This one, like Nik Kershaw and Mr. Mister, might baffle and even disappoint many of my musician friends. But in 1986, I was living alone and not liking it much, and I found solace in – of all things – MTV.
In my defense, these were still the glory days of MTV, with the original VJs – Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, et al – and because the format was new, record companies were pouring hundreds of thousands into superb videos to promote singles. It was worth watching. Most of the time, anyway.
Well, this format opened the door to a new generation of musical artists – pretty European boys who didn’t need lipstick and mascara to look delicate and feminine, like American rockers did. They were also quite tech-savvy, largely eschewing guitars for computers (Duran Duran’s axe-man Andy Taylor being a wailing exception).
Okay, fine. Show me what you got. And A-Ha did.
The trio of Norwegian rockers had me at hello with their synth-heavy, hook-engorged productions - “Take on Me” and “The Sun Always Shines on TV”, from this fresh and surprising album, which garnered them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
The songs were distinctly un-American, in the sense that they had a cultural tinge that was emphatically across-the-pond but not at all British. In close listening, I decided it was a product of Morten Hartek’s vocals: English was his second language, so he formed his words differently than I was used to hearing.
The synth work, which is what I showed up for, showed traces of Thomas Dolby and Toto. The percussion was digital but fierce – aggressive, yet clockwork precise.
“Take on Me” went to #1 in the US, #2 in the UK; “The Sun Always Shine” notched #1 in the UK and made the US Top 20.
But it was their video work that really took them to the top. “Take on Me” was rendered in animated sketches, heavily exploited in MTV rotation; “The Sun Always Shines” pictured the band in a warehouse-like cathedral with a surreal congregation of mannequins.
A-Ha endured in Europe but not in America. I continued to gather up their albums, as by this time I was a rock music critic for the Courier-Journal and was sent copies by the band’s label. And – very happily – my son Trey eventually discovered them, loved them, and gave me a chance to relive those early hits.
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