Trollheart

Good one for today, from the interestingly-named Four Non Blondes, this is “What's up?”

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Sunday, December 4 2011
The Want Ad --- Pandora's Box --- from "Original sin" on Virgin

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Trollheart

For the oldies (like me) and to perhaps educate the younger 'uns, this section will feature only the best in true classic rock. For many of us, these are the songs and the bands we grew up with, the ones that got us turned on to music, and the music that showed us there was more to life than just the charts. These are the songs that defined generations, that continue to do so, and that deservedly hold a place in the annals of rock history. It's not stretching the point to say that had some of these songs not been written, rock music today might look a whole lot different --- and who knows? Some of us may not have been born...!

So let's salute the pioneers of classic rock, the men and women who wrote what would become for many of us the soundtrack of our lives, and lead to a permanent and abiding love for this music we call rock!

And what else would we choose to get us underway than the classic of classics? No-one can hear this acoustic guitar and flute opening and not know what's about to come their way. Timeless.


And after that let's really rock it up with Steppenwolf, and “Born to be wild”.


And now, the pride of the South, it's Lynyrd Skynyrd with the classic “Freebird”.


The Who? The Who, that's who! Er, yeah...


And let's end up with those jolly rockers, the Grateful Dead, with one of their classics, this is “Touch of grey”. That's about as much classic rock as the journal will stand for the moment: don't want the fabric of space/time ripping, do we? More to come soon...

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Body language --- Kylie Minogue --- 2003 (Parlophone)


Last time I reviewed a Kylie album it was her current one, “Aphrodite”, and I was extremely disappointed with how far from what I had hoped it would be it fell. Kylie has changed her sound, or more correctly, reverted her sound to that which made her name in the early eighties, namely disco, dance and pop music, and there was little of the innovator I had come to admire in the new album. But I still love her, so I'm going to have a stab at what I would consider a more well-rounded (no smutty jokes, please!) release by her, “Body language”.

I know some of the songs off this album, having watched her in concert and also seen the videos on TV at the time the album was out, so I am confident that there will be at least a few good tracks. Whether the rest of the album will measure up to the quality of what were, I guess, the singles, is a question I now intend to get an answer to, but one thing is for certain: it has to be better than “Aphrodite”!

It gets going with one of the best tracks, the sultry, sexy “Slow”. With its low bassline and warbling keys it's almost addictive, Kylie's breathy vocal suiting the song perfectly. An understated song, it's possibly a strange choice for an opener, maybe even for a single, but Kylie's voice sells it and it becomes a real prayer to burning passion. One of only four on the album on which Kylie has input to the writing, it was, as it happens, exceptionally successful as a single, charging to number one, while the other singles from the album also each made it into the top ten. “Still standing” is another slow song, though not a ballad, with a solid beat and certainly more dancy than “Slow”, but even so not an out-and-out dance track. It's quite restrained, not exactly in the same way its predecessor was, but lots of clever work on synth and drum machines ensures the song stands out, but doesn't overpower you. Again, it is as ever Kylie's sultry, almost whispery in places voice that provides the most effective vehicle for the song.

Kylie has been known for using literally bunches of producers on her albums (I think I remember “Aphrodite” has something like nineteen!) and here again she uses different producers on nearly every track, but I don't think I ever recall nine people being involved in the writing of a song. That however is the case with “Secret (Take you home)”, more a dance number than either of the previous two, but still mid-paced with lots of synth and fiddly guitar going on. Good backing vocals, another of Kylie's hallmarks, and something of a rap, which frankly I could have done without, presumably from Ms. Dynamite, who is credited as one of the nine writers.

“Promises” sounds more like something from the likes of “Light years”, very dancefloor, grungy bass, stabbing synth and what sounds like guitar synth, with Kylie singing at her brightest and most cheerful. Of the songs so far, this is the most uptempo, and it's followed by “Sweet music”, the next song on which Kylie has a writing credit. It's more bass-led mid-tempo dance with some nice keyboard runs, very funky, where I wonder if Kylie is paying a small nod of appreciation and memory to her late lover, Michael Hutchence, when she namechecks INXS's “New sensation”.

Two big singles follow next, the first being the excellent “Red-blooded woman”, which we all remember for the image of Kylie in that sexy red dress! It's a great little song, very catchy and with a clever little vocal line, Kylie back to her best as sultry vixen refusing to take no for an answer as she sings ”I'm a red-blooded woman/What's the point of hanging round?” I find the melody more than a little reminiscent in places of Coolio's “Gangsta paradise”, but it's a good contender for standout of the album, except I've probably already awarded that prize to opener “Slow”.

It's nice though to see that, unlike on her current release, here Kylie keeps the fast disco/dance numbers to a minimum, and the overall feeling I get from the album is (so far) slow, sultry and yeah, it's kind of like making love. No need to rush it, take your time and enjoy it. “Chocolate”, the last single on the album, reinforces this to the max, as Kylie turns the sexy siren image up to ten, and just sinks into a blissful cloud of indulgence and passion. If you're not turned on by this you must be dead: it's the closest you can get to having sex within a song. This is the voice that launched a thousand fantasies, and it's sounding in perfect shape, as indeed is her body, judging from the sleeve!

It's easy (and very nice) to sink into the arms of Kylie's voice and just let yourself be drowned in that lovely ocean, and “Chocolate” does indeed do its best to drag you in and pull you down, and no-one would blame you if you stayed there, but your reviewer has a job to do, and another five tracks to go, so reluctantly I resist the siren song and push the tiller hard to port, heading away from that lovely, entrancing voice and the delights promised by her, and towards the next track up.

Phew! In need of a cold shower, I find “Obsession” to be a little less sexy, though not that much! It's a slightly faster song, though as yet there are still no out-and-out dancefloor numbers --- not for the fast set, at any rate. Nice bass and some tinkly piano carry this song, but you almost ignore them, concentrating only on Kylie's sultry voice, and the angel draws you back in with “I feel for you”, which opens with the sounds of thunder and falling rain (just the thing needed after all the hot and heavy action that has been going on up to now!) and becomes a fairly straight disco type song. I thought it might have been a cover of the old Rufus and Chaka Khan number, but though it bears some resemblance to that disco classic in the chorus, it's a different song. I must say, the shouted backing vocal in the verses really annoys me, very jarring and I don't feel it adds anything to the song at all. Not sure who she is, but I wish she'd have kept her mouth shut. Her interference, as I see it, makes this the first weak track on the album, but then, we're nearly through, so that's not bad really.

Kylie's next songwriting contribution comes on “Someday”, a slow, reggae style with pulsing bass and nice bright keyboards that for some reason gives me the impression of ELO, which I'm sure they won't appreciate. Nice song though, if a little simple. Actually, the simplicity of the melody works in the song's favour, and it's one you can just kind of relax to. Also shades of Lighthouse Family about it, very laidback, very cool. She also helps write the next track, a nice little ballad called “Loving days” with an interesting mix of 90s and 70s about it. Very effective string section provided by the London Session Orchestra, with some nicely restrained guitar help to craft a really lush little song, with Kylie back to singing like a siren yearning for love.

Closer “After dark” is kind of mid-paced funk, a lot of the old seventies Motown sound in it: you could nearly hear the Jacksons singing this. It's not bad, but a far weaker closer than “Loving days” would have been, and I think it's maybe one track too many.

“Body language” promises a lot from its cover, and in general the album delivers on that promise. It never really rises to the tempo of “Light years” or even “Impossible princess”; there are no totally dancy numbers on it, and most of the tracks are, if not slow, at least quite laidback. It is, however, a better album for this difference to her other outings. It's not an album you would put on at a party (I hear people have them?), except maybe for the slow dances. It's more an album you listen to with the lights out, maybe in the company of someone special, and just let it wash over you.

That's the only thing you can do with this album. You don't so much listen to it as breathe it in, and let it swirl around inside you, making you feel all fuzzy and warm and relaxed. It is, in a phrase, sex on a disc, but never so in-your-face that it gets tacky or inappropriate. Tasteful, elegant, sultry and erotic, on this album Kylie is the classy call-girl compared to the twenty-dollar hooker you get with the likes of Rhianna (no, I know: I don't like her!) --- satisfaction is guaranteed.

TRACKLISTING

1. Slow
2. Still standing
3. Secret (Take you home)
4. Promises
5. Sweet music
6. Red blooded woman
7. Chocolate
8. Obsession
9. I feel for you
10. Someday
11. Loving days
12. After dark

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starrynight

Later 80s, she definitely wasn't part of the sound of the first half of that decade.

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Trollheart

Oops! My bad! Well, I was more interested in albums like "Number of the beast" and "Wheels of steel" around that time, so I guess I inadvertently moved Kylie to the wrong part of the decade! Better go get her back, afore someone notices....!

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Anyone remember Double? Pronounced, the worm believes, “doo-blay”, this was their only major hit, “The captain of her heart”.

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Monday, December 5 2011
Come into my world --- Kylie Minogue --- from "Fever" on Parlophone
Moderator cut: image removed

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Who remembers a-ha? If you do, you're likely (unless, like me, you're a fan) to shout out “Take on me” or “The sun always shines on TV”! Those with a little more interest may say “Cry wolf” or “Manhattan skyline”, but after that most non-fans will be hard-pressed to list another song from this band, which is sad, as they are now disbanded but over the course of their almost thirty-year career put out nine great albums, and had a string of singles, most of which, not surprisingly, went to the top or did very well in their native Norway. One or two hit wonders? Think again.

Part I: The sun always shines when you're taking on the world
Formed in Oslo in 1982, a-ha (their name is spelled with a lowercase “a”) have never changed the lineup that they began with, a trio comprising Morton Harket on vocals, Magne (Mags) Furuholmen on keyboards and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (who went by the shortened name Pal Wakktaar) on guitar. They were first discovered by producer John Ratcliff when the guys relocated from Oslo to London in search of a career in music. Their first single, the by-now-famous (too famous?) “Take on me” was their first hit, but not the first time out. In fact, the song had to be released three times before it attained the success and exposure it deserved, and helped elevate the three young lads from Norway to superstar status. It was seen to be the groundbreaking video that accompanied the third release of “Take on me” that got them noticed, and the song raced to number two. Although not their most successful single, it is still remembered as their best, and in some cases only one.



The album that followed the single, their debut, 1985's “Hunting high and low”, was also a huge smash, earning triple platinum status and yielding five singles, four of which charted, three of which were big hits. As a debut it really couldn't be much better. Kicking off with the huge hit single that made their name, it powers on into the third single, the China Crisis-sounding keyboard-driven “Train of thought” and then into the title track, a slow, ethereal ballad with nice masking tracks of seagulls and waves, some really effective crying guitar and Harket's soulful vocal all making this a shoe-in for a single release, which it was.

But it's not just the singles that make this album, though later we hit their second single, and their biggest hit, the bombastic “The sun always shines on TV”. I'm sure you know it, considering how big it was, but it's a great song, starting off with deep keyboards, which then get more strident and insistent until the drums kick in and the guitar gets going, and it's about as close to a rock song as any pop band I know have got. Great stuff, and I had it flagged for a number one the moment I heard it. However, it's songs like the Human League-like “Living a boy's adventure tale” and the wonderfully europop “Dream myself alive” that really lift this album out of the realms of just a collection of hit singles, while the dramatic, powerful closer “Here I stand and face the rain” gives just a hint of the quality songwriting a-ha would engage in over the next thirty-odd years, marking them as much more than just a fly-by-night pop sensation. “Hunting high and low” showed, in no uncertain terms, that a-ha were here for the long haul, not just the quick money.



They followed up the powerful debut one year later with “Scoundrel days”, which even today ranks as one of their best albums. There are about two weak tracks on it, but the rest of the material is so top-notch that you can almost overlook those. The album also yielded them further singles, in the songs “Cry wolf”, “Manhattan skyline” and “I've been losing you”, but as with their debut, it's the songs that weren't released as singles that stand out the most. From the opening keyboard arpeggios of the title track, the almost whispered vocal to the sudden breakout of drums and solid keys, it's obvious that the debut was not just a flash-in-the-pan, and a-ha are back, in a big way! “Scoundrel days” is a fast bopper with a very urgent sound, almost desperate, and it's a great opener, things not let down at all by “The swing of things”, another fast track with a great middle eighth where everyone pauses for breath before attacking the song for its powerful conclusion.

Whereas Morton Harket had some songwriting input into “Hunting high and low”, on this album he concentrates on doing what he does best, and leaves the writing to the other two bandmembers, Pal Waaktaar in particular, who solo pens four of the tracks. It's an album full of gems, and not just the singles, though they are excellent. Some stirring ballads like the moody, almost not-there “October”, which takes understatement to new levels, Harket's voice almost a whisper throughout and yet very effective, as he allows the combined sound effects of wind and tolling bells do the singing for him. Indeed, the opening of the song has virtually no music until about fifty seconds in, sound effects carrying the mood perfectly.

“Scoundrel days” is the perfect follow-up to an excellent and successful debut, and neatly avoids falling into the trap of “second album syndrome”. A-ha don't seem to be all that bothered about writing a successor to “Take on me” or “The sun always shines on TV”, instead concentrating on just writing excellent songs, almost any of which could have been chosen for the radio or charts, and allowing natural selection to do its work. The only weak tracks I find on this album are the Mags Furuholmen solo effort “Maybe maybe”, with its frankly silly and annoying lyric (Maybe it was over when you/ Chucked me out the Rover/ At full speed”) and its pseudo-reggae melody, and “We're looking for the whales” (on which both have to accept responsibility as writers), but as I say, the quality of the remainder is so high you can ignore these little bumps on the road.



1988 saw what would be seen as the last “big” a-ha album, “Stay on these roads”. While a great album, there is a small fall in quality from the first two: perhaps we had just been spoiled by the previous offerings! Again, very few weak tracks and some great ones, including the title track, more hit singles in “Touchy”, “The blood that moves the body” and my favourite, the totally-feelgood “You are the one”. Balanced against these are more sombre, downbeat songs like “This alone is love”, “There's never a forever thing” and the immense closer, “You'll end up crying”, which is almost carried completely on strings and close to acapella vocal, if that makes any sort of sense. You have to hear it.

The album also features their longest song to date, almost seven minutes of “Out of blue comes green”, as well as the theme to the James Bond movie, “The living daylights”, written in conjunction with film composer the late John Barry. This helped bring the music of a-ha to a new audience --- filmgoers and in particular Bond fans --- and took the single to number five. Harket helps out on the title track, otherwise, apart from Barry's collaboration, the album is entirely composed by Pal Waaktaar with some help from Mags, but it's mostly his songs on the album, as he emerges as the main songwriting force behind a-ha.



And that was more or less it for “the golden age” of a-ha. After three albums and some very successful hit singles, their fourth album, released in 1990, largely passed the charts and the general record-buying public by. “East of the sun, west of the moon” is not a bad album, but it probably suffers commercially from the decision by the band to eschew the pop charts song prevalent on the last three albums and opt for a darker, more mature tone that almost moves entirely away from pop and more into the spectrum of rock. Apart from the cover of the Everly Brothers' “Crying in the rain” (on which they do a passable job), which opens the album, there are no obvious singles, no dancy numbers, no simple songs. Pal, who by now was married to Lauren and adopted her surname Savoy into his, becoming Pal Waaktaar-Savoy, shares most of the writing duties with Mags, and the result is a somewhat confused collection of songs, some good, some bad, none terribly great. On this album, it was clear that the heady days of “Take on me” and “Manhattan skyline” were long gone.

The only track that comes close to the pop sensibilities of their previous output really is the second one, “Early morning”, but even that is infused with melancholia and darkness, Morton singing now more as a serious vocalist than just the frontman of a pretty-boy pop trio, which was essentially how he had been seen up to now; many teenage girls (my own sister included) had his poster on the wall and swooned over him at night. The new, darker, grittier approach of “East of the sun” did not appeal to those sort of fans, and consequently it seemed they deserted a-ha in droves, the album selling well but nowhere near as well as previous ones.

What “East of the sun” did demonstrate amply however was the brilliant musicianship of the band, talents which, although certainly evident on the last three albums, had been somewhat overshadowed by the success of pop singles and their own cult of personality among the fickler of their fans. It was obvious that Mags was a great keyboard player and a fine pianist, while Pal's expertise on the guitar, never challenged, began to shine through on songs like “Sycamore leaves” and “Cold river” . At this point, a-ha began to become very popular in places like Brazil and indeed they headlined the Rock in Rio II festival in 1991, but even though they drew the largest crowd (breaking records and beating out big hitters like Prince, George Michael and even Guns 'n' Roses) they were largely ignored by the music press, the curse of “Take on me” and their perception by the media as a pop and not a rock band dealing them a devastating blow, from which they would really never recover.

A-ha had always written obscure lyrics, mostly shying from the standard fare of pop singles --- even big hits like “Cry wolf”, “Train of thought” and “Manhattan skyline” have odd lyrics that aren't immediately obvious --- and this practice evolved even more as their albums became more mature and less polished pop. Tracks like “Slender frame”, “Sycamore leaves” and the excellent but simple “(Seemingly) Nonstop July” are examples of the thought and care a-ha would put into their writing: mostly, it has to be accepted, Pal Waaktaar-Savoy, who wrote the lion's share of their material. Lyrics like ”Can't stop thinking 'bout it/ It fills me with unease /Out there by the roadside something's buried/ Under sycamore leaves” and ”So many lifetimes /You've been waiting for it / All through the good times/ When you tried to ignore it / You hesitate/ It's come too late /You hear the sound /Of when wheels engage” just didn't sit well with fans more used to the often bland pop lyrics of certainly the first two albums, and the new, darker sound did not attract them.



So the stage was set for the partial decline of a-ha, or to be more accurate, their abandonment by their pop fans in favour of more hardcore, serious listeners who would take the band on the merits of their songs and their albums, not just their hit singles. “Memorial Beach”, released 1993, sold even more poorly, leading to the band deciding to break up temporarily while they pursued other projects. Another dark album, “Memorial Beach” has some great tracks on it, including the opener, “Dark is the night for all”, “Angel in the snow”, written by Pal as a gift to his wife on their wedding, and “How sweet it was”. It also features a song which beats out “Stay on these roads”'s seven-minute opus “Out of blue comes green” as the longest a-ha song to date, “Cold as stone”, coming it at almost eight and a half minutes.

With Pal again taking over most of the songwriting duties, “Memorial Beach” continues the more adult, measured approach seen on “East of the sun, west of the moon”, and with the exception of the boppy “Move to Memphis”, there's very little about this album that's not dark and moody. Well, “Angel in the snow” is a gorgeous and touching little ballad, yes, but the whole album other than those two is heavier, crunchier and grittier than any a-ha release to date. Cue more pop fans fleeing in dismay!

In 1994, disappointed with the reception their last album had gained, and interested in trying out solo projects, the band split --- or more correctly, went on hiatus --- until 1998, when they made a comeback at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in their hometown of Oslo, and soon afterwards they got back together properly, releasing at the turn of the millennium their sixth album, “Minor earth major sky”.

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Part II: Afternoon high in the summers of our youth


Perhaps it was the long time they had spent away from the studio, perhaps it was the eagerness of their many faithful fans to hear new music from their heroes, but either way their comeback album sold far better than the previous ones, giving them four hit singles, and in point of fact, each of the singles went to number one. A-ha had not been so popular since the days of “Take on me”, and the no doubt vindicating factor for them was that they had not only become in demand again, but had done so on their own terms. They had not gone back to writing pop songs in a desperate attempt to recapture former glories, or brought in guest or star writers to help them craft a hit single. They had remained true to their own vision of the band, and people had understood and agreed this was the way to go.

The only real differences, in terms of songwriting, was that Mags got more involved, writing four of the thirteen songs on the album, one of which was one of the number one hit singles, and Morton wrote two, one with Ole Sverre-Olsen and another with Havard Rem. Also, Pal's new wife Lauren Savoy wrote two songs with her husband, again both of which were number one hit singles. The good times certainly seemed to be back for a-ha! Their internet homecoming webcast in 2001 garnered over three million hits, the third largest of its kind ever. “Minor earth” is a marvellous album, and it's easy to see why it did so well. In addition to being a well-crafted, serious, mature album of thoughtful rock songs and aching ballads, the album was now aimed towards and appealing to the older fans, who had grown up now. It was fifteen years since the first keyboard arpeggios of “Take on me” reverberated around the discos and the radios of the world, and the people who had danced to the tunes on “Hunting high and low” were older and wiser, looking for something more mature from a band previously only known as a pop act.

“Minor earth, major sky” came just at the right moment, when a-ha teenage fans were becoming a-ha middle-age fans, and it captured the zeitgeist all over again. Songs like “Barely hanging on”, “To let you win”, “Summer moved on” and “I wish I cared” see a-ha make the often difficult transition from pop band to (semi)-serious rock band in really two albums. “Memorial Beach” had been the midway point in that transition, leaving albums --- albeit great ones --- like “Stay on these roads” and “Hunting high and low” behind for more mature shores; with “Minor earth major sky” the transformation was complete. A-ha were now an internationally respected rock band, if still retaining some pop sensibilities. Some people were, and are, always going to see them as “those guys that had that song”, but a-ha had successfully reinvented themselves, and never sounded better.

Also their longest album, “Minor earth”, clocking in at just under 59 minutes, also has the most tracks on an a-ha album, thirteen. Unlucky? It would seem not. They even felt comfortable enough with their won-back fame to flirt with controversy for the video for “Velvet”, tying in with the darker themes of their “new” music. The video --- dealing as it does with the very dodgy subject of necrophilia, apparently --- certainly puts an extremely creepy slant to what is otherwise a beautiful ballad. I'd really rather not think about it, thank you.

To come back from basically the abyss of obscurity with an album that gives you not only four singles, not only four hit singles, but four number one singles --- think about that: every track released as a single went to the top --- is a huge achievement, and no more than a-ha deserved. They were very much an underappreciated band and were finally getting the recognition they were due, after being dismissed as one-hit (or even three-album) wonders. And there was a lot more to come.


The guys did not hang around after the success of “Minor earth”, and the next year saw the release of “Lifelines”, their seventh album. Although the singles taken from it were nowhere near as successful as those from the previous album (hardly at all, other than in their native Norway, bastion of their popularity and fanbase) the album sold almost as well, and it continues the mature and considered approach the band had taken since their reformation, and indeed prior to breaking up. With a much broader songwriter base --- Morton writing or co-writing five of the tracks, Mags writing four solo, including the title track, and Ole Sverre-Olsen renewing his songwriting partnership with Morton on two of the tracks, it's one of a-ha's strongest albums, and one of my own personal favourites.

The title track, written by Mags, is a great opener, and really it justs gets better from there. It certainly boasts some of the weirdest --- even for a-ha --- lyrics in their repertoire, with lines like ”When your colleagues can't recall your name/ Time and time again/ There's a reason for it/ When your name's the butt of every joke/ Just about to croak/ There's a reason for it” or ”We have seen the rain before/ Not like this - It's flooding every shore /People come and people go/ I can hear their laughter through the door / But no one's keeping score”.

It's much more of an upbeat album than the previous two, perhaps fuelled by a-ha's restored public acceptance and their triumphant return, and songs like “Forever not yours”, while melancholy in its lyric, bounces along at a pretty happy rate, as does “Afternoon high” and the extremely odd “Oranges on appletrees”. But a-ha have not ditched their darker side, and it's evident on songs like “Did anyone approach you” and "You wanted more". In between there are the usual stunning ballads --- “Time and again”, “White canvas” and “A little bit” stand out here --- along with something of a return to the happy pop of the first three albums with tracks like “Afternoon high”, “Oranges on apple trees” and "Dragonfly". “Lifelines”, though less popular and successful than its predecessor, is nevertheless the album of theirs I consider the most rounded, a heady mix of ballads, pop songs and rock songs, something for everyone.


Taking some time out to tour, the next album released by the guys was not until 2005, and would prove to be their penultimate. It would also, in my humble opinion, turn out to be their best and most cohesive effort since “Scoundrel days”.

This is, quite simply, an album with not one single bad track, and an absolute slew of excellent ones. If this had been a-ha's swansong, it would have been quite fitting and appropriate, though there's nothing of the sense of a farewell about “Analogue”: it's a band at the very top of their game, having reinvented themselves and essentially conquered the world --- twice --- there seemed to be no stopping these three guys from Norway. A mixture of boppy uptempo rock/pop and searing ballads, there just is so much to love about this album.

Highlights, by their very nature, can't apply to this album, but the tracks that stand out as even better than the really good ones, for me, are “Over the treetops”, “White dwarf”, “Cosy prisons”, with absolutely some of the very very best ballads a-ha have ever written in “A fine blue line”, “Birthright” and the simply stunning “Summers of our youth”, where Mags gets to sing (only the second time ever, and far better than his initial effort) with Morton on the choruses adding quite literally the voice of an angel on Earth to an already perfect song, and a wonderful closer, as well as what could have been the last ever a-ha song.

But special mention must also be made of “Halfway through the tour”, which clocks in at seven and a half minutes, making it into the top three longest a-ha songs, and as close to an epic as this band have ever recorded. Starting out fast and boppy, very much an uptempo pop song, it morphs about halfway through into a lush, gentle little instrumental that just takes your breath away. I must compliment the songwriting of Mags Furuholmen, because here he writes more than half of the songs --- either solo or with another person --- and they're without exception excellent. In fact, four of the really great songs --- “Don't do me any favours”, “Cosy prisons”, “A fine blue line” and the closer “The summers of our youth” --- are all written by him solo, with the opener “Celice” and the unutterably brilliant “Birthright” are co-written by him. Pal, in contrast, writes only four, with one other co-written with Mags and Max Martin.

Mind you, it is Pal who writes the wonderful epic “Halfway through the tour”, which just shows they all can write amazing songs. Even Morton writes co-writes two. This album is a total triumph, and can be seen as the very pinnacle of a-ha's creative and lyrical prowess, their musical expertise never having been in doubt throughout their long career. It's such a great album that I wish there was another like it, but there isn't, and that's how it should be.


Ending on a high note, as indeed their final live album was titled, a-ha released their ninth, and last, album in 2010. “Foot of the mountain” brought their sound right back full circle, with synthy pop songs more in the mould of “Hunting high and low” and “Scoundrel days” than the later, more mature albums. Perhaps they felt that they were finishing up, so there was no need to expand their musical boundaries any further, or maybe they actually wanted to return to where it all began before it all came to an end, but either way I find it a bit of a disappointment that, having come so far from the tag of pop band and having carved out their own niche in music, beating the odds and reinventing themselves, the guys decided to go back to their beginnings.

Consequently, “Foot of the mountain” was, for me, a bit of a letdown after albums like “Analogue” and “Minor earth major sky”. There's nothing wrong with it, just as there's nothing wrong with the early albums, but I do see it as something of a step backwards, and there is no longer any chance that there will be any more steps forward, unless a-ha decide to reunite in the future. For now, we're left with an album of pretty standard pop songs, the deep writing and themes utilised on previous album mostly discarded in favour of more radio-friendly fare, though “What there is” is a nice little song, and the title track is very good too, different in temperament to most of the rest of the album. Lyrically, it's quite similar to Glenn Frey's “River of dreams”, with the idea of leaving the city behind to live at one with nature.

Songwriting duties for this last album are more or less shared equally by Mags and Pal: Morton has no input this final time. Not surprisingly, as it was widely known to be a-ha's last album to be released, “Foot of the mountain” did very well in the charts, in fact giving them their best placing since “Stay on these roads”. This despite the fact that “Analogue” is a far, far superior album in every way. I guess you can't overestimate the power of something being the last of its kind. There are some good tracks on it, some great ones even. “Nothing is keeping you here” (a note to self, perhaps, on their retirement?) has an opening piano riff very reminscent of Harry Nilsson's “Everybody's talkin' at me”, and bops along nicely with a sort of bittersweet air of farewell, and thanks perhaps.

“Sunny mystery” is nice too, and “Start the simulator”, the closing track on the album and technically the last ever a-ha song (though they did release one more single after this) is interestingly different, a love song written using only technical terms, but in general I don't get the same feeling from this album that I do from “Analogue” or “Lifelines”, and as it's their swansong it is a pity: I would have preferred them to have gone out with a fantastic album, their best ever, but for me, that's not the case and it's more a damp squib than a firecracker. Ah well, such is life.

The final new a-ha song was released as part of the compilation “25”, their last recording, and was called “Butterfly, butterfly (The last hurrah)”. They appeared as part of the memorial services for the massacre in Norway earlier this year, playing “Stay on these roads”, and that was, to date, their final appearance together. It's likely they will release further solo material, as each has their own project and albums already released, but whether or not we will see a reunion in the future remains to be seen.

For almost thirty years a-ha flew the musical flag for Norway, a country previously ignored by the music world. They essentially put Norway on the map, and are and ever will be heroes in their home country. They also influenced later bands like Coldplay and Keane, and showed the world that a pop band can expand beyond those sometimes limited horizons, change and evolve, and come back stronger. They showed us that just because the band is made up of three “pretty boys” doesn't mean that they have to rely on their looks alone, and also that a trio can write their own excellent songs without input from major songwriters, and still carve a successful and varied career over the course of three decades.

Those who want to dismiss them on the basis of “Take on me” will probably continue to do so, but that is just their ignorance. A-ha were always more than just one or two hit singles, and for those prepared to put in the time and dig into their catalogue, the rewards are there to be heard. Not a boy band by any means, a-ha were always in control of their own music, and their own destiny, and they remain a shining example of dogged perserverance and talent shining through, in this age where the band is often just a tool for the record producer or label to use, a means to an end, a source of revenue. They epitomised the brighter, more optimistic side of pop music, and left behind them a musical legacy that will last long after other, more currently popular acts have been long forgotten and dumped in favour of the next big thing.

They came, they took on the world, had their scoundrel days, stayed on these roads and can now happily retire to live at the foot of the mountain.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018