A-Ha - Stay On These Roads

This is the third album by A-Ha which I essentially purchased  as I liked the title track when it was released as a single.

I remember this as a strong album with a lot of good tunes but looking at Wikipedia I was surprised to see that 5 of the 10 tracks were released as singles. In addition to "Stay On These Roads", I recall "Touchy" being a hit, and of course the Timothy Dalton James Bond Theme Song "The Living Daylights" but couldn't remember "You Are The One"  or "The Blood That Moves The Body" being singles. In fact I couldn't remember the latter at all !

On replay this is still an outstanding LP. If I try to be critical "This Alone Is Love" plods on a bit too long and could be edited, and "Hurry Home" could fade out a bit earlier too. However, this really is nit-picking on a top quality set of songs.

For me the highlight is "Out Of The Blue Comes Green", an epic song with a great melody and a terrific vocal. Indeed, the album is a showcase for Morten Harket to demonstrate the full range of his talent as a singer. "Stay On These Roads" features soaring high notes in the chorus, and a big dramatic powerful coda after the a calm piece of gentle keyboard playing of the main reframe. It is still stunning and not one to try in Karaoke !

Elsewhere, "Touchy" and "You Are The One" are still catchy-pop numbers, although Morten does look alot like a young Richard Gere in the official "You Are The One" video. "There's Never A Forever Thing" is a slow ballad that also features another strong vocal.

I didn't really like "The Living Daylights" when it first came out, thinking it to be a bit overblown and not having a great tune, but listening to it now I thought it was really good. And I should have remembered "The Blood That Moves The Body" as the one with a similar sound to "The Living Daylights" and could have been a Bond theme tune !

This album isn't just about the great singing though, the music is rich and varied and it is full of good, thoughtful, melodic and well structured songs.

Finally, the Norwegian band were not the inspiration for the Alan Partridge catchphrase, which came from elsewhere in Scandinavia.

Track Listing :

1. Stay On These Roads
2. The Blood That Moves The Body
3. Touchy
4. This Alone Is Love
5. Hurry Home
6. The Living Daylights
7. There's Never A Forever Thing
8. Out Of The Blue Comes Green
9. You Are The One
10. You'll End Up Crying

Released 1988
UK Chart Position : 2

Singles :

The Living Daylights ( No 5 - 1987 )
Stay On These Roads ( No 5 - 1988 )
The Blood That Moves The Body ( No 25 - 1988 )
Touchy ( No 11 - 1988 )
You Are The One ( No 13 - 1988 )