a-ha - Hunting High and Low

 a-ha are often associated by the unwashed as an '80s one hit wonder who aside from their clever cartoony video and impossibly high notes on the chorus on "Take On Me" never did anything else. I suppose in the US this is sort of true as Hunting High and Low remains the band's only platinum record - making them at worst a one album wonder.

Still, I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. I have a lot of half baked thoughts swirling around in my head, and am trying to get them to settle down. I suppose the problem is I have about forty years of baggage with the band. I've followed them faithfully, even enjoying their lamented '93 release Memorial Beach (which at the moment I can't recall any of the songs) and bought the download of their 2022 True North (which I'm also drawing a blank on ... but I didn't spend a lot of time with that one). Their catalogue is liberally sprinkled with astounding songs. The band is still centred on the talents of Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. Sure Morten as the voice gets a little more attention, but this is a three legged milking stool and you need all three for balance.

Let's go back to the beginning. Rumour has it Warner Bros. was looking for their own version of Duran Duran, and there were three young Norwegian lads who were creating well crafted synth-pop who were also camera ready.

"Take On Me" was one of those near perfect marriages of song and image that broke the band all over the world. It was, and remains an awesome piece of music. Not long after the video for "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." hit pretty heavy rotation, and it was those two songs that got me to pick up the record.

Now, I have to admit that at the time, it was those two songs that got all the attention, and for a while appeared on quite a few mix tapes. The rest of the album I thought was okay, but there were songs like "Love is the Reason" with the cheesy synth horns that I found really irritating, and some of the other farty noises while cutting edge at the time had the shelf life of mayonnaise sitting out on a hot day.

Still the album got a fair bit of play mainly because whoever sequenced the album was on the ball. Side one opens with "Take On Me" and the second starts off with "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." which generally meant the songs would play through, which was a good thing, because honestly aside from taking a couple of cracks at some of the sounds on the album, there were so many really great songs on the album.

The album was mostly produced by Tony Mansfield, except for the two big hits - those were produced by Alan Tarney. This was a name I recognized right away, and this was probably the first time I'd heard his production where it didn't sound like Alan Tarney with someone else singing. Who knows what he added to the secret sauce, but I always assumed whatever he did elevated the songs above the rest of the material on the album.

Of course I could be completely full of shit too.

What I find interesting now is having the record again, and the liner notes, is how skinny the credits are. I mean, there are pictures of the band, and production notes, but as to actual credits and lyrics - nothing. I mean the address for the fan club is on the back, but as to the band members - nothing. Maybe it was to add a layer of mystery but I remember finding it perplexing back in the day, and even now. There was a little more on the record where it had the songwriting credits, but at the time you couldn't match the names to the pictures. Oh, if you're curious on the cover it's Mags on the left, Morten in the middle, and Pal looking cool on the right. Now you know, but if you're a fan you knew that already.

The songs were mostly written by Pal Waaktaar, with "Take On Me" attributed to the whole band, and then a couple to Pal and Mags, and Pal and Morten. From this you get the sense that Pal (or Paul as he's known now) was providing the musical direction.

Or not, see above mention of me being full of shit.

Regardless, finding a near mint copy of the record was kind of cool - near mint, except for a small pressing imperfection on "The Blue Sky" that will either elicit a small pop or occasionally a little skip - which sucks, but thankfully it's on a song that I can honestly take or leave. I have this on CD anyway along with most of their catalogue so really me getting the record was unnecessary, but fun.

Anyway for a couple of days I got to spin this front to back a few times, and reminisce and remind myself why I liked this band so much. Getting to sit in the basement with the stereo loud was just me "Living a Boy's Adventure Tale."