a-ha: Foot Of The Mountain (15th Anniversary) (LP)

"It was time to open up a little more," says a-ha singer Morten Harket about the group's new album, Foot Of The Mountain. The album marks a return to the classic pop sound that has made a-ha one of the biggest bands in the world. Keyboardist Magne Furuholmen explains: "It's an album that contains the key elements that defined the band in the beginning: vocals at the highest heights, synth riffs, wistful lyrics and melodic melancholy." Guitarist and main songwriter Paul Waaktaar-Savoy puts it in simpler words: "I think we've got a great collection of songs together this time." Written and recorded in several major cities - from Oslo, where the band formed in 1982, to New York, where Paul now lives - Foot Of The Mountain is, in Morten's words, "mainly a synth-based album." The ten new songs echo the band's early signature hits: "Take On Me", "The Sun Always Shines On TV" and "I've Been Losing You". Paul has written the majority of the new songs, five are co-written by Magne, four he wrote alone. He has also experimented with new techniques. "Riding The Crest" - described by Paul as "electronic blues" - was inspired by Arcade Fire's use of the 12-bar scheme on their 2007 album Neon Bible. "Real Meaning" was a happy accident: an idea that came to Paul spontaneously when he called home from Russia and was greeted by his answering machine. "I started singing as a joke and this song came out," he laughs. "But I meant every word." And on 'Start The Simulator', Paul used an unusual lyrical style, harking back to the technical jargon of the space race during the Cold War. "The basic idea," he says, "was to write a song that used only technical terms and phrases and still make it very emotional and personal. There's so much poetry in the old Apollo manuals: 'switch to Omni Bravo' and 'the bright ejecta blanket'. The song was quite difficult to record as it changes both time and key in its progression. What had sounded so simple on the piano quickly became complicated when we translated it into a full arrangement. But I think we got there in the end!" There are also three songs that reflect Paul's emotional connection to his original and new homeland. "Shadowside," he says, "feels quite Norwegian - in terms of the melody, the chords and the mood." "The Bandstand" reminds him of his first trip to New York City in the early 1980s, before a-ha became famous. "Songs are like a photo album - they can really catapult you back in time. And this one reminds me of what it was like to arrive at the Port Authority with 35 dollars in my pocket, showing off really high-tousled, yellow, almost transparent synthesizer hair and wearing a tiger T-shirt and a brown suit so that I looked like an alien!" And the album's title track, "Foot Of The Mountain" - formed from two previously separate songs, one written by Paul, the other by Magne - deals with one of the fundamental conflicts of modern life, the dichotomy between nature and the civilization of big cities: for Paul, the hustle and bustle of New York City versus the beauty and solitude of Norway. "It's the dilemma of loving city life but secretly wondering if we wouldn't be happier if we were surrounded by open fields and sweeping mountains."