Hunting High and Low

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.

Take on me is one of the most iconic pop songs of all time. But the rest of the album is far less iconic, haha. Or should I say a-ha?

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!)

A solid pop album with a couple of killer singles.

That was the album everyone listened to when I was in my twenties. I thought the hits on the album were pretty nice, but a bit too saccharine. I did listen to the rest of it once, but I found it boring. Nothing has changed in that regard. 3/5

Mehr 80er geht nicht. Sun always shines on TV ist der bessere Banger als Take on Me

Ohhh look a drum machine and a synth sitting in the side of the road, should we make the biggest hit of the decade? Look, Take on Me is the song of the 80s, but the rest of the album is pretty uninspired and sappy. Pretty clear why ppl see them as a one hit wonder.

Nothing speaks Eighties to me like this album! I also have a very vivid memory of listening to Take on Me on a bus back from the mountains after an intense day on the slopes while eating a delicious orange that probably saved me from dehydration ahahahaha

I’m at a 5.

As most people do, at least in America, I only knew “Take On Me” going into this. It is perhaps the most ubiquitous synthpop song ever written, and maybe the defining track of the genre in terms of popularity & all the common soundscape tropes that people tend to think of. It’s a catchy track & kind of an all-timer, really.

It is not the best track on this album. The best track on this album is the other hit U.S. single, “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”. The second best track on this album is “Hunting High & Low”. The third best track is “Take On Me”, and past that, the other 7 tracks here all hold up in their own consistently strong ways. I really don’t think there’s a bad track here; maybe one stagnant one (Love Is Reason) & one slightly too abstract one (I Dream Myself Alive), but I still enjoyed those tracks. For a band that a lot of people would cite as a one-hit wonder, I’m pleasantly surprised that this entire album holds up as well as it does. It is timelocked to 1985 in terms of its soundscape & production style, but given that it has a quintessential example of its genre as its opener, I think that honestly works in this album’s favor.

That consistency applies to the actual topics of all of these tracks; every song here is a love track, generally talking about the desire to not be lonely anymore, whether it’s in lusty ways, devoted ways, or empathy-inducing ways. You could genuinely argue there’s a narrative of a chase for a woman featured throughout the album, fulfilled by the end where he’s just sort of given up & is simply begging for a friend to help him get out of his loneliness-induced slump. I don’t think this was intended as a concept album, but the track order leans that way regardless, along with the consistent theming of water as a negative aspect in each track. Just pay attention to the lyrics; it’s always the sea, or rain, or something else.

For some people, this album only being tracks that yearn for connection might be a knock against it, and that’s sort of valid… but it undermines the atmosphere created by each track. The production work, while timelocked to 1985, holds up very well in an almost Kate Bush-esque sense. Every track feels distinct despite sharing a lot of instruments, and it’s because of the dynamic instrumentation lifting up & down in a way that stays engaging. The same album with “Take On Me” somehow has two tracks that feel like they could fit into a Castlevania game instrumentally in “The Blue Sky” & “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”, and I just think that’s super cool.

Hence, a 5. Hell, possibly a little higher than a 5. I really am impressed, and this far exceeded the expectations I had behind the ‘one-hit wonder’ label given to a-ha. Granted, a-ha did one of my favorite Bond themes ever in “The Living Daylights”, so I guess I should’ve known they had this in their bag. I’m glad it’s on the list, and I do think it’s an album people should hear before they die. A very, very strong 37 minutes, and an easy 5 for me. That’s just textbook synthpop.

Cool.

Starts with the banging "Take On Me" which is probably the peak of the album and, as I've noted before, I struggle with albums who blow their creative load right off the bat.

"Take on Me" is one of the greatest songs ever and single-handedly brings this up several notches. The rest of the album is all pleasant, but I would not consider this quintessential new wave listening.

Surprised the rating for this one isn't higher tbh

This is what the real 80’s sounded like. You may think us teens were listening to cool and moody Smiths and Joy Division albums. And we were but turn on the radio during the day or watch a music tv show (there was no MTV back then). It was wall to wall garbage like this.

Or watch some horrid American movie starring Michael J Fox or Tom Cruise and there’d be a scene of them running or skateboarding or just being arrogant and drum beats and synth stabs would accompany them while Huey Lewis or Simon Le Bon or Morten Harket butchered meaningless lyrics.

I had forgotten what a half-assed rotten singer aha had. Garbles every line then goes falsetto for now reason.

The hits - Take on Me, Sun Shines on TV are as excruciating as I recall them. But there’s a real drop off from the hits to the rest of the tracks. Do you remember the Most Mysterious Song On the Internet? A song so unloved it go one play on German radio then forgotten, well it sounds like an Aha filler track.

It's a shame it starts with Take On Me. Although it has some great songs, it just loses its momentum. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good record, I have no bad comment about it. All the songs are fun.

Imagine listening to an a-ha song other than Take On Me. Like I know people also like the sun always shines on TV but actually shut up. Who cares about this album?? Well... It's obviously not worthless. The synth tones are really quite incredible across the whole project, and Morton Harket is an exemplary performer. Take On Me is also the first song, so I'll talk a little bit more about it. Take On Me is a perfect song. We all know it. It has infinite value and worth as a song and piece of art, as well as a Pop culture moment, and even has a simply legendary music video to its name as well. It's one of the best songs anyone will ever hear. And then the other songs on side 1 are pretty great too!! This brand of synthpop will never truly be my thing, I actually happen to really despise the 80s aesthetic as a whole, unless the songs are actually really great, but this is respectable for sure. Train of Thought has an incredible Harket performance, the title track feels like the lite version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," which really isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Blue Sky isn't too bad either, and I adore the synths and vocals on Living A Boy's Adventure Tale, even if the falsetto at the end is a little bit grating at times. Side 2 starts with another pretty awesome song, that being The Sun Always Shines on TV, which, well, it’s no Take On Me, but it’s still an absolutely breathtaking song. A driving instrumental, some of the best vocals on the album (and that’s REALLY saying something for this album) and just a great song all around. And that quality (despite the comparatively dismal track ratings on rateyourmusic.com) keeps up across the second side too. The only real objection I have is I Dream Myself Alive, which has some drum tones that are a little bit more disagreeable than on the rest of the album, but it's not necessarily bad or anything. This is a pretty fun album, and even though I definitely wouldn't buy it, I would recommend it! I got a good deal out of this, even if it's not my preferred style of music.
8.0/10

One of the 80s most distinctive voices., paired with a strong bass and haunting synths … what Morten could you ask for … a fair bit more .

Great 80 s pop album that is unfortunately a little forgettable.