This Week's Pick: Stay On These Roads - A-ha

I was out for some record shopping yesterday. I was so lucky to find UK 7'' singles of The Sun Always Shines On TV & Stay On These Roads. After making a perfect debut with Hunting High And Low and raising the stakes, the second LP Scoundrel Days didn't satisfy me with it's heavily influenced rock sound. It's a great album but it never sounded A-ha to me. It doesn't fit between Hunting High And Low & Stay On These Roads. If I didn't know A-ha I'd say they made their debut with Hunting High And Low, released Stay On These Roads as the second album and then released Scoundrel Days cause their fourth album East Of The Sun West Of The Moon sounds more similar to it. When I was reading about the album on Wikipedia, it says that they chose the Alternative Rock sound over Synth Pop because Synth Pop begun to fall out of style. Synth Pop will NEVER EVER lose it's style and uniqueness. Alternative Rock? Really? We're not rebellious teens anymore! Rock music lost it's thing after the 70s and they tried to shove Rock in our faces throught the 90s and it was just not right.  Anyway, Stay On These Roads was a BIG RELIEF after Scoundrel Days. It's more synth oriented and  it's classic A-ha with it's deep lyrics and synth pop sounds. Plus we can clearly see how hot the trio looks unlike the depressing artwork of Scoundrel Days.


TRACKLIST:

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 Blue Comes Green
9. You're The One
10. You'll End Up Crying


The album is produced by Alan Tarney, and it was recorded in RG Jones Studios, Wimbledon between 1987-1988 and released on 3rd of May 1988. After the dark and haunting air of the Scoundrel Days, Stay On These Roads has a deeper and spiritual feel with some strong lyrics. To me, we can see it on the two top points of the album: There's No Forever Thing & Out Of Blue Comes Green.
There's Never A Forever Things is deep enough with it's title and the lyrics will eventually make you cry with the music. Morten tells us not to cry but his voice touches the most hidden spot in us so it's hard not to feel affected while listening to it. Is it because of his voice and the song that makes me feel blue or is it the fact that there's really never a forever thing?..
After There's Never A Forever Thing, Out Of Blue Comes Green is like a sunlight appearing between the dark clouds. There's still clouds, it's still dark but there's something to enlighten the spirit and push the clouds away. ''Father! My wings are clipped. See the steps that made me drip. Now I'm so lonely.'' Written by Pal Waaktaar the song must be very personal since his wife Lauren Savoy is the one behind the title of the song. Of course Morten Harket is very successful to deliver the vocals and reflect the feel of the song.


The album begins with the title track Stay On These Roads. It's another big one like Hunting High And Low & Living A Boy's Adventure Tale. The vocals of Morten are lush! The songs is a living proof against the people who say pop music can't reflect any emotions. The album continues with The Blood That Moves The Body. The song talks about teen suicides in Japan and paying it's tribute to Eyes Of A Blue Dog, a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the line ''Red Stains on Eyes Of A Blue Dog''. Touchy! is the third song of the album. The most uplifting song on the album along with You Are The One. Yamaha DX7 was used during producing the song. It was released as the third single off the album and sold 900.000 copies around the world, reaching #11 in the UK. This Alone Is Love only has three verses but they're deep enough to make the song strong with it's long and catchy outro. The last song on the Side A, Hurry Home is another deep song with some personal lyrics. It's about the self changes that the narrator is having.


The second half of the album begins with the the famous and arguably the best Bond theme; The Living Daylights. Sounding all diferent than the single version, the song remains one of the most known A-ha songs. Always performed in their tours the song has been extended into a sing along with the audience. There's Never A Forever thing slows things down and leaves the listener fragile with Out Of Blue Comes Green as the follow-up track. The second last track of the album You Are The One raises the energy and makes us move as a feel-good song. I've always found You Are The One as another attempt to make Take On Me 2. The ''aaaah'' vocals that performed by the trio on the backing vocals give the song another joy. It's so 80s. It's classic, it's catchy and it makes you happy. You'll End Up Crying is the closing track of the album. The song only includes synth string sessions. Still strong and still effective as a synth ballad.

There is not a single track I skip as I spin the LP. Every single song has a soul and depth. Unlike todays shallow pop songs which written by at least ten people came together, most of the songs on the album were written by Pal Waaktaar and sometimes by the rest of the trio. No wonder it's a successful album like their earlier albums.


CHARTS: 

Australian Albums (Kent Music Report): 52

Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria): 9

Canadian Albums (RPM): 55

Dutch Albums (MegaCharts): 5

,French Albums (SNEP): 3

German Albums (Offizielle Top 100): 4

Italian Albums (Musica E Dischi): 2

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ): 36

Norwegian Albums (VG-Lista): 1

Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan): 10

Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade): 6

UK Albums (OCC): 2

US Billboard 200: 48

EU LP (925 733-1) Front

EU LP Back

EU LP Inner Sleeve Front

EU LP Inner Sleeve Back

Lyrics to  Out Of Blue Comes Green taken from the innersleeve

EU LP Side A

EU LP Side B

This Week's Smash Hit: Kylie - Kylie Minogue

ABOUT KYLIE

No one could ever argue with me about what's the best and most successful debut album in the world. With over 6 milion copies sold worldwide, Kylie was the one and only Minogue's debut album on the 4th of July 1988. Produced by the famous hit producing trio Stock, Aitken & Waterman, Kylie lasts only more than thirty minutes. Although it's short length (35:22), Kylie has a strong dance-pop and synth-pop sound and reflects the brilliance of the 80s perfectly.

Already a big star in Australia with the soap opera Neighbours as Charlene, Kylie performed the big hit of the 60s, Locomotion, everybody was moved by her voice and performance. So she's decided to team with Mushroom Records of Australia and recorded the song and released on July 1988. It became a massive hit in her native OZ easily and launched her singing career. After the success of Locomotion, Kylie wanted to record a new song with Stock, Aitken & Waterman and had an appointment in their studio in London. While she was in the lobby of PWL Records, the trio had already forgot that they've had an appointment with her and they needed to give her something and when Matt Aitken told Pete Waterman that ''There's a girl called Kylie flew here from Australia this morning and she needs something from us.'' Pete replied him ''She should be so lucky! Wait! We can go with that. Change it to I Should Be So Lucky!) and  they wrote one of her most known and loved song I Should Be So Lucky less than thirty minutes with Kylie repeating the word Lucky more than 60 times in a three minute song. Released on 29 December 1987 as the first single of her first studio album Kylie, I Should Be So Lucky debuted at #1 in the UK, Australia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland and quickly became one of Kylie Minogue's signature songs.

The cover of the album features Kylie smiling and wearing her iconic hat as the girl-next door image she's represented on Neighbours.Smiley-Kylie was introduced to world with her big hair, big hat, muslin dress that she wore on the video of ''Lucky''.

During the Kylie era, Minogue released 6 singles to promote the record, one of them being the re-recorded version of her very first single Locomotion.  Every single release was a top ten hit in her native OZ, UK and around Europe.


TRACKLIST

1) I Should Be So Lucky
2) The Loco-Motion
3) Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
4) It's No Secret
5) Got To Be Certain
6) Turn It Into Love
7) I Miss You
8) I'll Still Be Loving You
9) Look My Way
10) Love At First Sight

UK LP (HF 3)

UK LP Back

UK LP Inner Sleeve Front

UK LP Inner Sleeve Back

UK LP Side A

UK LP Side B

UK Cd (HFCD 3)

UK Cd Back

UK Cd

US Cd (9 24195-2)

US Cd Back

US Cd

UK Cassette (HFC 3), Turkish Cassette (066)

My Very First Pick: Close - Kim Wilde

ABOUT CLOSE

Close was released by Kim Wilde on the 1st of June 1988 as her sixth studio album. Produced by her brother Ricky Wilde & Tony Swain the album was her most well ballanced album with pop, ballad and rock sounds. The songs were concentrated on love (Hey Mr. Heartache, Four Letter Word, Love In The Natural Way, Love's A No, Lucky Guy), what's going on around the world (Stone, European Soul) and her nephew coming into her life (You Came). Promoting the album, its singles and videos as being an opening act on Michael Jackson's Bad World Tour, Close sold over 2 million copies worldwide, making it her best-selling album of her entire career. Many critics praised the album with its successful producing while some critics finding the album sounding similar to Bananarama's famous album WOW which was produced by the well known producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Other than that critics gave the album such favorable reviews with the success of the album and its singles.

TRACKLIST: 

1) Hey Mr. Heartache

2) You Came

3) Four Letter Word

4) Love In The Natural Way

5) Love's A No

6) Never Trust A Stranger

7) You'll Be The One Who'll Lose

8) European Soul

9) Stone

10) Lucky Guy

SINGLES

1) Hey Mr. Heartache, released on 18th of April 1988 in the UK & Europe; Heartache featured the vocals of Junior Giscombe whom worked with Kim on her previous album Another Step. Heartache wasn't a big hit in her native country, debuting at #31 although it was successful in Norway (#3), Sweden (#6) & Italy (#7)

2) You Came, released on the 4th of July 1988, was the biggest selling of Kim Wilde. Charting #3 in the UK, #1 in Denmark and #3 in Irelan, You Came showed a major success all around the UK & Europe. It was written with Kim Wilde and her brother about the birth of Marty. 

3) Never Trust A Stranger, released on 19 September 1988 it was her 3rd single off the album. It was another big hit around the UK & Europe. With its Hi-NRG sound Never Trust A Stranger is one of my favourite tracks of Kim Wilde. 

4) Four Letter Word, released on 21 November 1988. It was another hit in the UK & Europe as a naive love ballad. It became her third top ten hit in the UK from her album Close. 

5) Love In The Natural Way, released on 20 February 1989 it was her last release in the 80 which she was one of the biggest selling artists then. Although it was produced very well and promoted it only charted in the UK & Ireland. Love In The Natural Way was also the final release from the album Close.

EU LP (255 588-1)

EU LP Back

EU LP Inner Sleeve Front

EU LP Inner Sleeve Back

EU LP Side A 

EU LP Side B