The Singles: 1984-2004

by

a-ha

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I do not give 5 stars to this CD, 5 stars go to the tremendously talented trio from Norway that have survived decades of changing musical styles, trends and genres and stayed true to high quality songwriting, touching and moving melodies, producing a multitude of hits in many countries, and building a huge fanbase and legacy for themselves. To think that some look at A-Ha as a one-hit onder! I will let those listen to Britney and Clay Aiken and encourage others to build an A-ha collection.

I do not need this Greatest Hits album, because I have all of their CDs, from synth-pop oriented light-hearted Hunting High and Low to most recent and quite dramatic soft-rock masterpiece Lifelines. This is their second hits collection after early 90's Headlines and Deadlines. It goes along with similar recent releases from other 80s pop legends like Erasure and Pet Shop Boys who also started around the same time and had their first "greatest hits" released around the same time. For either band, the second collection does not add whole lot to the first one. They all had more hits in their early years, mid 80s, and you can find 3-4 songs from each of the earlier albums on this one, while more recent albums are less represented. Which does not mean their music quality declined as years went by, and that is particularly true about A-ha. The trio split up in early 90s after their fifth album Memorial Beach, but only to amaze their fans and make new fans with their last two strong and beautiful comeback albums Minor Earth Major Sky and Lifelines (neither of which saw a US release, very unfortunately). If you do not have any A-ha albums, you can get this one for a fair overview of their career, but, believe me, you will miss a lot of excellent songs that were not necessarily hits but deserve attention from anyone who appreciates good music. There are 7 albums out there, and if you find budget-priced used ones, combined they may cost you just as much as a new copy of this import collection. Whatever the price, you will not regret.

Here's a review of

25: The Very Best of a-ha (Audio CD)

This is a great representation of what this band has done, much much more than their singles. It's even more well thought out than Floyd's Echoes. The 2nd cd shows some flaws though since their singles from 93-10 were mostly poor, the album songs are better. It's not enough for hardcore and future a-ha fans who will also want to pick up the other songs (a 3rd cd would have gotten about all of those onto the collection as well). What can I say, some of the best songwriting, melodies I've ever heard, with one of the most truly unique singers in all history, 5 octave voice like Freddie Mercury blah blah... but it's all true. They are huge atleast in South America and among Coldplay, U2, Leonard Cohen etc... so atleast there are those people out there that appreciate good music whether or not the music press has alerted them to it. Highly recommended - great introduction to one of the most truly great bands ever.

Personally I'd pick up the albums instead:

Scoundrel Days

East of the Sun West of the Moon

Memorial Beach

Analouge

Minor Earth, Major sky

Hunting high and low

And check out both these now commercially unavailable concerts on youtube, they're incredible.

Live in South America 1991

Live in South Africa 1994