I think most of us have had that Gestalt-like moment in which we recognize that an artist is expressing something we feel and thought no one else felt. That’s how I felt when I heard A-ha’s debut album, Hunting High and Low, at the age of 15. I’d of course heard “Take on Me” on the radio, seen the video on MTV; also, “The Sun Always Shines on TV,” which remains one of my top 10 favorite songs ever. But it wasn’t until I bought the album and was able to listen to the tracks that hadn’t made the radio and read the lyrics that I first got that sensation we all feel with our favorite artists: these guys get me. And it’s hard to explain exactly why I felt that way because their English lyrics were (and are) often confusing and clichéd, and they were singing about things I’d never experienced as a teenager born and raised in New Mexico—like coming to the U.S. for the first time or breaking up with someone in winter in London. But it was something about the *way* Morten Harket sang those lyrics, in his crystalline, plaintive falsetto (and his tenor, and baritone—the man has an insane range); and, the edge to Magne Furuholmen’s keyboards; and, the heady mix of nostalgia and pining in Pål Waaktaar-Savoy’s ersatz English verses that captured the longing for adventure and love and far shores that I felt, so intensely that some days it throbbed in my bones like growing pains.
I grew up with A-ha and never truly grew out of them, though there were close calls. We had our years where we didn’t see eye to eye. When we felt out of touch a bit. But something has always kept me coming back to their music, and they keep making it (in spite of retiring like 3 times or something and quite famously not getting along with each other). By a great shock of luck, I managed to see them live in Berlin while I was there, less than a mile from my house in a seat that had opened up at a concert postponed due to COVID. And honestly it was one of the best nights of my life. It was one of those moments, like my recent trip to Edinburgh, where I was lucky enough to be able to use the band as a mirror to see the me I had been before, a long time before, and be able to recognize myself, and still like myself.
If you don’t have that kind of personal connection to A-ha, you might be wondering—are they worth a listen? I think so, for a couple of reasons. At their best, they’re great pop artists: there’s a reason that “Take on Me” is routinely listed in the top 100 pop songs of all time, and that they managed to sell out shows on 3 continents for 3 decades. They (Pål and Magne in particular) have a deep education in pop and are deft at weaving familiar threads—from the Beatles, or the Monkees, or ABBA—into new cloth that manages to wear those influences lightly and elegantly. Morten’s voice is one of the best in pop of all time, full stop. So, give them a shot if you haven’t before. Here’s my greatest hit list for you (I don’t have Spotify, so I’m just going to give YouTube links):
Best album: Hands down, Scoundrel Days, their sophomore effort.
It didn’t get as much radio play in the U.S., but it’s narratively and sonically tight and compelling, telling an immigrant’s story about not being able to go home again but not having yet found a new one. There isn’t a bad song on there. As albums go, I also think Hunting High and Low, Stay on these Roads, and Minor Earth, Major Sky are solid.
As A-ha aged, they leaned into a 60s vibe I don’t care for, and their songwriting got a bit lackadaisical, as they got absorbed in other ventures. But there are still a couple of tracks from their most recent albums that have that old frisson to them. They’re at their best when they’re haunting, or being haunted. Here’s my list of favorite tracks in roughly chronological order (excluding Scoundrel Days b/c, like I said, that whole album’s a banger):
- On Hunting High and Low: Such a solid debut! But of course they’d been writing in a garret in London and performing open-mics for quite a while before they made it big, so they had a lot of material from which to distill this album. I can’t describe the depths of my love for “The Sun Always Shines on TV”: the harmonies, the production, the pacing—just the perfect pop anthem. I dare you to continue being in a bad mood after listening to this. Check out the rest of the album, too.
- On Stay on these Roads: The title track, Hurry Home, Out of Blue Comes Green, and You’ll End Up Crying. Like I said, this whole album’s pretty solid. It leans hard into themes of loss and nostalgia without ever becoming a downer.
- East of the Sun, West of the Moon: Man, I pretty much liked this whole album, too, I’m realizing…. But favorite tracks remain their cover of Crying in the Rain, the title track (which references a Norse myth and introduced me to my favorite illustrator of all time, Kai Nielsen), Sycamore Leaves, Rolling Thunder, and Nonstop July. Definitely a darker vibe to this album.
- Memorial Beach: They clearly took a trip to the southern U.S. before they made this album and listened to a bunch of blues. I’m…not sure how successful it’s gonna be for 3 Norwegian guys to try to make a blues album. The best tracks on here explore the intersection of Southern gothic and Euro gothic pop: Locust and How Sweet it Was. The title track’s not bad on this count, either, and Lie Down in Darkness.
- Minor Earth, Major Sky: The guys went on hiatus for a few years after Memorial Beach due to problems with their label and general burnout; they came back in 2000 with this album. This is when they start to do the Beatles thing, and I stop caring as much. But there are still some solid tracks on here including the wistful title track, Summer Moved On, Thought that It Was You (add it to your Christmas playlist), and I Wish I Cared. Definitely a sharper, more satirical vibe to this album that reflects their experience in the industry (Company Man is a direct jab at their handler at Warner Bros.)
- Lifelines: From here on, favorite tracks get fewer and farther between, but as this was a loooooong album, there are a few on here I still enjoy, like You Wanted More, Time and Again, and Forever Not Yours (“The memories keep coming through/The good ones hurt more than the bad ones do”).
- Analogue: An over-stuffed, mixed bag for sure—a lot of tracks that are feeling the status A-ha has achieved at this point as elder statesmen of Euro-pop, a few that still recall the old hunger. I like Don’t Do Me Any Favours and Cosy Prisons.
- Foot of the Mountain: Yeah…their green juice and yoga phase. I kinda like the Shadowside demo—reminds me of the old days.
- Cast in Steel: They’re trying to recapture their 80s sound with this album, but so much less is at stake, and it shows. I don’t love anything on here, but I can listen to The Wake, Mythomania, Shadow Endeavors, and Giving Up the Ghost.
- True North: This came out in 2022, and I think I remember them doing “Forest for the Trees” from it at the Berlin concert. Look, it’s not a great album. But it is sweet and sincere. It’s clear they wrote these songs during the pandemic because they’re about loss and community, but most of all, they’re encouraging the next generation to be bold, take risks, love and win and lose and enjoy the beauty of the world. Does this all sound schlocky? You betcha. But if you’re a mega-fan like I am, you can’t be cynical about it. It’s like A-ha is singing at their own funeral, in the best possible sense: telling you everything they want you to know about what they think life’s about before it’s too late. There’s so much gratitude in Morten’s voice. Listen to True North and You Have What it Takes, and you’ll see what I mean. There’s also a little Easter Egg here, a hat-tip back to the Hunting High & Low days with “Hunter in the Hills,” a glitzy bit of yacht rock gilding a dark undertone of menace. That’s my boys.
The Rookery 