A-Ha is (L-R) Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Pal Waaktaar .
I was 13 when A-Ha eXpLoDeD onto the world pop scene in 1985. Take On Me was the trio's maiden single and it debuted at #1 on pop charts in several European and Asian countries.
Inventive musical and lyrical arrangement, an unforgettable voice, a classic sketch-art video. The choir boy looks in leather. Morten Harket posters were sellouts. It was crazy. You knew...
The A-Ha Years had arrived.
A-Ha Albums
1. Hunting High And Low -- 1985
2. Scoundrel Days - 1986
3. Stay On These Roads - 1988
4. East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon - 1990
5. Memorial Days - 1992
A-Ha released a Greatest Hits album "Headlines & Deadlines" in 1991.
A-Ha's Career Fortunes
It was exceptionally difficult to match the huge success of Hunting High & Low. Every successful album needs one smash single and at least 2 solid follow-up hits. Hunting had all 3 -- Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines On TV and the title track.
A year is an awfully long time in the pop scene and the industry was evolving at lightning speed during those mid-80s years. Hence, when Scoundrel Days was released a year after Hunting - using the same sound, the effect was painfully dull.
A-Ha worked hard to re-connect itself with its audience and the result was Stay On These Roads - by far, the group's finest effort. It was a transition album in many ways. Tracks like You Are The One and Touchy! were delectable pop candy fluff that their teenage audience adored. The Living Daylights - written for Timothy Dalton's Bond effort was gritty, metallic and signalled a shift in A-Ha's musical direction...
The title track Stay On These Roads was the first signpost of A-Ha's new direction. It was moody, dark and mature. Personally, the drum work stole the limelight for this track. Listen to it. It shuffles in the dark and like pistol shots, pierces the silence of the night.
East Of The Sun, West of the Moon was a total break from the Hunting High and Low sound. Piano and guitar work took centrestage over the synthesized sound. A-Ha did a poignant remake of the Everly Brothers hit "Crying In The Rain" which enjoyed some chart success. The group's last album Memorial Beach was not a critical success...
All pop groups rise and fall for essentially the same reasons. They capture the mood of the moment and the industry moves on...leaving groups behind as new groups capture a
A-Ha was no different. It didn't mean that they were failures. The pop sound in the 80s and 90s just moves too fast for any one group to dominate for any length of time. A-Ha had 5 good years through 4 respectable albums. They had to abandon the sound that they were best at because the mood had shifted and did well to adjust to the darkening mood of the 90s sound.
But there's a limit to how much one can reinvent oneself. I can't see A-Ha trashing guitars and headbanging ala Pearl Jam and Nirvana. A-Ha realized the end of the road had come and bowed out gracefully. When the end came, more than a few of us, including myself, were "Crying In The Rain..."
As A-Ha once said...there's...
Review
May 1998 VW