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CD Review:
One of the greats of R&B in the 80s, Anita Baker exploded into the mainstream charts with her sophomore release Rapture. This album produced her three best known songs, "Sweet Love," "Caught Up in the Rapture," and "No One in this World."
Mixing elements from Jazz, Pop, R&B, and Gospel, Anita just creamed everyone else in the field for popularity and skill. She waited until 1990, with Compositions, to show her hand at writing songs solo. So with Rapture she had the help of professionals like Gary Bias and Louis Johnson (and others).
An album that doesn't sound like it came out of the 80s is sometimes the best compliment. This album fits that accolade. If you enjoy intimate songs from a beautiful voice, then you would be hard pressed to find an album from the deplorable decade of music that the 80s were, better than this one (for mainstream albums anyway).
FS Staff
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| Band |
a-ha |
| Album Title |
Hunting High and Low |
| Date Of Release |
1985 |
| Genre |
Pop |
| Official Website |
www.a-ha.com |
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CD Review:
a-ha was formed by Magne Furuholmen and Pal Waaktaar in 1982. They were a Norwegian band but moved to London in order to gain exposure. Morten Harkett joined the band and went on the trip with them, so the band was a trio. Playing synth-pop in the London area, they were noticed by Warner and signed with the record company. It took 3 times for them to become known from their signature song "Take on Me." It took an exceptional video for the song to actually garner any wide spread attention for the song and because of it, this album sold millions.
When I first began listening to music more than just occasionally, this album was one of the first I bought. It was the typical thing a young person does when purchasing music. That is, listen to the radio, watch videos on MuchMusic or MTV, then go out and purchase albums off the singles that are heard.
The song "Take on Me" was what motivated the purchase of this album. The video was a mix of animation and real life blended into one another to put forth one of the most memorable videos from the mid 80s.
After listening to the album a few times, it remained on my shelf as it was the typical synth-pop of the time. Along with other bands like Platinum Blonde and Duran Duran, a-ha was just a run of the mill band that basically was a one hit wonder on this side of the pond. This album did become quite big in the UK as it spawned 4 or 5 hits off the album, but for me, it wasn't good enough to continue with their next album and most North Americans agreed with me. The band pretty much faded away after that and never had any noticeable hit in Canada or the States afterward.
a-ha is another band, with so many others, that show 80s music was the worse of any decade. The band did continue putting out albums to this day, but I have no desire to listen to anything more by them.
Scott D. Brown
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