a-ha - Stay on These Roads

Very Nice

There are songs in the album I like to skip (You are the One and Touchy, too pop) but then again there are songs I want to listen to over and over (Stay on these Roads, Out of Blue Comes Green, These Alone is Love). Morten's voice as usual is very powerful and you wonder what else he cannot sing. Overall, the album is worth buying. August 7, 2008

"The living daylights"

This is a great addition to the first 2 A-ha albums. I love the James Bond "The living daylights" pop version on this album a lot more than the movies'. I can listen to this kick a*ss tune over and over again and never get tired. The only reason I don't give "Stay on these roads" 5 stars is because Their first album "Hunting high and low" gets my 5 stars. "The living daylights" and "Stay on these roads" are the highlights of this album.
Two thumbs up for the Norwegian "Pretty boys" :) December 1, 2005

AAAA- ha , we shall meet agaaain.....

I built this review title from the title song where it says: " stay on these roads, we shall meet , I know..."
This is the first entire A-ha album (1988)I listened in my life. I bought its LP only for 86 american dollar cents nearly (calculated from the brazilian money) this week. Luckily, this record was well preserved.
It was far from being a waste of time: Despite the weaker tracks,this one has very few mistakes, enough to be considered masterpiece.
Looking at the sleeve,we can see that this norwegian trio had the appearance of a " boy band" like Backstreet Boys or New Kids on the Block. But they don't all that chorographies or playbacks as typical group of this genre.
A-ha proved it: this cd has lots of keyboards (this habit makes me remember Roxette), soft and enjoyable vocals in addition , many beautiful melodies ( on tracks 2, 1 ,6 ,7 and 8).

It may attract you: tracks 1, 3 and 9 were radio friendly. I used to listen them when I was a child without knowing what A-ha was.
In Hurry Home,the topic is a woman that doesn't earn money sufficiently coming back home after a hard day's work. This track is good too. Touchy! (the only song with a guitar solo that made me remember David Murray's style, from Iron Maiden)and You are the one are typical love themes talking about attraction, fascination.

Tracks 6 and 7 (some vocals made me remind Ice House, who sing a piece called No promises, an 80's hit)are pretty good for relaxing. I liked track 7 so much that I repeated it several times (very sweet and elegant).

The songs that have more "filler" attributes are You'll end up crying and This alone is love ( however,I like the chorus. The band used the musical note rise in the end, just like Stratovarius in "The kiss of judas" ,the Bee Gees in "You win again", Garbage in "Run baby run" etc.)

Yeah, like I said in the title: A-ha ,we shall meet again in other album. You convinced me.


September 11, 2005

James Bond, nostalgia, and love songs

One of my three favorite a-ha CD's! The other two are "Hunting High and Low" & "Scoundrel Days." At any rate, the up-tempo highlight of this CD is the James Bond theme, "The Living Daylights". I was so disappointed that the film makers used a different rendition of this song for the movie - the one on the CD is a MUCH better version, hands down! The two slow songs, "This Alone is Love" and "There's Never a Forever Thing" are absolutely beautiful, in my opinion - wonderful vocal range for Morten Harket. The rest of the songs don't shine as much as these three, but they are all wonderful.

I have all the a-ha CD's and while their newer music includes some wonderful songs, the older CD's, as a whole, hold more interest for me - maybe it's because they make me feel nostalgic and take me back to the end of my high school days. Who knows, but one thing's certain: a-ha's music is a refreshing breath of fresh air in these times of spoiled teenage pop divas who only shake their "assets" and haven't a lick of musical talent, and profanity-laced, roaring guitar rock (not that I don't like some of that stuff, but whenever I want to chill and get a little musical perspective, a-ha ends up in my player). September 11, 2005

A good album but nowhere near my favorite.

This is a good CD, and there are some very solid tracks on it.

I don't think that the overall album is as good as their "Hunting High and Low" album (if you have not already, you should definitely pick that one up).

The vocals are great, and there is some musical depth that was not heard on the aforementioned album. Still, the songs are less catchy, the flow from one to another could be better (random play seems to be an improvement in most cases), and the album as a whole is just not that cohesive.

Although you will not regret picking this one up, it is not likely to make the list of your favorites. August 21, 2005

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