A-HA – "The Sun Always Shines On TV"

Crazy that ‘Take on Me’ didn’t hit the #1 spot, didn’t remember that until now.

vocals words choon. love everything.

“oo did you know that take on me didn’t get to number 1, but sun always shines did?” YES I DID COS IT’S MILES BETTER FOO’

ahem.

were there other cuts of this video? i remember all the dutotone church bits, but have no recollection at all of the ‘remember the last song’ intro at all!

Well I’d give it a 9, I’ve always enjoyed it a little bit more than ‘Take On Me’. If only the video could’ve matched up (well, it does at the start).

Train Of Thought video features more of the same ‘rotoscope’ animation and b/w performance. plus unconvincing pan-pipe mime playing.

The unexpected salvation of New Pop, Part 2: just as Abba were distant but knowledgeable enough to salvage a priceless jewel from the sinking ship of glam, so did Norway’s a-ha, practically by accident, discovered a hitherto completely unexplored perspective on post-Joy Division pop – more or less by returning to the tortuous subject matter of Joy Division’s songs. “Take On Me,” an American number one in 1985 and only kept off the top in Britain by Jennifer Rush’s blockbuster, seemed to me at the time – even before seeing its remarkable real life/fantasy-blurring video – like an important response to at least one post-New Pop dilemma. Whereas Tears For Fears merely whined and bleated about their self-imposed hardships, and consequently could not drive out of the listener’s head the spectre of two well-off middle-class lads from Bath who were playing with insecurity rather than living it, a-ha realised that wanting deliverance can only be achieved by an equal willingness to give deliverance to others. Thus “Take On Me” is in every way the antithesis of the bluster of “I’m Your Man” – Tony Mansfield’s initial production placed it firmly in the 1980 pop spectrum, but Alan Tarney’s canny remix and additional arrangement (with its slight nod to “Television/Satellite” by Sophie and Peter Johnston) gave it an autumnal New Pop sheen, Morten Harket’s vocal sounding simultaneously more hurt and more generous.

“The Sun Always Shines On TV” played with this dichotomy further. The video followed directly on from that of “Take On Me”; after an initial embrace, Harket begins to turn back into an animated cartoon character, and so the struggle between idealism and cold rationalism is further investigated. The clear debt that the song’s intro bears to “Video Killed The Radio Star” is surely not accidental, and nor is Harket’s plaintive but authoritative “touch me.” Then the layers of tension build up to the point of bursting – in their way also signalling the second Pet Shop Boys number one – before drums and guitar suddenly blast off within a shimmering cavern of hymnal keyboards and a motif which seems to have strayed from the closing moments of Laurie Anderson’s “Big Science.”

Over this post-Spectorian spectre Harket sings thoughts which wouldn’t have been out of Ian Curtis’ place – “I reached inside myself/And found nothing there,” or “Please don’t ask me to defend/The shameful lowlands/Of the way I’m drifting/Gloomily through time,” with each agony responded to by a majestic chord change (over the “Oh-oh-oh-oh”s). Already he is worried about getting old and losing his sanity – “I fear the crazed and lonely looks/The mirror’s sending me these days” – but instead of wallowing in it, he cries out with the regal chorus to bolster him: “Touch me!” “Believe me!” “Hold me!”

As a cry for liberation from loneliness this song is practically on the other side of the pop world of early 1986 – note the final, humming pause before the arcades of electronica majestically rise once more to light the way out of Cupid’s benighted cave; this is a bigness which we can inhabit and accept. Harket’s climactic “Give all your love to me – TO ME!” is as exhilarating a catharsis as Rush’s final “love,” and the music rises perfectly to climax with him, leaving a long slow rubato ending; the message is out there, but who will open the bottle? It is a magnificent and gracious pop record, and even if only for a couple of years, we were lucky to have them.

I thought this charted lower in the U.S., but it peaked at #20. A decent enough followup. An 8 is too high but a 6 or 7 will do.

And it’s yet another song that I didn’t remember. The only A-ha song I’ve ever known (and possibly loved) is “Take on Me”. Well, that and – to a lesser extent – “The Living Daylights”. I’m well aware that they were no one hit wonder; I just never paid any attention to them. One thing i do remember from my childhood is that they were a perfect example of a band “for girls” – a lot of the discussion among fans seemed to center on Morten Harket’s looks.

So I didn’t really have any expectations, and the intro appeared to confirm my worst suspicions. Tween idols follow up fun, energetic single with a sappy ballad – great. And then the song proper started. I think that was the biggest jaw-dropping experience I’ve had for quite a while. There’s just so much going on in the song, and just about all of it is good. The heavily processed guitar, the keyboard line, the strings… and the rhythm track – I notice that “grandiose clatter” has already been spoken for.

The neat continuity between the videos of “Take on Me” and this has already been mentioned, of course. But a moment of true brilliance is the way that the spinning letters of the “a-ha” logo fall into place perfectly in time with the piano notes. It’s a simple trick, but it really builds up the tension in a very effective way.

Oh, and by the way – the notion of “nordic seriousness” actually had me chuckling. The stereotypical Swedish view of Norwegians is that they are a jolly band of naive half-wits, to the extent that the idea of a serious Norwegian is rather amusing (Ibsen, Hamsun, Munch et al notwithstanding). 🙂

SwedenWatch: #2, cut off by Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me”. It did reach #1 on the Tracks chart though. Which makes me think I ought to have remembered it, but apparently not.

This song represents an end of sorts to the first part of my Popular journey, because a-ha were the last great shared moment of my brother’s and my exploration of pop music. From about 1980 through to 1985 we had exchanged musical ideas and influences, but in 1984-1985 I developed obsessions of my own, and once I went to university our musical paths diverged almost completely. A-ha was our last hurrah: my brother bought their first two albums, I taped them off him, and both of us reckoned that these guys had the goods.

“Take On Me” was their number one in Australia, but I’m glad we’re not talking about the obvious hit here. It seemed to become a millstone for the band, the “Creep” that they never overcame by releasing their own The Bends. And I mean that to be ambiguous, because they too released a second album that left their first in the shade. Scoundrel Days was a 1980s pop masterpiece, full of momentous synth-pop songs fused subtly with rock, and its impact was greater than it first seemed; but more on that in a moment.

Hunting High and Low, their first album, was in hindsight a less-satisfying draft, although it also had some great songs: the title track, “Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale”, and of course the first two singles. But its more straightforward synth-pop moments lost those songs’ distinctive charm, playing down Morten Harket’s epic vocals for something cosier and cuter, reinforcing the pretty-boy image he later found so constraining.

And what a pretty boy he was, and what a handsome man he still is; even the straightest, Aussiest teenage male could recognise that. Harket’s looks went beyond cause for jealousy or scorn to cause for wonder that here was such an amazing natural specimen. Would we have thought the same if he were American, or British? We certainly wouldn’t have if he were Australian. Here was one way that a-ha’s Norwegian heritage made them stand out.

Harket’s vocals were another, and they were rarely used to better effect than on this, my favourite track from their debut. “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” was a blueprint for Scoundrel Days, a much stronger showcase for their epic synth-rock fusion sound than “Take on Me”. I’ve been re-listening to both albums in their entirety, and besides their obvious “80s-ness”, what’s striking is how skilfully those dated sounds are worked into their overall texture, rarely outstaying their welcome. “The Sun Always Shines” is a good example; this is no simple pop song, but a complex, growing creature; not quite their “Paranoid Android”, but getting there.

The lyrics also show a Scandinavian complexity in their use of phrases that native English speakers would never have chosen – although certain other bands had shown that was no barrier to pop greatness. The verses of “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” capture the inward Nordic gaze beautifully, full of worry and gloom and fretfulness, and then contrast it with the joyous chorus and that title phrase. How much less striking this would be if they’d called it “Touch Me” or “Hold Me” (paging Samantha Fox and the Thompson Twins…).

Its most wistful aspect isn’t in the lyrics, though, but in the knowledge that it didn’t lead to world domination for a-ha. Yes, there were Bond themes and other lesser hits ahead, and there were break-ups and comebacks and now a final retirement looming; but a-ha should have been bigger. Much bigger. Their nine albums should be familiar to more than just a dedicated fanbase; and I say that as someone who owns only three. I kept meaning to explore further, but never quite overcame the illogical sense that if they were worthwhile I’d have heard more of them. Maybe this revisiting will give me the necessary nudge. It at least prompted me to check out their swansong, Foot of the Mountain, which I would recommend to anyone who loves the first two albums, and which in turn made me reflect on where a-ha fits in the bigger scheme of things.

In the early 2000s everyone was commenting on the Radiohead “clones”, the Coldplays and Muses and Keanes, and just as it was obvious that Radiohead was only one of Muse’s influences (a healthy dose of Queen being another), it was clear that many of Coldplay’s and Keane’s roots lay elsewhere. Chris Martin has since revealed himself to be a big a-ha fan, and if the Keane connection wasn’t obvious before, Foot of the Mountain certainly makes it so; the album it most closely resembles is Under the Iron Sea, which also happens to be the one that sold me on Keane. So a big part of the UK’s musical landscape of the 2000s owes a debt to a-ha; and not only the UK: in Norway, their influence can be heard in the work of Röyksopp and Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience/Whitest Boy Alive). A-ha’s “retro” album feels like a reclamation of territory that was rightfully theirs, not that it will ever sell as much as Coldplay do on a bad day.

But I digress. A lot. I’m writing this before I’ve seen Tom’s review, half out of fear that he’s going to give the song 6, or 2, or anything less than 8, and I want to get this all down before my thoughts turn to the defensive. When Foot of the Mountain came out it was met with exasperating coverage from some of the UK press (though to be fair, not all), which continued through their retirement announcement (what’s your game, Grauniad?), and even though my own exposure to their music isn’t much more than those journalists’, I feel the need to proclaim how excellent they were, and to wonder if we missed sight of other equally grand vistas along the way, hidden by these early peaks. A-ha looked to most people like Mt Fuji, but maybe they were the Himalayas. Whether it was the synths, the good looks, or even their band name, we let ourselves be distracted by their surfaces and dismiss a band that was so much more than a one- or two-hit wonder.

So, a final verdict. I’d find it hard to pick between “Manhattan Skyline” and “Weight of the Wind” for best a-ha song ever, but this is right up there with them, and it’s a credit to U.K. pop buyers that you made it your number one. “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” is a song I could listen to endlessly, and very definitely a personal 10.

I went back and forth about whether to give “West End Girls” a 10 when I knew that this would be getting one; the clincher was that “West End Girls” is a very occasional listen for me nowadays, with more nostalgic overtones, but I still listen to this fairly often after all these years.

Morten’s a perfect frontman, so it’s curious that I know nothing about him – except that he holds the record for the longest-held note on any hit single (in ‘Summer Moved On’ – a fact I was delighted to find out in the course of researching a previous post here, on ‘Woman In Love’).

#22 I think that’s exactly how he wants it Izzy. I remember hearing Summer Moved On which was their comeback single on Richard Allison’s R2 show (what happened to him ?) in the car in 2000 and thinking this is good but not being able to place the voice.

#25 Top tracks from those two “Oranges And Appletrees” and “Celice” respectively.”Stay On These Roads” is their weakest album; the only one where the singles are clearly the best tracks.

It’s good – for me not quite as good as some people on here think, by gum it has some passionate supporters – but certainly a cut above most of the opposition. The sumptuous keyboard sound that takes you into the last minute or so is a highlight. Great video too, with the Bonnie Tyler gothic elements all in place. But did anyone else think that “Channel 3” logo looked oddly like a graphic of a cock and balls, or is that just my cesspit mind? (And bloody hell Lex, the last thing “Take On Me” is is “galumphing or clodhopping” – pleasingly light on its feet, that one.)

Having only just moved to That London, and not having been to teen heart-throb type gigs in Manchester, I had my first exposure to en-masse screaming teenage girls early in 1986, heading back down Piccadilly from work. a-Ha were in, I dunno, a hotel or record company office on one side of the street, and a couple of hundred teens across the street were chanting “WE WANT A-HA!”. With that kind of support and the quality of their music you’d have thought they’d have been a bigger name for longer.

Another associated memory is of a spoof on “Radio Active”, the radio show that introduced Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins to a wider audience. Every week they’d spoof a different band (as they had with the HeeBeeGeeBees), and the one they did on “M-Hm” was quite effective:
“It is a fact that in the history of the world this is the longest opening line of any song – hnnn-hnnnn
And it’s a fact this line is even longer than the one before and ends with the same peculiar noise – hnnn-hnnnn
Blimey, here we are live on BBC
Bless me, while our video’s on ITV
Belive me, we’re on Channel 4 in a bit
Dear me, TV today is such shi……..”

Number 2 Watch – a week each for Dire Straits’ OK but treading-water “Walk Of Life” and – wtf? – Nana Mouskouri’s “Only Love”.

A-Ha. Why have this band been so hard done by? They should have been bigger than ABBA. They had the haircuts, the cheekbones and most importantly, the songs. “Take On Me” was as good a debut as any band’s 1st single. A worldwide smash, that was the perfect vehicle for Morten’s incredible voice.
Their follow up highlights the emotional intensity of Pal’s songwriting, presnting Nordic angst against a glacial Wall Of Sound backdrop.
A-Ha act as a signpost from where we’ve been and to where we are going. In this song, the strands of Synthpop, Stadium Rock and Europop are woven together, to create a lush cloth of possibilities. There’s no mistaking these guys are on a journey and the whole world is invited. So why then, did the UK not wholeheartedly jump on board in the same way we had done with ABBA over a decade before?
This band…these 3 lads will sell out their slot in Rock In Rio six years hence to 180,000 people, the largest live audience for any band in history. Even the Rolling Stones couldn’t achieve that single audience, and they’ve been seen by nearly the whole planet.
The suggestion is that Morten’s lack of openness in interviews meant that British pop kids couldn’t connect with the band in the way they have done with their Synthpop predecessors. A mistake then?
We do love our frontmen to confess, to lay their souls bare. Not always in music and not always in trite, superficial interviews, but we need SOMETHING to identify with them. Pal cites Depeche Mode as an influence and their musical journeys from Synthpop to Rock are similar. What differs is our knowledge of Gahan’s personal demons. What do we know of Morten’s demons? His beautiful face is as blank now as it was when it was rotoscoped in the “Take On Me” vid.
Their music is some of the best 80’s pop you’ll hear, but beyond that voice…?

Interesting to note, of course, that this year’s “Foot of the Mountain” opened at #5 on the UK album charts, which seemed like a happy surprise to everyone.

Well, at least I’m happy in my little padded pop cell. I’d reverse your ranking without a second thought. And, if you want to bring up OMD, I’d pick “Maid of Orleans” above “Mamma Mia” any day. Seriously. Consistency is overrated anyway.

There’s been some talk of millstones and albatrosses here lately – that’s ABBA to me. There’s just too much baggage. ABBA is the band that my (much, much older) sister likes. She who lives in a nice house in the suburbs, with two kids, a dog (well, they had one, but it died), a kitchen renovation every few years, always a gleaming new Volvo in the garage… it’s the perfect, safe, boring, Swedish middle-class dream. I’m probably simply born at just the wrong time, in just the wrong place, but I really find it hard to appreciate them. I can do it, but it takes a lot of willpower and a stark, analytical approach. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of my friends (from roughly the same age group as myself) say a single good word about ABBA. It’s just not done. There is a particular event that made me reconsider them at least partially, but a certain lagomorph prevents me from saying any more about that.

(Don’t pay too much attention to this, as it’s mostly drunken ramblings.)

Checked out a couple of cover versions today.

Atrocity – Black Metal/Operatic Metal band from Norway. The guy sings almost monotone through this, and the girl trills and trills. I can’t think of a more profound vocal mismatch. Other than that, it’s your usual hairswirling, rockstrutting fare.

Milk Inc. – Belgian Trancepop outfit. Somehow all the emotion and power of the original is replaced by banality with a four on the floor beat. In the throes of chemically induced euphoria, this has to be up there with the worst buzzkillers you could possibly find.

Despite all this, both versions are incredibly faithful to the original, like a xerox running out of toner.

So slight. What did I miss?

Swanstep @33 – that’s exactly why I wrote my comment before seeing anyone else’s, because I feared a whole thread of 2’s!

I first heard this song as an album track, so the idea of it being a “follow-up single” as such never really occurred to me.

This is another one like ‘West End Girls’ that could have come from earlier in the decade – rather Duran Durannie as Tom said. Is that a sign that the great British public weren’t quite ready to let New Pop go?

The piano sound at the start is very Scandinavian to me, ABBA used it a lot. It’s sort of chilly and echoey while also sounding like an old pub joanna.

talking of sampling a-ha, recently discovered Lifelike’s ‘Adventure’ which discofies the aforementioned ‘Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale’ with aplomb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DimokKPyeH0

It can’t last, because surely the long-term average will dip down, but right now this is in equal second place with “West End Girls” on the Populist reader top 100, with a 9 average (below long-time champ “I Feel Love” on 9.38). I would never have guessed. Even I wouldn’t rank it above “Dancing Queen” and “Wuthering Heights”! The surprising effects of the groupmind…

Swanstep, I’m just waiting for my own 2-versus-everyone-else’s-9 moment – I’m sure it will come. I felt a bit out-of-step with a few of the 1984-85 hits, and there are stranger days ahead.

TOTPWatch: A-Ha thrice performed ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’ on Top Of The Pops;

January 2 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Levia 42, Bronski Beat and Sophia George. John Peel and Janice Long were the hosts.

January 16 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Fine Young Cannibals, Cherelle & Alexander O’Neal and Mister Mister. Mike Read and Dixie Peach were the hosts.

January 23 1986. Also in the studio that week were; The Alarm and nana Mouskouri. Paul Jordan (who?) and Mike Smith were the hosts.

“…“Sun”’s grandiose clatter reminds you of Duran Duran’s confused commercial peak, only married to a stronger chorus than anything Duran managed post-’82.”

Not “Ordinary World” Tom, – not by a long chalk