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a-ha: 25 - The Very Best of a-ha

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: WEA Records
Released: 2010.08.12
Time:
 78:37 / 77:12
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: Double CD
Web address: www.a-ha.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2011.08.01
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


Disc 1
[1] Take On Me - 3:49
[2] The Blue Sky - 2:36
[3] The Sun Always Shines On T.V. - 5:07
[4] Train of Thought (7" Remix) - 4:15
[5] Hunting High and Low (7" Remix) - 3:48
[6] I've Been Losing You - 4:26
[7] Scoundrel Days - 4:00
[8] The Swing of Things - 4:15
[9] Cry Wolf - 4:06
[10] Manhattan Skyline (Edit Version) -  4:21
[11] The Living Daylights - 4:12
[12] Stay On These Roads - 4:46
[13] Touchy! (Uk Dj Edit) - 3:38
[14] There's Never a Forever Thing - 2:51
[15] You Are the One (7" Remix) - 3:50
[16] The Blood That Moves the Body (Two-Time Gun Remix) - 4:08
[17] Crying In the Rain - 4:21
[18] Early Morning - 2:59
[19] Slender Frame - 3:43
[20] I Call Your Name - 4:29

Disc 2
[1] Move To Memphis (Single Version) -  4:17
[2] Dark is the Night For All - 3:45
[3] Cold As Stone - 4:32
[4] Angel In the Snow Edit - 4:07
[5] Shapes That Go Together - 4:14
[6] Summer Moved On - 4:37
[7] Minor Earth Major Sky (Niven's Radio Edit) - 4:02
[8] The Sun Never Shone That Day Edit - 3:31
[9] Velvet - 4:20
[10] Forever Not Yours - 4:06
[11] Lifelines - 4:17
[12] Did Anyone Approach You? - 4:11
[13] Celice - 3:40
[14] Analogue - 3:49
[15] Cosy Prisons Radio Mix - 3:58
[16] Foot of the Mountain - 3:57
[17] Nothing is Keeping You Here (Single Remix) - 3:05
[18] Shadowside (Single Edit)- 3:31
[19] Butterfly, Butterfly (the Last Hurrah) - 4:10

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen - Keyboards, Vocals, Producer
Morten Harket - Vocals, Producer
Pål Waaktaar - Guitar, Vocals, Producer

Ryan Corey - Rendering
Carole King - Composer
John Barry - Composer, Producer
Jason Corsaro - Producer
David Z. - Producer
Howard Greenfield - Composer
Stephen Hague - Producer
Morten Harket - Composer
Dan Hersch - Remastering
John Hudson - Remixing
Rod Hui - Remixing
Bill Inglot - Producer, Remastering
Tony Mansfield - Producer
Christopher Neil - Producer
Roland Spremberg - Producer
Ian Stanley - Producer
Justin Strauss - Remixing, Additional Production
Alan Tarney - Producer, Remixing
Harald Wiik - Management
Magne Furuholmen - Composer, Producer
Jeri Heiden - Art Direction
Niven Garland - Remixing
Dave Schultz - Remastering
Max Martin - Producer
Tore Johansson - Producer
Lauren Savoy - Composer
Stian Andersen - Band Photo
Martin Terefe - Composer, Producer, Additional Production
Martin Landquist - Producer
Michael Ilbert - Producer, Remixing
Glen Nakasako - Art Direction
Kieron Tyler - Liner Notes
George Tandero - Producer
Martin Sandberg - Composer
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy - Composer, Producer, Remixing
Ole Sverre Olsen - Composer
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2010 CD Rhino/Warner Bros. 8122797904



Released to celebrate the band†s 25th anniversary, the double-disc 25: The Very Best of a-ha is not for the casual listener. At 39 tracks, it is quite exhaustive, so anybody thinking that there was no more to the band than Take on Me will likely grow restless, but those fans who have stuck with the band through a quarter century will find this to be a worthy tribute, as it mixes up the expected - Take on Me, The Sun Always Shines on TV, Scoundrel Days, Crying in the Rain - with the unexpected in the form of several exclusive single remixes and DJ edits.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - Rovi All Music Guide


Ein Nachruf -und sei es auch nur ein musikalischer- geschieht fast immer aus wenig erfreulichem Anlass. So auch hier: Nach rund 25 Jahren verabschiedet sich die norwegische Popband a-ha vom Musikbusiness mit einer groß angelegten Welttournee und einem Doppelalbum, das nochmals alle wichtigen musikalischen Stationen miteinander vereint. A-ha 25 bietet mit seinen 38 Tracks eine großartige Retrospektive einer beispiellosen Karriere. Welcher andere Song sollte den Auftakt bilden als “Take On Me", einem Stück, das selbst dieser Tage unter den Händen zweitklassiger Coverbands die Zuhörer auf rätselhafte Weise verjüngt und in Verzückung versetzt? Noch heute klingt es fast so frisch wie damals, während uns der Blick aufs eigene Führerscheinfoto die zuweilen schmerzliche Erfahrung beschert, was eine Zeitspanne von 25 Jahren zu bewirken vermag. Zumindest Morten Harket, Pål Waaktar-Savoy und Magne Furuholmen haben das Vierteljahrhundert erstaunlich unbeschadet überstanden, wie der einzige brandneue, bislang unveröffentlichte Titel “Butterfly, Butterfly“ auf a-ha 25 belegt. In seiner harmonischen, leicht sentimentalen Synthie-Pop-Manier erinnert er an die Anfänge der Band. Dennoch nimmt er im Rahmen des gesamten Œuvres eher den Status eines Abschiedwinkens ein. Der in Klammern gesetzte Zusatz "The Last Hurrah" lässt keine Zweifel an den ernsten Absichten ihres Abschieds aufkommen. Konsequenterweise bildet dieser Song den Abschluss der beiden Silberlinge. Zwischen ihm und dem Opener reihen sich in chronologischer Anordnung die großen Erfolge jener Jahre; auf der ersten CD von den 80er Jahren bis 1990 und auf der zweiten Scheibe schwerpunktmäßig vom Jahr 2000 ausgehend bis heute. Zusätzliche Attraktivität gewinnt a-ha 25 durch die Tatsache, dass hier zum Teil rare Remixe anstatt der üblichen Album-Standardversionen ausgewählt wurden. Insofern ist die Doppel-CD auch für waschechte Fans ein bereicherndes Trostpflaster. Und wer weiß, vielleicht lassen ja die Jungs in ferner Zukunft doch hin und wieder musikalisch von sich hören, wie etwa die Mitglieder von Bands wie Rolling Stones und Genesis. Bis dahin aber bleibt a-ha 25 wohl oder übel die einzige Alternative.

Andreas Schultz - Amazon.de



A double-CD collection celebrating the retirement, after 25 years, of what was once dismissed as a little more than a prototype Norwegian boy band seems like an overambitious concept. That’s until one remembers that the Norwegian trio have sold in excess of 35 million records. But their early rush of pop brilliance and their consequently powerful association with a young audience – Morten Harket was, after all, the man who inspired a generation of teenagers to wear suede leather bracelets – mean that some ‘grew out of’ a-ha, and critics turned their back. By 1991 they might have been playing to the biggest audience of paying fans ever recorded – a staggering 198,000, at Rock in Rio II – but the story went virtually unreported, a disappointment so crushing the band went on hiatus.

They reunited in 1998, wiser and more mature, something reflected in their new music, and a 2005 singles compilation released on their 20th anniversary saw them return to the UK top 20. This latest attempt to exploit their catalogue, 25 – The Very Best Of, is therefore an enlightening affair, proof that though they rarely repeated the pure immediacy of Take on Me or The Sun Always Shines on TV, nor the ambitious drama of I’ve Been Losing You or 1987’s James Bond theme, The Living Daylights, a-ha remained capable of crafting mature pop. In fact, this thorough 39-song survey leads one to the unexpected conclusion that they were the Coldplay of their generation, accomplished at writing songs that carried an emotional depth capable of reaching out across arenas. Dark Is the Night for All is an uplifting piece of mid-paced stadium rock with a gentle heart, Velvet is a lush tearjerker that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Morcheeba record, while final single, Butterfly, Butterfly, sees them return to their synth-pop roots with added grandeur, sounding not unlike Pet Shop Boys with choirboy vocals.

Inevitably, though, over two and a half hours of a-ha things start to sag, as they would with many artists, and that seems a shame. These three Norwegians have more than earned a status approaching iconic, and recent gestures – they’ve given away over £400,000 in grants to developing Norwegian artists this year – prove that music was always a far greater driving force in their careers than fame and teenage adulation. But few people listen to full albums anymore, so this is better thought of as a well-earned condensed encyclopaedia into which to dip than a simple retrospective collection. Either way, respect is due, and 25 provides more than room enough for that.

Wyndham Wallace - BBC
 

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