Customer Reviews

Stay On These Roads

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

By the time this album came out in 1988, my interest in A-ha was a bit on the wane. I had been a diehard fan, loved every single song in their first album and one of my favorite songs of all time is in their second ('The Swing of things'). By then I was playing football and being "tough", moving into harder (and more "manly") Metal. Yet, while A-ha's symphonic synthetizers and passionate lyrics still beaconed, somehow the release of this album failed excite me at all; I remember reading with disinterest of the release of the first single, Stay on These Roads, in a local Sunday paper and thought I had moved on.

A few weeks later I happened to hear the song in the radio. I wasn't blown away, it was better, it moved me deeply; it is lush, panoramic and intoxicating. I couldn't disagree more with a previous reviewer who advises to "skip it", Stay on hese Roads is one of the most moving songs I've ever heard. I purchased the tape a few months later and it became a staple in my walkman.

Yes, A-ha was getting more mature, but there were hints of it in their previous albums. For a band that was influenced, first and foremost by The Doors, A-ha had somehow, deliberately or not, turned into a poppish band. As a digression, there is a video on the net of the very first release of 'Take on Me' (not the cool MTV video) and by golly it is just a step above Wham! in the bubble-gum chart. Of course, that made them appealling to a much younger audience; a few years later I found an article-review of a concert from this album, and most of the comments were made by 12-14 year old girls. The benefit to them is that as A-ha tours Europe today, they sing to mostly to 28-30 year old women (far thinking Norwegians!). There was however, an edge to their music that they refused to hide, and an undeniable caliber of talent. That is where this album comes in.

SOTR was different; 'The Blood that Moves the Body' is a mature and somewhat troubling song (as so many others penned by Pal). Yet it is VERY well arranged and constructed. 'This Alone is Love' showcases the band's awesome musical abilities, it is a controled and passionate song; it goes beyond the length of a regular song without falling victim to musical over-ambitiousness. Here, Mags' keyboard creativity makes the song soar. The same can be said -to a slightly lesser degree- about "Out of the Blue Comes Green', yet in this one, it is Morten's voice that sells the song.

'Hurry Home' is a song I can listen to all day, despite some of the layered yelps in the background. It is a great song.

'The Living Daylights' written originally for the Bond movie by the same title, sounds much better than the original version released with the movie a year before. If you ever feel playful, listen to it while driving.

'There's Never a Forever Thing' is in a way the opposite of 'This Alone is Love'; it is shorter than usual and surprisingly simple. A bit sappy for my taste these days, but a beautiful song nevertheless.

"You'll End Up Crying' is the odd duck. It is extra short and just... odd. It's sung by -I've always thought- all three of them. Very nuanced in its arrangements, listen for the only time a tuba ever sounded good in a song! I absolutely love this one.

'Touchy' and 'You Are the One' I left for last. These songs are hard to listen to today, at least for me. For a while I thought that 'Touchy' needed to be figured out, like it had a hidden message or something. The answer is no; the song doesn't really say anything, and here the band comes dangerously close (but not quite) to bubble gum pop. And while today I'd feel like ducking the album a star for them, I have to be fair to the teenager in me and admit that there was a time in which I enjoyed them shamelessly.

The art of the album really fits it; there is a blue, delicate and wet quality to it, a winterish vibe, if that makes sense.

This is perhaps a little gem that may have gone unnoticed by you in the 80s. With very minor exceptions it is something worth picking up today. It is superbly produced and put together, magnificently performed and intelligently written. Questionably A-ha's best album, we only wish more pop was this sophisticated.

a-ha's third album, and their last synth-pop venture, is a complete success! Their maturing sound, which becomes evident on their next album, peeks through a bit here and delivers wonderfully. Too bad a lot of people missed out on it. Highly recommended!!!

This is the only effort by the Scandinavian crew that I came away from with a bad taste in my mouth. The album has the feel of a collection of earlier songs that were passed up for publication. This is the type of half hearted effort that comes about when a group or artist feels pressured to release a new album. The only bright spots are "Hurry Home" and "Stay On These Roads". Not enough . Bring on the raspberry jam guys.

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.

The third album from A-ha was their first to show any slips in quality, after their first two albums of impeccable, smart Synth-pop. "Stay On These Roads" sounds disjointed and rushed, like the songs were brought together in a hurry without regard for the more coherent flow of the debut and the great "Scoundrel Days." Still, there's plenty of enjoyable music here, and a couple of obvious missed opportunities to keep the band's commercial fortunes alive in the USA.

In fact, this was the last A-Ha album to even chart in America, peaking at a measly 148 before vanishing. It also contains one of the very few failed James Bond theme songs, "The Living Daylights." (Oddly enough, a rerecorded version. The original can be found on the A-ha singles collection.) Full of the usual dramatic pulse of the John Barry themes, "The Living Daylights" is every bit as good as Duran Duran's "View To a Kill," yet for some reason, only took off overseas. The same fate befell the poppier "Touchy!" which was a top ten international hit.

Once again, the quality was good, even if the attention wasn't being paid. The danceable "The Blood The Moves The Body" and the emotional title track again show why vocalist Morten Harket is such a unique voice in pop music. There's also the six-minute plus "Out of Blue Come Green," which may be his best vocal in the whole of A-ha's canon. "Stay On These Roads" has a bit too much filler for my tastes, but the high points still make it a good album.

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).

Upon the release of "Take On Me", most people would come to think of A-ha as the One-Hit-Wonders of 1985. But the truth of the matter is that the albums which followed Hunting High and Low were the ones which really demonstrated the talent of this magnificent trio. With the issue of Scoundrel Days in 1986, and then Stay On These Roads in 1988, A-Ha proved they were more than just a bubble gum band. With a great display of talent for synth-pop, as well as slow and introspective songs, they complemented their cerebral melancholy with equally heavy lyrics. Their first album was virtually that of a different band's, as far as content was concerned. While their debut was a Top 40 teen magnet, their subsequent releases were less radio oriented because they painted profound images. Stay On These Roads especially demonstrated a balance of instruments with a mature,evolved tone. Lastly, while many synth bands focused more on fill-ins and beats which resulted in overkill, Morten Harket's voice definetly stood its ground alongside the melodies (and I do mean MELODIC). This is an essential album which has "best of 80's alternative" written all over it. Trance inducing selections like "Stay On These Roads" and "The Blood That Moves The Body" were more like stories than songs. While the upbeat "Touchy" and the electrically charged "You Are The One" were strong in melody with a variety of instruments taking turns at the forefront.

The album Stay on these Roads show a determined and ever changing facets of a-ha. Once again they prove that they are capable of more than just a ditty pop group. Our world is ever changing as is our music. It is nice to see that a band like a-ha does not tend to stick to the same formula of writing just to stay number one. Stick with the hard work guys.

There is a song called "The Living Daylights" on this CD which was used as the title theme to a James Bond movie. The song is very euro-pop, kind of like Real Life's "Send Me An Angel."

This item doesn't even deserve a star! Its worthless, and had I known that it has only 2 songs that are extended remix, I would never have ordered it. The other 2 orders, the "Bob Marley & the Wailers" are way soothing, but this particular A-ha LP is just garbage. I wish they had informed me that it wasn't the 'Stay on these Roads' Album, so that I could have opted otherwise.