a-ha Announce New "True North" Film & Accompanying Album - Autumn 2022

Thanks

 

Very Victor Hugo- Les Miserables

starts of well… poppy hits .. nice.

 

Thanks for information on cinema screening next month!

 

i have been keeping up with a-ha on and off since their first album.

looking forward to the album and video. although they might have retired before.
and will probably do it again.

later
-1

 

Watched it last night, and I agree. It's sad how much sadness they all seem to carry.

There is a poignant 'road not travelled' moment in the abandoned collaboration between Paul and Magne during the Minor Earth era. The film also gives a good insight into how paradoxically isolating Morten's fame has been for him.

It might have been nice to hear more from Lauren and Heidi, who both have perceptive takes on the band, but I guess time constraints worked against unravelling those threads.

 

I probably already said this earlier in the thread, but the final shot of the film just gutted me. They're doing rehearsals for the MTV show and Morten just kind of looks behind him, off stage and into the distance. It's like he's trying to grasp something that isn't quite there. It seems to sum up their band relationships.

Still a great doc, though.

 

It is a-ha in a nutshell. Unlike most bands they are 3 «leaders» pulling in different directions. It is always give OR take. However, it might seem more «negative» to some people outside Norway (not to say that is not a shame they don’t get better along). But that’s for another discussion on culture

 

MTV Unplugged got priced as a domestic release in the US even though all the CDs were manufactured in Europe AFAIK. But this one is back to being an "import" with a list price of $30 for the US (although places like DeepDiscount are offering it cheaper). Also, I just noticed that this is being released by Sony and not Universal, which is new for a-ha.

 

That's very interesting and I would love to hear more about the cultural aspects you mention. Especially if it helps me better appreciate the band dynamics!

 

I liked this a-ha concert at Hollywood Bowl. Was with a Orchestra. Songs from first four albums + true north.

 

Anyone going to see the True North movie tonight? I am having a cold and the nearest theatre is a bit too far away on a Thursday. Hope that they will add showings later.

By the way, yesterday marked 40 years since the band was formed.

 

Check out your nearest screening here:

a-ha - True North | Official Website | 15 September 2022

 

Yes, I'm going to it - looking forward to it even if I thought I'd be more excited.

I think I fear it might fall between a few stools ie. that it won't commit to being a documentary, a live performance or a dramatic piece and mightn't satisfy as a result.

I don't know where that fear is coming from - it's not based on anything I know - I expect it's unfounded.

 

Unfortunately I’m unavailable - hope it streams later on!

 

I was planning to go see it in Denver (60 miles) but my daughter has a volleyball game tonight so I'm going to be the good dad and go cheer for her. Like @JeffMo I'm hoping it will be streaming later!

 

Will be interesting to hear your reactions later!

 

I can give my reactions now if you like? I've not seen it, but I saw Mark Kermode's lazy review of A-ha - The Movie which was based entirely on preconceived notions - I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed do the same for the this one?

 

Yes, I like Kermode but he got that completely wrong didn't he. I'm not sure it was lazy. He had definitely watched the movie but was insufficiently invested in the band to properly absorb it.

I really wanted to go and see True North tonight but it seems there is only a single showing everywhere and I am away on vacation so will have to hope it streams when the album is released.

 

I just watched the a-ha documentary movie (had it recorded from Sky Arts the other week) and really enjoyed it. I had the impression from some posts here that the band’s relationships were more strained than they actually are and it was interesting to understand where the contention lies.

I also Wikipedia’d their ages, I couldn’t believe they’re all in their 60s! I thought they were mid 50s, show that healthy living and not getting fat certainly pays off!

I hope after North that we get vinyl reissues of Analogue and Foot of the Mountain.

 

I just returned from the theater, and this fear proved eerily prescient. The film tried at various times to be all of these things, and it never really succeeded at any of them.

I know it’s a minor point, but I found it interesting that at no point in the film did any of the band members smile, or give off any impression that they were enjoying themselves.

Still, I enjoyed it.

 

That's a pity, but sadly not much of a surprise. They don't ever seem to project much joy these days, just contention and ennui!

I have to say, the PR write-up they keep sending out about the True North film makes me roll my eyes no end. It's so pretentious and self-important. So that already tamped down my excitement level. But I still have a few hopes left that the album will surprise us all.

 

It was the most infuriating of all the reviews I saw. He clearly couldn't understand why there would be a documentary about the band - both he and Mayo adnitted that they hadn't heard of them effectively since The Living Daylights.

That's where lazy comes in imo - a bit of research would have educated him a bit.

The a-ha that Kermode knows will never be cool enough for him and he'd decided that many years before he saw the film and that stole his objectivity. Which isn't the best look for a reviewer imo.

 

Yeah, I obviously agree with you because you're agreeing with me

And I agree with you that I quite enjoyed it.

It's mostly a series of beautiful looking music videos punctuated by moody-looking monologues on the environment and songwriting. The monologues were fine - nothing you haven't heard before. The whole thing was good. As good as I expected. Looking at reviews on Twitter from folk who went to see it, it seems to have gone down well.

I should say that my appreciation was definietly affected by the audio at the cinema I was in - it was too low and I was straining to hear details in the music. Not the film's fault, but it was really distracting and at no point did I really get into the experience so that definitely affects my appreciation of it.

The songs. Again, the audio was too low to really sink into it so I don't really feel I heard them properly.

Paul's songs were the more interesting ones for me and the ones that will take most listens to reveal themselves fully. There was a couple of jazzy almost big-band sounding pop things that were interesting but that I couldn't make up my mind about on one listen. The chorus on Make Me Understand sounded fantastic - the most exciting pop-moment in the whole thing for me with some electronic sounds to the fore - but I'm still not sure what was happening in the verses (not a critiscism) - they seemed much darker and way less immediate than the chorus but that may be a good thing in the long run. Looking forward to getting stuck into that one next month.

I don't really want to get into reviewing the music in any serious way - I've only heard it once in a less than optimal setting sound-wise. I suspect they're a really consistent collection of songs and definitely a better collection than Cast In Steel (although if you love a-ha for their synth output alone you may not agree).

The film included 10 of the 12 songs with the final two songs from the album left out - Summer Rain and Oh My Word.


@Rankingaha - did you see it?

 

I am also one of the lucky ones who got to see the film yesterday. I loved the music I heard, especially Paul's input. "Forest for the trees" sounded stellar. "Make me understand" is the big hit. "Hunter in the hills" sounded adventurous and "As if", although a bit generic in the approach, had some interesting corners. There were a few stop-and-go interesting moments on those songs. A lot of interesting chord changes (Paul makes me think a lot of Paddy McAloon lately). Of Magne's songs, the title-track was certainly the most ambitious, and it could be a hit too. A very moving song.
The good point: the orchestra is not so much there to add power but details, textures. It is used a bit more sparsely (and to better effect perhaps) in Paul's songs. Magne's have a tendency to get over-layered, with things lost in the mix. When we got to hear the orchestral part, with no band, of "YHWIT" over the end-credits, it sounded fabulous. But it gets a bit drowned in the proper song-version, with the guitars and all.
Other thing: this is not really a live-recorded album. Credits include people who were not onstage (Morten Qvenild, Madeleine Ossum and Thom Hell, who sings backing vocals on a few of Magne's tracks), and engineers in other places. Sounds like most things were actually recorded in proper studios, except maybe for the orchestra, some vocals, and I guess a few details.
There are quite a few synths here or there - not purely acoustic/electric, a good mix.
As far as collaboration goes: Paul's and Magne's songs were mixed separately, by two different guys. Greg Calbi mastered the whole.
As @aferdia wrote: only 10 songs featured - in the album's running order. After one listen, the closest previous a-ha album might be Lifelines. A bit all over the place. But with better songs this time. I am very excited for the album release next month.

 

After hearing 10 of the songs in the film, I had two thoughts on the music.

One is that I'm In is as good as anything they've done. It's spectacular from start to finish.

The other is that most of the songs were all written and played at largely the same tempo. It got a little "same"-y to me in the middle. Make Me Understand was a great change of pace later on, but to me the album could have really used another song or two like that (not a full-on banger like TSASOTV necessarily, but something in the vein of Analogue or Foot of the Mountain).