First came the mighty Take That (well, four of them); next we have rumours of the Spice Girls - the comeback trail is looking mighty busy these days so it’s not that surprising to discover that Norway’s finest and most gorgeous, a-ha, are back.
After a three and half year break since their last studio album, Lifelines, they return with an album which will banish any pre-conceived ideas that Morten, Magne and Paul might solely be trading of old glories.
Analogue is very much a modern pop album with epic intentions, which draws on their past work but imaginatively breaks new ground.
The album gets off to a roaring start with future single ‘Celice’, which is taken from the soundtrack for the eagerly awaited movie version of bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. This song sets the pace and style for the album, bursting with a well-crafted pop sensibility, yet suggesting darker undertones. Leagues ahead of their most famous film soundtrack contribution, the limp theme to the Bond flick The Living Daylights, ‘Celice’ has an elegant froideur that raises the band well above their bubblegum roots.
It’s interesting to think that a-ha have been quoted as being a major influence to some of today’s top selling pop artists, such as Coldplay and Keane. In Analogue, a-ha have created an album in which they return the favour by drawing on influences from these very bands.
Piano ballads, such the epic ‘Birthright’, the melancholic ‘The Summers of Our Youth’ and the band’s own favourite ‘Cosy Prison’, can easily be imagined sung with the same passion and high vocal range by Chris Martin as Morten’s familiar chorister’s falsetto.
The autobiographical and ambitious ‘Halfway Through The Tour’ is reminiscent of an energetic Keane song with a breathless Honky Tonk piano creating the percussive drive to the track; however it ends contrastingly with a surprise coda, which could be taken directly from the murky, disconcerting milieu of an Angelo Badalamenti soundtrack.
The sheer range of influences behind this album proves that Analogue is no one trick pony. ‘Over the Treetops’ is a retro hippy trip with nature-inspired lyrics, acoustic guitars, strings and the all-important tambourine – it’s a flower power anthem for those too young to know Scott McKenzie’s ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers in Your Hair)’!
The 60’s vibe resonates in ‘Keeper of The Flame’ not least through the McCartney-style vocalisations and continues in the opening of the laid-back ‘White Dwarf’, which boasts a guitar riff that would do Hank Marvin proud.
However, instead of creating a potentially distracting album of extreme contrasts, the end result is a mature, musically confident diverse work whilst still being a recognisable a-ha album.
‘Holy Ground’ appears as a pared back, understated take on their 1988 smash, ‘Stay on These Roads’ and whilst nothing has the immediacy of a ‘Take On Me’, similarly nothing is as disposable as their early hits.
Far from aping the sound of other contemporary artists in order to create a relevant contemporary piece, maybe it’s a-ha’s ability to evolve and experiment that makes Analogue such a modern success. This would also explain why a-ha are still going strong a staggering 25 years after their animated counterparts jumped out of the mirror in that landmark video.
Morten and the boys can still cause hearts to throb, but this time around they’ll be seducing your ears too.
Originally published 26 January 2006
This one still gets regular plays from me...if anything I think my review underestimated how good the album is
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