Letter From Egypt [Import]

Morten Harket | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 24, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal Int'l
• ASIN: B0018CW9SK
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,075 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Darkspace

2. Send Me an Angel

3. We'll Never Speak Again

4. There Are Many Ways to Die

5. With You - With Me

6. Letter from Egypt

7. A Name Is a Name

8. Movies

9. Slanted Floor

10. Anyone

11. Should the Rain Fall

12. The One You Are

Editorial Reviews

MORTEN HARKET Letter From Egypt (2008 German issue 12-track CD album from the a-ha frontman includes the singles Movies and Darkspace presented in sealed & stickered digipak sleeve with lyric booklet)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars We can live someday, like if we're gone., July 25, 2008

By 

Jason Stein (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Letter From Egypt (Audio CD)

Morten Harket steps out from behind A-ha once more for his fourth solo album, "Letter From Egypt". It follows 1996's "Vogts Villa", 1995's "Wild Seed" and 1993's "Poentenes Evangelium". The first and third are Norwegian language, with "Wild Seed" being English language. I have all 4 albums and I feel that "Letter From Egypt" is about the same as his previous three.

I have all of A-ha's albums as well, and while I think Morten Harket has a magnificent voice (always have), I think I prefer the music of A-ha as the backdrop. When Morten is solo he has a tendency to sound maudlin. Like another reviewer said, this cd is all mid-tempo to slow balladry for the most part. There's nothing upbeat like "Take On Me".

The lyrics are, for the most part, good. The music, for the most part, is good, but rather repetitive. Pleasant is the word that comes to mind. Nothing overly memorable or hook driven. "Movies" and "Darkspace" are the first two singles, and "Movies" is pretty good, whilst "Darkspace" is all right. I liked "We'll Never Speak Again", "There Are Many Ways To Die", "With You-With Me", "Letter From Egypt" and "The One You Are".

I give this three stars, and I would give all four of Morten's solo albums three stars. They're all good, but maybe only recommended for hardcore fans like myself. I would give five stars to "Hunting High And Low", "Scoundrel Days", "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon" and "Minor Earth Major Sky".

I'd like to see Morten Harket experiment more with his music and not play it so safe.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You're with me..., June 24, 2008

By 

Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Letter From Egypt (Audio CD)

Tracklist for this CD is as follows;

1. Darkspace
2. Send Me an Angel
3. We'll Never Speak Again
4. There Are Many Ways To Die
5. With You With Me
6. Letter from Egypt
7. A Name Is A Name
8. Movies
9. Shooting Star
10. Anyone
11. Should The Rain Fall
12. The One You Are

Morten Harket is the lead singer with Grammy winning Norwegian trio A-ha, and "Letter from Egypt" is apparently his 4th solo album (and the first of which I'm hearing).

More downbeat and acoustic (with ambient flourishes) than the music done by his band, the album has already topped the album charts in his native Norway.

Filled with sombre yet melodic songs with deep lyrics, I was really looking forward to this CD as I'm a fan of Morten's fluid choir boy vocals. While he doesn't repeat the vocal gymnastics he displayed on songs such as "Living a boy's adventure tale" or "The blue sky", he still manages to put his pipes to good use, showing off his falsetto on occasion.

Opening is the longing "Darkspace" (with him singing longingly "You're with me/you're with me"). The brooding "Send me an angel" has dark synths, while the sweeping "There are many ways to die", "With you with me" and "Movies" are delicate ballads.

Other standouts include the acoustic title track, the jangly Waltz-like "Shooting star" the lovely "Anyone", and the tender closing acoustic ballad "The one you are". My favourite track though is the piano sprinkled "A name is a name", a ballad simply beautiful beyond description.

A good album, highly recommended!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointed hard-core fan, November 19, 2008

By 

Mr. William T. Reilly Jr. "Bill Reilly" (Mooresville, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letter From Egypt (Audio CD)

I'm going to assume that other hard-core fans have this album, like me, along with everything else borne of the a-ha legacy. If you are new to Harket, please start somewhere else, or get his Nobel Prize Ceremony performance, because this is not very good. It's almost all mid-tempo balladry with very strange, sometimes trite, lyrics. "Heaven's not for Saints", "Forever Not Yours", "Los Angeles", ... none here, and none even close. I just want him to do an album he's capable of, not the one he's comfortable with. This is like Leonard Cohen meets Chris Rhea at a high school poetry reading. I am truly a Harket fan of epic proportions, and I can tell you, aside from Darkspace... and maybe Letter from Egypt, I won't be listening to this again.