Hunting High and Low

I had a huge crush on Mags when I was 12 … I enjoyed revisiting this 😍

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This band came to exist just to make Take on me. It will play forever and probably solved their lives but at least in this album there's not even a glimpse of the same inspiration that wrote that song.

5 stars for Gryffindor and for take on me, 2 stars for the album as a whole for having the song.

solid opener, classic
title track is like if dave gahan and dean martin had a child who turned out interesting but mediocre
a bit boring in a drum machine kind of way
fun though
a little bit pathetic at points, cute
satisfying closer

They used up all their creativity when they made Take On Me. Unfortunately they should have left some for the rest of the album too

3 ⭐️

I only knew "Take me on" and "The Sun always Shines on TV" from a-ha. They're absolute bangers, so I don't know why I never checked the rest of their music. I should have, because synth-pop is always a pleasure to hear and this album is pretty lit. The titular song, "Hunting High and Low", is the one that surprised me the most. It has an unexpected depth, both lyrically and musically, with that whole orchestra near the end. "I dream myself alive" is also incredible. Not all the songs reach those heights, but they're still very entertaining, and make you want to dance.

OK I didn't see this coming. I knew I would have a fabulous time listening to Take On Me, but I think I love this whole album? The Sun Always Shines on TV is about to hit heavy rotation here.

A-ha should’ve been much bigger than a one hit wonder. Though Take On Me is good enough that their place in history is already pretty well established

Favorite track(s): Take On Me, Hunting High and Low, The Sun Always Shines on T.V.

dobar album, načelno »take on me« u obliku albuma, fakat nije loš, ali nedostaje mi nešto za ocjenu više

"Take on Me" is obviously the jewel in the crown here, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of what this album had to offer. It's a shame that it very much suffers from the one-hit wonder curse in the public consciousness, as it's a high-quality 80s synth pop package across its running time.

Beneath its glossy exterior lies a surprising amount of musical depth, dramatic flair and classical undercurrents, particularly on numbers such as "The Sun Always Shines on TV" which functions as an epic, operatic counterweight during the album's mid-section. You then have the title track which offers some welcome respite and tenderness.

The production is perhaps lacking a touch of grit to lend some of these songs the full-bodied muscularity they deserve, but the songs are 100% there and emotionally resonant. I'd absolutely purchase this.

"Take On Me" was a hit, and I think it is indeed a good song. However, I'm not a big fan of this genre, and I find the rest of the album not that good. Starting the album with such a big hit is not the best idea (unless you are Dylan, and can contine with almost equally good tracks).

Overall, it is good, but I don't find it very interesting. So, 3 stars.

Apart from "Take On Me", I also enjoyed: "Train of Thought" (the first section of the song reminds me a bit of Bowie...and that's always a positive), "Hunting High And Low", "The Sun Always Shines On TV", or "Here I Stand And Face The Rain".

There's Take On Me, and then there's a lot of things I'd never heard because they're quite average.

There's that one good song and a bunch of covers

Starts SO high

Decent 80s pop even beyond the first track.

a-ha are pretty much remembered for one song - or rather one song's music video - and the good news is that it's here.

Even better, it's the first track on the album, so listen to it, then switch off and you can say you've heard the band's greatest hits.

A lot of fluff, dressed to kill in some computer console synths, the most 80s drum sound you'll hear outside of a Human League record and the sort of pre-teen friendly angst driven falsetto vocals that were the rage at the time and, as an added bonus, a jaw line that could slice bread.

Really does not need to be remembered.

My hopes were high on seeing this and ‘Take on Me’ is a great opener. Track two wasn’t for me, but i was safe with track three i thought as i vaguely remember‘Hunting High and Low’ from my youth. Turns out i was wrong and sounded as dated and crap as the track before it.
Other than ‘The Sun always shines on tv’ the rest of the album is just dated pap.

It's another album to add to the list of records where the most famous track is up first. It always seems like a brave strategy: would it pay off this time?

Take On Me is great, and inextricably liked to the Reel Big Fish ska cover version in my head, which takes a cheesy song and makes it cheesier in ways which I enjoy. The original is just a perfect 80s pop song, though I do have a sneaking suspicion that it's music video really cemented its fame.

Train of Thought was instantly a downgrade because it added the 80's synth pan pipes which, even for this cheese lover, is TOO MUCH. The bones of the song were ok but Morten Harket sounded like Morrissey at points (so I didn't like it).

Hunting High and Low I quite liked. The Blue Sky was a bit Depeche Mode in backing music if not vocal. Living a Boy's Tale was back to sounding a bit Morrissey if he were synth-pop. The Sun Always Shines on TV I recognised and can see why in got to number 1 in the UK in the mid-80s. Its very much the type of thing that was popular. Take On Me is still superior though.

And You Tell Me was dull. Love Is Reason was very Stock, Aitken and Waterman due to the synths and being extremely repetitive despite being so short. I Dream Myself Alive: ditto. I had sort of run out of enthusiasm by the time Here I Stand And Face The Rain came around, but I do like how the backing vocals swell towards the end.

Yep, it was all downhill after Take On Me. It's going to scrape a 2 from me, because I think there's the bones of a much better album hidden under the production and 80s synths.

2/5

P.S. There's a super deluxe version of this album that's 3 hours 54 minutes long and its existence is baffling to me.

Oh that 80s sound and I loved their videos (I want my mtv!)