a-ha - Stay on These Roads

 "The living daylights"
This is a great addition to the first 2 A-ha albums. I love the James Bond "The living daylights" pop version on this album a lot more than the movies'. I can listen to this kick a*ss tune over and over again and never get tired. The only reason I don't give "Stay on these roads" 5 stars is because Their first album "Hunting high and low" gets my 5 stars. "The living daylights" and "Stay on these roads" are the highlights of this album.
Two thumbs up for the Norwegian "Pretty boys" :) December 1, 2005

 AAAA- ha , we shall meet agaaain.....
I built this review title from the title song where it says: " stay on these roads, we shall meet , I know..."
This is the first entire A-ha album (1988)I listened in my life. I bought its LP only for 86 american dollar cents nearly (calculated from the brazilian money) this week. Luckily, this record was well preserved.
It was far from being a waste of time: Despite the weaker tracks,this one has very few mistakes, enough to be considered masterpiece.
Looking at the sleeve,we can see that this norwegian trio had the appearance of a " boy band" like Backstreet Boys or New Kids on the Block. But they don't all that chorographies or playbacks as typical group of this genre.
A-ha proved it: this cd has lots of keyboards (this habit makes me remember Roxette), soft and enjoyable vocals in addition , many beautiful melodies ( on tracks 2, 1 ,6 ,7 and 8).

It may attract you: tracks 1, 3 and 9 were radio friendly. I used to listen them when I was a child without knowing what A-ha was.
In Hurry Home,the topic is a woman that doesn't earn money sufficiently coming back home after a hard day's work. This track is good too. Touchy! (the only song with a guitar solo that made me remember David Murray's style, from Iron Maiden)and You are the one are typical love themes talking about attraction, fascination.

Tracks 6 and 7 (some vocals made me remind Ice House, who sing a piece called No promises, an 80's hit)are pretty good for relaxing. I liked track 7 so much that I repeated it several times (very sweet and elegant).

The songs that have more "filler" attributes are You'll end up crying and This alone is love ( however,I like the chorus. The band used the musical note rise in the end, just like Stratovarius in "The kiss of judas" ,the Bee Gees in "You win again", Garbage in "Run baby run" etc.)

Yeah, like I said in the title: A-ha ,we shall meet again in other album. You convinced me.


September 11, 2005

 James Bond, nostalgia, and love songs
One of my three favorite a-ha CD's! The other two are "Hunting High and Low" & "Scoundrel Days." At any rate, the up-tempo highlight of this CD is the James Bond theme, "The Living Daylights". I was so disappointed that the film makers used a different rendition of this song for the movie - the one on the CD is a MUCH better version, hands down! The two slow songs, "This Alone is Love" and "There's Never a Forever Thing" are absolutely beautiful, in my opinion - wonderful vocal range for Morten Harket. The rest of the songs don't shine as much as these three, but they are all wonderful.

I have all the a-ha CD's and while their newer music includes some wonderful songs, the older CD's, as a whole, hold more interest for me - maybe it's because they make me feel nostalgic and take me back to the end of my high school days. Who knows, but one thing's certain: a-ha's music is a refreshing breath of fresh air in these times of spoiled teenage pop divas who only shake their "assets" and haven't a lick of musical talent, and profanity-laced, roaring guitar rock (not that I don't like some of that stuff, but whenever I want to chill and get a little musical perspective, a-ha ends up in my player). September 11, 2005

 A good album but nowhere near my favorite.
This is a good CD, and there are some very solid tracks on it.

I don't think that the overall album is as good as their "Hunting High and Low" album (if you have not already, you should definitely pick that one up).

The vocals are great, and there is some musical depth that was not heard on the aforementioned album. Still, the songs are less catchy, the flow from one to another could be better (random play seems to be an improvement in most cases), and the album as a whole is just not that cohesive.

Although you will not regret picking this one up, it is not likely to make the list of your favorites. August 21, 2005

 Smart pop
By the time this album came out in 1988, my interest in A-ha was a bit on the wane. I had been a diehard fan, loved every single song in their first album and one of my favorite songs of all time is in their second ('The Swing of things'). By then I was playing football and being "tough", moving into harder (and more "manly") Metal. Yet, while A-ha's symphonic synthetizers and passionate lyrics still beaconed, somehow the release of this album failed excite me at all; I remember reading with disinterest of the release of the first single, Stay on These Roads, in a local Sunday paper and thought I had moved on.

A few weeks later I happened to hear the song in the radio. I wasn't blown away, it was better, it moved me deeply; it is lush, panoramic and intoxicating. I couldn't disagree more with a previous reviewer who advises to "skip it", Stay on hese Roads is one of the most moving songs I've ever heard. I purchased the tape a few months later and it became a staple in my walkman.

Yes, A-ha was getting more mature, but there were hints of it in their previous albums. For a band that was influenced, first and foremost by The Doors, A-ha had somehow, deliberately or not, turned into a poppish band. As a digression, there is a video on the net of the very first release of 'Take on Me' (not the cool MTV video) and by golly it is just a step above Wham! in the bubble-gum chart. Of course, that made them appealling to a much younger audience; a few years later I found an article-review of a concert from this album, and most of the comments were made by 12-14 year old girls. The benefit to them is that as A-ha tours Europe today, they sing to mostly to 28-30 year old women (far thinking Norwegians!). There was however, an edge to their music that they refused to hide, and an undeniable caliber of talent. That is where this album comes in.

SOTR was different; 'The Blood that Moves the Body' is a mature and somewhat troubling song (as so many others penned by Pal). Yet it is VERY well arranged and constructed. 'This Alone is Love' showcases the band's awesome musical abilities, it is a controled and passionate song; it goes beyond the length of a regular song without falling victim to musical over-ambitiousness. Here, Mags' keyboard creativity makes the song soar. The same can be said -to a slightly lesser degree- about "Out of the Blue Comes Green', yet in this one, it is Morten's voice that sells the song.

'Hurry Home' is a song I can listen to all day, despite some of the layered yelps in the background. It is a great song.

'The Living Daylights' written originally for the Bond movie by the same title, sounds much better than the original version released with the movie a year before. If you ever feel playful, listen to it while driving.

'There's Never a Forever Thing' is in a way the opposite of 'This Alone is Love'; it is shorter than usual and surprisingly simple. A bit sappy for my taste these days, but a beautiful song nevertheless.

"You'll End Up Crying' is the odd duck. It is extra short and just... odd. It's sung by -I've always thought- all three of them. Very nuanced in its arrangements, listen for the only time a tuba ever sounded good in a song! I absolutely love this one.

'Touchy' and 'You Are the One' I left for last. These songs are hard to listen to today, at least for me. For a while I thought that 'Touchy' needed to be figured out, like it had a hidden message or something. The answer is no; the song doesn't really say anything, and here the band comes dangerously close (but not quite) to bubble gum pop. And while today I'd feel like ducking the album a star for them, I have to be fair to the teenager in me and admit that there was a time in which I enjoyed them shamelessly.

The art of the album really fits it; there is a blue, delicate and wet quality to it, a winterish vibe, if that makes sense.

This is perhaps a little gem that may have gone unnoticed by you in the 80s. With very minor exceptions it is something worth picking up today. It is superbly produced and put together, magnificently performed and intelligently written. Questionably A-ha's best album, we only wish more pop was this sophisticated. August 14, 2005

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