Justin Sandercoe, of Justin Guitar online tutorials fame, gives some example intervals to practice learning by ear, and the interval that Morten Harket sings between “take” and “on” in the chorus line “Take on me” is a rare example of a seventh. What I couldn’t tell you is where he goes next for “me” - I *think* it’s a fourth (Fifth is the first two notes of the Star Wars theme). Nor how much he jumps up through the repetitions so that his final “I’ll be there” line is somewhere up in the falsetto range. And that's the most musically technical I'm likely to get.
More synth-pop, this time from Norway for a change, and A-Ha's big hits are all on this album. Take On Me, as discussed, but also the title track and The Sun Always Shines On TV. Which is actually a pretty good track, ascending into high drama at times.
But what’s the album like away from the Big Ones? Actually not a bad bit of synth-pop, certainly towards the more sophisticated end of the spectrum with a surprising touch of darkness and sadness about it. Although, they’re Scandinavian, I shouldn’t be that surprised. The songs are written by Pål Waaktaar, credited with guitars and drum programming, and his inpirations include the likes of Dostoevsky and Existentialist poets, so expect musings on the fundamental angst of simply existing – not what you’d expect from a pop group who to me are best known for their frontman being held up as a heart-throb figure.
Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale features some atmospheric oboe (Claire Jarvis). Train of Thought has a bit of a Visage-y feel to it. Love Is Reason, meanwhile is very much of the mid-Eighties pop with a kind of Pet Shop Boys feel to the beat programming. It’s a funny beast, this album. Some of it is still very Eighties, some, while still obviously synth-based, feels more timeless.
Apart from the theme for the Bond film The Living Daylights, I don’t recall anything else by A-Ha beyond the Big Ones on this album, and yet I see that they last released material in 2022 with a steady stream of albums between this one and the latest. They’re not the kind of artists that I’d follow though, so perhaps it's not surprising I don't know much about their work. For that, and that I was somewhat dreading yet more Eighties synth-pop, this was actually pretty good in places.
[Edit: When I was putting the tags onto this post I was reminded that I have one for "Ta-Ha", one of the books of the Qu'ran from my Atheist Explores Sacred Texts series, so-named for the Arabic characters "طه"that start the book. This is not the same as that.]
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