a-ha: any fans?
 

One of my favourite bands ever, and probably the first actual "pop" band that I at first grudgingly admitted I liked, then later got totally into their music and loved them. Such a pity they called it a day. Feel free to post your favourite a-ha songs in their memory: here are some of mine...

My favourite a-ha album by a mile is "Analogue", and it has so many good tracks, but I particularly like these two:
A fine blue line

The summers of our youth

Ah hell, I have to include Halfway through the tour!


Then there's "Lifelines", with the brilliant title track

so many other good tracks, but let's move on to "Minor earth, major sky", from which I choose (though it's a hard choice) Velvet. Dodgy video (NSFW); great song.

A great weakness of mine, absolutely love the first three albums and also dig the American rock posturing of albums 4 and 5. Don't go mad on the newer stuff though.

I remember seeing the "Velvet" video before...singing corpses are hard to forget! :) ...but I'm realizing I haven't heard many of A-ha's songs, and this will be a good opportunity for me to do so.

The only A-ha song that I can remember off the top of my head is "Take on Me," of course, which I liked since I first heard it on the radio back in the '80s, although I don't think I saw the video until a couple years ago.

My favorite moment in the music begins with the line, "Oh the things that you say," just after 2:30, up through "You're all the things I've got to remember," because it sounds so plaintive with yearning. In case someone hasn't heard that song, here it is:


A-Ha - Take On Me (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube

Everybody knows that song, its the song that made them famous and also gave them a bad reputation.

It doesn't seem like anybody wants to speak about the band, just post videos of them;)

I have not heard too much of their music from the last decade (being in the US, its not even promoted much let alone released), but East of the Sun... and Memorial Beach have a place in my collection. #4 was a $1 cut-out find (cassette, now long gone due to over-play) bought during the Winter, about two years after it's release, and it was perfect with my drive home. With #5, I first bought the casingle to Dark Is the Night, then the album, not thinking that I was possibly the only one within at least a 50-100 Miles' distance from anyone else who bought it (it was Grunge Time, and in The Midwest...you know what that means).

The Blood That Moves the Body was the song that sold me on a ha as someone to listen to, although Stay on These Roads was VERY hit and miss. Thankfully, that dollar plus tax I spent on #4 was well spent.

I had to get my memories right, making sure that they are on the money.

I think that they are seriously a very under-rated band, and it's seriously hard to convince people around me about this, as all that many remember is "Take On Me," and not even "The Sun Always Shines on TV" (damn it...and it was the better of their two US Top 40 hits). The moodiness of Memorial Beach caught my ears right, and I do feel that it should be checked out by anyone interested.

A-Ha may be the most popular Norwegian pop act ever so of course I know them quite well. I was quite fond of Memorial Beach when that came out (I was a kid then basically so it's a while ago), but haven't really been an active fan since then. Still, their hits are a nostalgic and slightly guilty pleasure.

Of their old hits, I think this is the one I enjoy the most.




I find it hard to not think of Morten Harket as a bit douchey in a pretentious sort of way, but the guy can definitely sing. ;)

Sure, they were always a lot more popular here in the UK than they were in the USA. Their debut is a pop classic with songs like "Train of Thought" "Living a Boys Adventure Tale" and "Here I stand and Face the Rain". Their second album was just so moody and cool for its time. Their third I loved a lot as well Stay on These Roads, especially the songs "There's Never a Forever Thing" "Out of the Blue Comes Green". East of the Sun.... and Memorial Beach were the band breaking out from pop and into American based rock and I thought they did it very well.

Pal Waaktaar was a superb songwriter and Morten Harkett was born to sing. His voice was great on any type of song with a fantastic range as well. He was always at his best on the slower tracks as well.