Waaktarr was essentially A-Ha's hit machine in the eighties ala Lennon & McCartney rolled into one. Nice to see you contributing to this thread Lars.
I know that Paul was involved in programming. The synth drums on The Sun Always Shines On TV is his work.
Absolutely, the Havoc abides. Would we like to discuss them one at a time in order of their release in between the group albums or would it be better to group them all into a period in the thread?
I have always thought that they must have listened to the more dramatic arrangements on Scoundrel Days and got the idea to ask them.
This parallels an interview I read with one of the engineers at the studio used to record HHAL. He said he was amazed at how technically astute Paul and Magne were and commented that Paul was the most accomplished programmer he had seen pass through. I was in a band which lost its bass player so I set my drums aside, learned bass and learned how to program a Roland TR-505 which was extremely difficult. The manual had that odd Japanese to English translation barrier written into it, very much like those crazy lines from video games made in Japan. I have a hefty respect for his talents and I'm very glad that A-ha has been receiving the recent recognition for the quality of their songwriting. I honestly put them up there with the best of their generation if not among the best songsmiths in pop music.
Cheers, great stuff. Perhaps if they are discussed separately (but chronologically?) at the end, it won't be a distrasction for those who are interested only in the albums by the band itself. It might break things up too much if they are included in the main chronology...
Great idea. I only own Mags' Past Perfect Future Tense only because their solos records tend to be so bloody pricey. I'm considering selling my daughter off for scientific experiment to fund the other discs.
I hated the way that the UK (and probably other European territories) got the crappy jewel cases and in the US (and elsewhere) were the absolutely gorgeous digi-packs with embossing, spot varnish etc. Pretty outrageous that they did that.
Agree. Though "hated" is a bit strong word for me. In Norway both versions were available in the beginning and I was lucky to get my hands on the Scoundrel Days digipak version with the surface detail and everything. Great package!
a night to remember – no.1 in the usa http://a-ha.com/the-band/the-story-so-far/ It is October 9, 1985. We are sitting with a lukewarm Budweiser and a can of low-calorie cola, staring at the garish colors on the TV screen. Morten is in his room. Pål is leafing through his notebook, jotting down loose thoughts and ideas and making sketches which may become new ideas, songs and lyrics. Mags and I are trying to follow what’s on TV. “Isn’t there anything better on TV?” Mags snarls as he switches from channel to channel, finding nothing but tacky soaps, boring chat shows and dull films. Maybe it’s just that the boys are tired. Another hard working day is over, and tomorrow morning they’ll be getting up early to finish the video production of The Sun Always Shines On TV. The director, Steve Barron, is an incredibly hard worker and demands rested actors – at an early hour. It’s only half past nine in the evening, but in the three-room apartment at the John Howard Hotel in Kensington, London, it’s about time to call it a day. Clothes, letters and instruments lie strewn about the floor. Morten’s girlfriend Bunty takes a friend of hers to the tube station. Pål stretches, looks at the clock and says, “I think I’ll hit the sack’. Just then, the telephone rings. “Oh, what now,” Mags groans, who is sitting nearest the phone and picks it up to answer. Everything seems to go quick, with only the noise of the TV droning on in the background. Until Mags explodes. Jumping about three feet in the air, he shouts, “We’re number one in the USA!” The telephone falls to the floor, Pål tips his glass over on the table, Morten comes flying through the door, slamming it shut with a bang. The news from Los Angeles is true! a-ha’s first single, Take on Me, has gone to the top of the Billboard chart in the USA. The boys all start talking, laughing and crying at the same time. Everyone is hugging each other, and Bunty is nearly moved down by them when she comes back from the tube. “We’re number one! We’re number one!” Suddenly everyone starts diving for the telephone. I want to catch the newspapers before they go to print in Norway, and the others want to call Lauren in Boston, Heidi in Oslo, their mothers, fathers, grandparents and friends. So, the evening is not over after all. What else could we do now but go out and celebrate! No time to order the usual limousines, so Bunty and I dive into a taxi and the boys bicker about which restaurant to go to. We end up at West End, a part of town the boys know as well as Oslo, having spent several meager years living in London. They charge about as if they were in a film, jumping over fire hydrants, congratulating total strangers on the street, racing each other, stopping cars, making faces, screaming and shouting. Finally, we stumble down the stairs to Joe Allen’s restaurant in Covent Garden. The way is barred by a head waiter who is being bawled out by two customers complaining about the service. So we just force our way around the quarrelers and seat ourselves at a corner table. There’s no doubt about what the appetizer will be: champagne! I am now about to witness a very special drinking session. Mags starts the ball rolling, and for once, the otherwise overly moderate Pål and Morten are game as well. “Bottoms Up!” Pål shouts, and down goes the second glass. He gives one more toast, then he slaps down his empty glass so that the stem splinters and the glass breaks. The pieces are deftly swept into the bottom of the champagne cooler before the next bottle is ordered. Things calm down a bit now. The boys start to think about what has happened… “It was unbelievable,” Pål says. “It was as if my whole life flashed through my mind at once when I heard it.” “It sure feels great to have proof now that our expectations weren’t too high, as so many people have told us,” Mags adds. The champagne is still flowing, but Morten and Bunty dilute it with orange juice and mineral water. And they pick soberly at their salads, while the rest of us gorge ourselves on steaks and gravy. It’s not every day you’re number one in the USA. No one around us has any idea who it is sitting here celebrating so noisily. a-ha are not celebrities in England – yet. Scowls from the neighboring table and a few snide comments from the waiters have no effect tonight. But when the bill arrives, the situation does get somewhat embarrassing because the restaurant will not accept my American Express Card. So everyone empties their pockets and there’s just enough left over for a small tip for the waiter. “Hopefully we won’t have to go through that next time we’re number one,” laughs Mags just before the cheerful gang heads back to the hotel. More hugs and congratulations and then to bed. But no. The grapevine and other, more technically advanced methods of spreading the news have been at work. Each and every newspaper office in Norway has grasped what has happened. So one by one, the Norwegian press come streaming in, and the boys, being good patriots, go along with it. They’re not likely to get much sleep before the alarm goes off in the morning to call them to their next video shoot. But it’s unbelievable what you can handle when you know you’re number one in the USA. The first big dream has come true, though not without a good deal of hard work.
A-ha Stay On These Roads 1988 Produced by Alan Tarney If you were to read about the album on A-ha's official website, the best they can say about it is that it sold extremely well and that the band was very proud of the title track. You'll also read that Mags mentioned it was a hard album to make. As much as I appreciate what this band has given me, I have to admit that they missed the mark a little with this album. It seemed like they tried extremely hard to summon the magic that was around when Scoundrel Days was being made and that they applied a lot of the same energy but for some reason it just didn't come together quite as well. It's not a bad album and I can listen to it quite easily but it just did not have the magic of its predecessors. Released in 1988, the album was recorded towards the end of a whirlwind of non-stop recording, promotion and touring and even though the album managed stellar sales internationally, some started to sense a lack of development musically and that the band was retreading old ideas. It was recorded beautifully and has some very memorable synth string arrangements and vocals but the songs lacked the structure and focus that most would expect. The album isn't void of good songs, "Stay On These Roads", "The Living Daylights", "The Blood That Moves The Body", "Touchy" and "You Are The One" are all decent to very good tunes but the album is uneven at best and illustrated the potential pitfalls when a band stretches itself a little thin and struggles to come up with that last obligatory album so it comes off a little rushed. I think the band's hearts were in the right place and "Stay On These Roads" is a beautiful and epic ballad while they produced one of the better and more memorable James Bond themes with "The Living Daylights". Fortunately, the band's worldwide fans remained ever faithful propelling the sales of the album into the millions, allowing the band to regroup a few years later and recover nicely with East of the Sun, West of the Moon. It also should be stated that the collaboration between A-ha and John Barry did not reportedly go very well which resulted in two versions of the song. The band preferred version appears on the album while the John Barry preferred version appears on the film soundtrack as well as A-ha's singles compilations. Later on Pal Waaktaar was quoted as saying he really appreciated Barry's contributions, especially the string arrangements. A-ha Stay On These Roads Produced by Alan Tarney Vocals- Morten Harkett Guitars and vocals- Paul Waktaar Synthesizers and vocals- Magne Furluholmen 1. Stay On These Roads 2. The Blood That Moves The Body 3. Touchy 4. This Alone is Love 5. Hurry Home 6. The Living Daylights 7. There's Never A Forever Thing 8. Out Of Blue Comes Green 9. You Are The One 10. You'll End Up Crying
Definitely the Barry/A-Ha Bond theme was the best thing about the movie imo, and it felt a tad out of place on SOTR. Real time this was the last A-Ha album I bought till MEMS.
SOTR is my least favourite a-ha album and subsequently I've spent less time with it. When I now rediscover the album I can listen to it in a more forgiving light. I believe it sounds weaker than it really is due to the fact the SD before and EOTSWOTM after this album are two such strong highpoints for the band. Evey band have their not so good moments and even a weaker a-ha release is worth plenty of listening time. The problem with this album is not the songwriting, there are still strong songs here, it's the production. It sounded dated and uninspired already 1988. Havoc mentioned some good songs and I want to add TINAFT and OOBCG as favourites. Perhaps because they are two great songs, perhaps because of Harket's vocal delivery? The combination is a-ha to me. "Touchy" is my least favourite but also this song I can look upon differently now. It's one thing listening to a-ha today with headphones prefering the serious, melancholic a-ha, but a-ha 1988 were a young pop band wanting chart success and they had a young pop oriented audience. "Touchy" did what it was supposed to do. When I listen to some of the songs at the top of the charts today my appreciation for "Touchy" grows. And as always, Harket's vocals can lift any song. Another interesting thing is the title song. An unusually cooperation between Magne and Morten. Morten as I understand it wrote most of the chorus and Paul came in at the end with the lyrics. This shows an unused potential in the band. Magne and Morten together came up with an a-ha classic. And a band were all members feels respected and invested artistically, is of course a stronger band
As I remarked earlier in the thread, it was kind of a case of one step forwards (with Scoundrel Days) and two steps back with Stay on These Roads. It suffers from third album syndrome, not helped by the fact that they had been touring, had huge demands placed on them, in terms of media and television, etc., and probably struggled to come up with sufficient material. Testament to this is the fact that they had to include an only slightly amended This Alone is Love, already released as a b-side for I've Been Losing You back in September 1986 (!!!), and include a rerecorded version of The Living Daylights (the film version was almost a year old), though I suspect the latter was included deliberately to get their preferred version of the track out in the public domain, after the unhappy time they had with John Barry. Having said that, while it might be generally regarded as their weakest album, I've been playing it a lot recently, and it's not that bad, though it is very much an album of two halves, with some very strong songs (not least the title track) balancing out the weaker material. I remember hearing Stay on These Roads on the radio, unannounced, when it was just about to come out, and - before the vocal started - immediately thinking, "It's the new a-ha single". It has that sweeping, widescreen sound that was their trademark. It sounded more cinematic than most things on the radio in early 1988. What's even more interesting is that it was originally called Sail On, My Love, and had to be changed, as Morten couldn't get the phrasing right. They needed to come up with something that had the same amount of syllables, so Stay on These Roads became the hook. I always liked Q magazine's remark (in praise of their subtle, Nordic melancholy) that it was a safe bet that whoever was being implored to stay on these roads had veered off some considerable time before. There's Never a Forever Thing has a strange, welcome familiarity to it, even the very first time I heard it, and Out of Blue Comes Green has an epic pop sensibility that is lacking elsewhere on the record. It's not another Living A Boy's Adventure Tale, but it is a welcome diversion on the album. That's not to say I have no time for chirpy pop singles. You Are the One and Touchy - while often dismissed as cheesy throwaways - are perfectly acceptable buoyant pop songs, though the videos were really pandering to the Smash Hits brigade. On the negative side, the original (film soundtrack) version of The Living Daylights is better, the dynamic arrangement (redolent of a Bond theme, weirdly) of The Blood That Moves the Body is let down by lacklustre lyrics, and Hurry Home (the album's real weak point) and You'll End Up Crying aren't up to the mark. The band subsequently blamed its failings on their allowing Alan Tarney to return as producer, a decision that was effectively imposed on them by Warners. When you consider that two of Scoundrel Days highlights (I've Been Losing You and Soft Rains of April) were produced by Magne and Paul, they probably felt they had earned the right to produce the album themselves, or at the very least, have a stronger hand. But the record company figured, this is the guy who produced the big hits off the debut, work with him. While we'll never know what the album would have been like with the band at the controls, it does pose an interesting question that perhaps a nice Rhino Deluxe version (including demos) would help resolve! Also, one final point; I always thought it was interesting that - after the serious departure of Scoundrel Days, in terms of its lettering and cover art - I suspect Warners wanted to reinstate the "classic" a-ha logo for this album, and - while they were at it - have yet another cover where the band were surrounded by blurry figures. It worked the first time...
I only know the hits and have their "Headlines and deadlines" compilation on CD and vinyl, but you guys convinced me to purchase the first two albums. My sister had a friend who was a huge fan and I remember we (together with some schoolmates) collected the money to buy the "Scoundrel days" LP for her birthday party. She proudly displayed the cover on the top of the turntable. I might have listened to it but, frankly, don't remember anything except for the singles, that were huge hits in Italy too: "Manhattan Skyline" and "I've been losing you". Both excellent: always loved them. "Cry wolf": not so much. Anyway, always way better than "Touchy!"; my most disliked A-ha tune ever. Judging from your comments, sounds like "Scoundrel days" is a perfect winter album. Great thread btw; thank you all. I'll be following it with interest.
Well, the obvious thing to say is that the cheekbones are back. After the imaginative packaging of Scoundrel Days and the subsequent relative failure of that album in the US, it seems pretty clear that what the record company wanted was bright shiny pop songs from bright shiny pop stars to take them back to the glory days of Take On Me. The front cover is just inviting the gaze of teenage girls which is clearly where Warner Brothers felt the market was. As for the music, it is indeed a step backwards. Having set out their stall as a band with serious musical intentions and a slightly gloomy nordic worldview, clearly they were not going to be allowed to pull off the same trick twice. Consequently it is a less ambitious album musically and sounds a little half hearted in places. Having said that, The Blood That Moves The Body and The Living Daylights are both personal favourites (albeit that I prefer the 12" single version of the latter). It is by no means a bad album. It is perhaps remarkable that they never made a truly bad album but it is a bit patchy and fragmented and probably their least satisfying record.
I have played "Touchy" exactly twice on the 25 comp and if I never hear it again it will be too soon!
... as featured on the Live in South America video, and later included on one of the Shapes That Go Together CD singles. Complete with "blues harmonica" solo from Magne! I love it!
I agree with Marcel though about those deluxe editions of the first two albums being on my wish list.
The album was rightfully considered something of a retread or standstill, Tarneys production appeared worn out and overly simplistic, especially considering the adventurous soundscapes of Scoundrel Days. Though a few cuts did excite: the epic and ethereal Out Of Blue Comes Green, at the time the longest track on any of their albums. The title track's cinematic tristesse, There's Never A Forever Thing, and yet another marcabre narrative in the vein of IBLY, namely The Blood That Moves The Body. Even with those standouts, the production feels ever so dated, an throwback to the drum programming and cheap sounding midi synths of the worst tracks from HHAL. Imagine Out Of Blue Comes Green with proper band instrumentation and drums... The vain inclusion of the group's version of the Bond song beggars belief, nowhere does it feel like a natural fit to the album's melancholia. The abominable happy-go-lucky Touchy and You Are The One are other examples. The way to go regarding Living Daylights is arguably the 12" extended version - still unreleased on cd.
I was going to bring up this exact point, although I welcomed the return of the logo - it's simple but I love it. I agree with the general sentiments here so far - it's not up to par with the first two. However, I quite enjoy it and the title track is probably my favorite song of theirs. I also prefer the soundtrack version of "Living Daylights" over the re-recorded album version. I remember when this album came out - I believe it was June '88. I was working in a Musicland store, and I remember Warner/WEA releasing a ton of albums on the same day, like Steve Winwood's Roll With It, Paula Abdul's debut (although it would take 7 month for that one to really pop), and I think a Peter Cetera (yawn) album, and if I remember correctly, Provision by Scritti Politti. But I'd have to do some research to be sure of all of this!
I remember initially being slightly disappointed in SOTR, but over time that stance has softened quite a bit over the years.My brother bought it the day it came out and we listened to it a couple of times, but it just didn't resonate with us the way the first two did. But years later after Minor Earth Major Sky came out we had an a-ha listening party, and we were amazed how much we really liked the songs we hadn't heard in years (ie the songs not on Headline & Deadlines). I now consider it a pretty solid album. As far as the songs go, I guess I am one of the few that actually like 'Touchy', but for some reason I really find "You'll End Up Crying" just....numbing. It does nothing for me. My absolute favorite on this album, however, is "This Alone Is Love" because it never fails to make me smile and sing along. And earlier in the thread, someone mentioned it was initially issued as a b-side to I've Been Losing You back in 1986...can anyone tell me what makes the two edits different? NJB
