a-ha are my favorite band ever

# 3: a-ha Hunting High and Low Warner, 1985

Hunting High And Low is a remarkable debut album. a-ha never made a better piece of work. We can now determine when a 25-year career is covered, and concluded with dignity, is in itself an achievement in the music industry.

I have a fondness for the debut album, the disc that was made when the artist was hungry, poor and unknown. Often incomplete in form, but with hints of what is to come. Songs written in youth with all the innocence and pomposity that are young, ambitious artists. Always with imponeringsbehov [no direct translation]; hello world here I come! As a young basketball player while he still shoots from the penalty line. Before layup , an assist and trepoengskudd [no direct translation] takes over. Testosterone and adrenaline.

Much is said about a-ha’s special dynamics and frictions. But I bet they were pals as Hunting High And Low was made. Or brothers. Warner Brothers. a-ha did not have several albums to find themselves. As Prince and Depeche Mode. They were wonderful right away. As Basquiat, or Tracy Chapman.

I was at home with Madonna earlier this year, and she was very interested in who did what in our own little songwriter project. I can understand the fascination, for I myself have spent much time trying to imagine how exactly this or that song was. Who did what, who has received credit, what it sounds like? Was it Lennon or McCartney, Hetfield and Ulrich? Bono and Edge? Fuck it, it was Max or Luke?

It is Paul who writes the songs. I’ve heard the songs he writes alone. But it was a-ha that made Hunting High And Low .

In a decade full of synth riffs, a-ha are in the top three. More memorable synth riffs than those listed here, you look far. That is Magne. And the group successfully does the extroverted, egocentric; he makes dreams come true. Speaking at the concerts, funny in the interviews, swings the whip in the meetings.

You can replace the bassist of Metallica, they are still one of the world’s best rock bands. You can replace the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, it works still. But, you replace one of the parts of a-ha, it would fall apart. They know it too, it was why they endured.

It is Morten that makes it easy. Give him a melody, not any melody, but melody with resistance, with words like sit, and hear what happens. It flies.

The songs and the artist was not the only thing that worked out at Hunting High And Low .The cover is a masterpiece. Both photo and typography has withstood the test of time. The ”Take on Me” video requires no further comment. It was a world as it often is when everything is, the stars are aligned, and all jump at once. ”Take on Me” is the locomotive that pulls the train. In 1984 one could still make albums and call it art, but do not think you could break through without a hit. Not then and not now. But “Take On Me” has been more than a hit. It is a modern classic that I’ve heard at the airport in Barbados, shopping center in Los Angeles and the Forum in Rome. 25 years after that it is a hit.

I was 13 when Hunting High And Low came out, and I played it constantly on a green and white Sony Walkman. ”Here I Stand And Face The Rain” was and is my personal favorite, a rather sophisticated choice for a 7 classification, with the beat changes and woodwinds. The use of symphonic elements give the album a dimension that was missing in more sjangertrofaste [no direct translation] synth groups like Human League and New Order. The guitars are there already, Depeche Mode is afraid to use those for many years.

Could Hunting High And Low has been made in Norway? Never in this life. Something happens to Norwegians when we travel abroad. We talk more, drink more, are more humble and open. Paul, Morten and Magne had the dream within reach for the first time when they made this album. They had a record deal with Warner United Kingdom, they worked with producers who had done it before. Conditions were arranged. For every song that was recorded and produced, they released more loose. They looked no more. They did. When there is nothing that can stop you. And the public notice that.

Tor Erik Hermansen Musician, Stargate

Cast:

Morten Harket (vocals)

Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, vocals)

Paal Waaktaar (guitars, vocals)

(Source: mbtopp100.no)

# 2: a-ha Scoundrel Days Warner, 1986

a-ha’s debut album Hunting High and Low was an extreme success that convinced half the world that Morten, Magne and Paul earned their status as superstars. But to convince the rest of the world - the hardest part to convince - the trio needed Scoundrel Days .

There will always be those who say that it is much easier for a band to create their first album than the last few numbers in the directory. We envisage that the band has had much time to write, sharpen and perfect their first record, there is a rush to find time and occasion in between touring the increasingly important business. This is a partial truth. But the opposite is still true: That it is a hallmark for a band to follow up a successful first release with an even better album number two. It was just that a-ha did.

The title track on Scoundrel Days is near genius, both as composition and as a signal.It’s bigger, more ambitious and more epic than anything on the debut album, the chorus has a great lift, and topped with Morten Harket’s unique voice and empathy is the end result is more impressive than anything most popsnekkere get in the course of an entire career. No surprise that the band still played the song at the farewell concert 24 years later.

But the sequel is not weaker. That Waaktaar’s and Furuholmen approach to composition was Paul McCartney/Brian Wilson tradition, shining most notably through the “Manhattan Skyline”, which with its alternation between penetrating ballad, aggressive rock and desperate lament is a rare successful attempt at something not many beyond The Beatles and Beach Boys else dared to, namely the overall song, pop songs meant to work. Later, in typical self-ironic way, described as “quite successful cutting and pasting” by Magne Furuholmen.

Then there is “Cry Wolf” with the unstoppable dance-friendly complete and a sing-with-chorus which is expandable to a full sing-along request. And it is “I’ve Been Losing You”, a rock kjærlighetshymne [no direct English word] disguise, or vice versa.

Scoundrel Days is a cornucopia of hooks and choruses, often with a handful of songs in each song, connected to the band’s complex, varied rhythm patterns, obtained by Waaktaar’s guitar and Furuholmen’s keyboard is not for a moment leave the bass and percussion alone to drive the songs forward. Under it all is what has always made a-ha to something special and unique in the international pop elite: A pervasive urban melancholy as the rest of the world always put more attention to than we are born into the same culture.

It is said that no one is a prophet in his own country. Nonsense. a-ha have always filled the concert halls of Norway, fellow musicians and industry connoisseurs put more of their albums at the very top of the rankings. The respect a-ha have met are great and suitable for a band that had a global career and status others can not dream of. Yes, where others are struggling to get fifteen minutes of fame, a-ha had nearly a quarter century.

Lasse Midttun Journalist in Morgenbladet

Starring:
Morten Harket (vocals), 
Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, vocals) 
Paul Waaktaar (guitar, vocals) 

Producer: Alan Tarney (Magne Furuholmen / Paul Waaktaar tracks 3,9,10)

Other participants:
Graham Prescott, Michael Sturgis, Leif Johansen and Karsten Øystein Jevanord

Song titles:
1 Scoundrel Days (Furuholmen / Waaktaar) 
2 The Swing Of Things (Waaktaar) 
3 I’ve Been Losing You (Waaktaar) 
4 October (Waaktaar) 
5 Manhattan Skyline (Furuholmen / Waaktaar) 
6 Cry Wolf (Furuholmen / Waaktaar) 
7 We’re Looking For The Whales (Furuholmen / Waaktaar) 
8 The Weight Of The Wind (Waaktaar) 
9 Maybe, Maybe (Furuholmen) 
10 Soft Rains Of April (Furuholmen / Waaktaar)

(Source: morgenbladet.no)

handsupwhowantstodie:

This nightclub I went on saturday is so cool. They have SYNTHPOP DRINKS sjkgldaçkj

rum, limão, açúcar e morango

(via inspectorgeneral)