to read impressions from someone mostly new to the band. Those early singles are so connected to that time of my life (I was 7 when they reached #1 in the US) and I guess it can be compared to someone growing up in the 60's with all that music and magic. The thing with a-ha is that they are a not-quite-perfect album band due to the personaltity frictions in the band keeping them from creating that consistency (the first and final albums are exceptions) but their songcraft is amazing.

And about those soaring choruses etc I have read that one of their approaches to songwriting was to create a song, erase the verse and use the chorous as verse in a new song and then make a new chorous to match that! I guess the got a bit addicted to that formula of perfect melodious hook/verse/chorous.

 

Thanks for the info - I'll be sure to share further impressions as I make my way through the catalog in the future.

 

You're welcome. And speaking of backing vocals. Did you know who sings the backing vocals on Cosy Prisons?

 

Isn't it Graham Nash?

 

Yep. And he does "Over the treetops" also from the same album. You have to look for it in the credits to see it. No "featuring" on the single title either. He flew over and recorded the vocals at Harket's flat!

 

a-ha-live.com is one of the best websites for a-ha related news by the way. A cool story about Morten's first meeting with Jimmy Page on the frontpage now!