Foot of the Mountain

One of the best albums in A-Ha’s discography

The Norwegian trio A-Ha needs no presentation for quite some time already. Celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary this band keeps on presenting the world with one hit after another always preserving its inimitable style. At the same time one can trace an unobtrusive but rather evident search of new interesting shades of sound inside each of the collective’s albums. Undoubtedly these tendencies refine all of the Norwegian musicians’ creations but the absolute majority of their hits are united by the trademark synthesizers, electro guitars and of course Morten Harket’s splendid vocals that have made A-Ha famous all over the world. Besides the band’s creative work is characterized with a comparatively low release frequency – it released only the eighth one, Analogue, in 2005 although the band was already over twenty years old by that time. Perhaps it is the scrupulous preparation of every creation and the long hiatuses that allow the band members collect their forces and and hide the secret of A-Ha’s success. Anyway this year the unique band releases its ninth album titled Foot Of The Mountain and promising to become one of the best in its entire discography.

Light melancholy on Foot Of The Mountain

The album Foot Of The Mountain practically takes us back to the beginning of A-Ha’s history offering ten brand new tracks each of which is filled with that very light melancholy with which all the Norwegians’ music is breathing throuhout. The album opens with a rhythmic, almost danceable composition The Bandstand with a memorable tune, especially on chorus, and the song Riding The Crest conquers with interesting philosophic lyrics with a deep meaning. A most pleasant synthesizer tune of What There Is reminds of the band’s best hits and sounds like its classic, whereas the title track Foot Of The Mountain is sure to conquer millions of hearts of those lucky to hear it from the very first sounds – it is definitely one of the brightest examples of the amazing instrumental background and vocalist’s performance. A slower song Real Meaning pleases with the elements of introspection in the lyrics, pointed synthesizers and an optimistic chorus appearing against the background of a volume flow of guitars and drums. One of the album’s unquestionable leaders is the ballad Shadowside: a completely inimitable tune, endlessly high notes and most beautiful text make this song the first contender to become a hit. A mid-tempo track Nothing Is Keeping You Here is interesting first of all with a wonderful falsetto chorus, and the key to understand the record’s main idea is the composition Mother Nature Goes To Heaven with a complicated and unpredictable melody. The record closes with another no simple electronic number Start The Simulator, measured, a bit heavy-weighed and yet not devoid of hope for the better.

A faultless contribution into the world’s music culture

It is no secret for anybody that live performances are of no less importance for A-Ha than the albums and that is one of the reasons why we have not heard any news from it for such a long time. Nevertheless, four years of waiting have proved worth it. Foot Of The Mountain is simultaneously a classic A-Ha’s album containing all the basic components of its music and a collection of utterly new songs in which all the authors’ life experience is concentrated. On the whole among gentle love ballads, life observations, suffering about the gone past and dreaming of the future A-Ha offers now and then the deepest philosophic reflections both hiding inside a track and as a composition’s full content. Foot Of The Mountain is especially interesting in this respect: in the midst of peaceful, beautiful images of rich nature we hear a concern about its saving. Musically the album is good, too: here are the band’s classic synthesizer hooks, melodious guitars and impetuous drums, contrasting greatly with Morten Harket’s falsetto singing. And though perhaps we should not be expecting a new creation from A-Ha in the next couple of years the collective’s ninth contribution into the world’s music culture turns out to be just faultless.