Analogue

by

a-ha

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With their 8th studio album, a-ha has come up with something that will both surprise and reassure long-time fans. Three of the first 4 tracks sound like nothing the band has ever done. The sensual urgency of "Celice" and "Don't Do Me Any Favours" is underscored with driving guitars. . .something different indeed for the keyboard-driven pop stars. The title track rocks in a similar vein as well. These changes may be a bit jarring at first for fans, but they are a great opening statement.

Things settle down with the lovely "Birthright" and "Holyland", the latter of which has quickly become my favorite track on the album. The a-ha we know and love is back in place throughout the rest of the album, with Morten Harkett in fine vocal form with the heartfelt material. This latter half has much in common with the LIFELINES album, which is not a bad thing at all.

ANALOGUE does occasionally bog down in the middle, with the lukewarm "Over the Treetops," and the lenghty "Halfway Through the Tour" and its sleepy final 3 minutes of instrumentation. It's epic length without epic strength.

Still, there's much to recommend here, and a-ha fans are sure to enjoy it. If you're new to the band (or just rediscovering them), I'd recommend you first get their 2000 masterpiece, MINOR EARTH MAJOR SKY. But ANALOGUE is a fine addition to their catalogue, and hopefully one that will bring them continued international success.

I've been listening to A-ha for 19 years straight. I love them. I was able to see them play in New York City. I had hopes of another album I could listen to for years, like most of the others. But not this one. It's sorta boring. No melodies to hang onto, just sort of endless loop of kind indistinct songs. After listening to the album about 15 times, those songs that interest me most are Celice and Cosy Prison, but I was kind of bored with Celice even before the cd came out. The rest of the cd got me back into that song. that's not good. There are probably another one or 2 that have a distinct melody and that I enjoy listening too, but none that i look forward to. The rest are just..let's see, how to desribe. Sort of bland run throughs of someones first album. But not theirs. Because their firsts were great. Some good lyrics here, but not great, just good. Definitely some good lyrics on Cosy Prison. These guys are way more dark than one would think, as any fan of them knows, just another plus. But for the most part of this album, I'm just not impressed. Maybe I'll come to like it more a little later, but I doubt by much. But then again, I'm a fan of what some might call "catchy tunes". But I like all the other a-ha stuff, I find about 90% of them pretty catchy. I'm going to put this cd aside for now. I can't believe this got 4.5 stars. That's funny.