A-ha: Analogue

[Jeff]

A-ha—that’s right the Take on Me band—released a new CD 11/04/05 called Analogue. I’ve been listening to it this afternoon. And you know what, it’s pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking just really solid pop music. Lots of interesting progressions and influences. Justin and I were talking about the band last week. We both liked Hunting High and Low, their first American release. And I think we agreed that they were too easily dismissed as objects of teenage lust. In fact, they crafted some very clever synth pop in the 1980s. Analogue is probably best described as simply pop. The synths here are not always in the foreground. Much more frequently you’ll find yourself listening to pianos and guitars. Their style remains very clean, which suits their subtle melodies perfectly. And melodies are A-ha’s strong suit. If you like hummable music, this is a band worth experiencing again. But there is nothing really new. Since musical competence is a tough sell to teenagers, I think A-ha must be hoping the adult-contemporary crowd catches up to them.

Jeff

PS Some of the influences I was talking about are The Beatles and Queen. There is a song on here called Keeper of the Flame that begins with lyric "Give it up for Rock and Roll/Give it up for Rock/Give it up for how it made you feel/Give it up for vinyl days/Kicking back from school/Turn it up to make it real sweet." Freddie would be proud.


artists.universal-music.de/a-ha/