Norwegian trio A-ha have had huge success throughout the world with their work in the 1980s and are still very popular in South America & Europe now in latter half of the 2000s. I was a fan from 1987 till 1991 and then they faded away in the wake of all my rock, metal & blues bands. The band temporarily split up. Then in 2000, I heard what would become my favourite A-ha song – Summer Moved On and Minor Earth, Major Sky from their comeback album and was hooked again. I prefer this A-ha over most of their 80s stuff, a very melancholic approach to pop-rock that only these Norwegian trio can do. Still I didn’t have any of their songs until, a couple of years ago, based solely on nostalgia reasons, I bought their greatest hits cd and regained my taste for them.
Analogue is the band’s 8th & latest studio album, released in 2005. I was able to download it in its entirety and enjoy the wonderful songs on it. The album starts off with first single Celice, about people who have lost their direction in the hunt for meaning – and loneliness as a result of lost innocence. You hear the opening lines by singer Morten Harket, the music of Paul Waaktaar-Savoy & Magne Furuholmen and it’s like meeting a familiar face. When Don’t Do Me Any Favours is about non-compromising & rejecting a person (probably a former lover) like the line “I’d rather be your adversary than to be your slave“. Cosy Prisons is many fan reviewers favourite track on the album (I love it but my fav is another track). The song is about the hi-life & things that money can buy and enclosing oneself in a protective bubble, isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and compares that kind of life to being in a “cosy prison” without a clue about the real world.
Analogue is downright one of the best a-ha songs that I have ever heard and is so addictive that I already played it 10 times on my pc and on my cell phone! It starts of with an ominous guitar sound and then the keyboards kick in with that repetitive line that is so atmospheric! It’s a plea of a loved one to return. In a similar vein, but much slower, is Birthright, which tells a person who is planning on leaving, that the answers might not be there and that time can take care of things.
Holy Ground is about saying goodbye to someone who you used to love but now the love is ground due to differences in their respective thinking. Over The Treetops is a sound that seems to be about a nature lover and wanting to live the simple life closer to it. Halfway Through The Tour‘s subject matter that has been written & sung about by many, many bands who are regularly on the road – being homesick and lonely even when playing for stadiums across the globe and being in the media spotlight. The Fine Blue Line is about how good things can change quickly and nothing is permanent. Keeper Of The Flame & Summers Of Our Youthare a nostalgic look at playing music in the passion of youth, while Make It Soon is a love song. White Dwarf is about a picture of planets, moons & a white dwarf! At best I think it’s a analogy for fading love!
All throughout Harket’s vocals draw you into the world of a-ha, while Waaktaar & Furuholmen lend their musical talents to weave a musical tapestry that is far superior to their early works. Their best album ever? Who cares, just get it!
Song for the day – “Analogue (All I Want)” – A-HA