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| Value for Money | 10/10 |
|---|---|
| Reviewer Rating | 10/10 |
| Overall Rating | 10/10  |
Full review by
erika26
on 8th May 2005
User Rating : 10
Respect :
0
Good Points: Brilliant music which covers many styles, groundbreaking and award winning videos.
Bad Points: Just one slightly weak track and possibly a weak video or two. Only possibly though.
General comments: A-Ha - Headlines And Deadlines - The Hits Of A-Ha: For the past 20 years I've had an ongoing infatuation with the 1980's Norwegian band A-ha. I admit at times I've gone long periods without so much as thinking about them or listening to their music but that doesn't mean I ever lost my love for them. A-ha have been rather quiet in recent times but not any more. To my sheer and utter joy I found out they're doing a UK tour towards the end of this year. Imagine my excitement when I booked myself 2 tickets fairly near the front. Words cannot describe it I swear. You see my love for A-ha started when I was a mere age of 7, far too young to go to their concerts. So as I grew older and their popularity waned I lost all hope of ever seeing them live. Thankfully this was not to be and now I AM going to see them live at Manchester and it'll be a dream come true.
Booking these tickets meant just one thing. Oh yes, I just had to go and buy their DVD. The DVD I bought is called Headlines And Deadlines - The Hits of A-ha. This DVD is no stranger to me as I owned it in video format for years but didn't actually have a video player anymore. So for me to buy this on 2 formats including the cassette and CD version (sad I know) it must have something going for it.
Firstly who are A-ha? Well they hail from Norway and consist of three male members called Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paal Waaktaar. The latter being the most prolific songwriter of the band. Why do I refer to them as a band? Well to be honest although a lot of people seem to refer to them as a 'pop group' or even worse 'boy band' I see them as a proper band. A lot of their music was written by themselves or they at least had input. Paal especially is great at all kinds of instruments as is Magne. They play their own instruments, they write their own songs, they perform really well live from what i've seen on clips and they were original. Not to mention how much of an all time classic they've become, no 80s comilation is complete without featuring their major hit Take On Me.
This DVD is basically a collection of all their greatest hits. Nothing more and nothing less. 17 full A-ha music videos plus an introduction. What more could you want? Now if there's one thing A-ha were pretty famous for it's their music videos. A couple of them were literally groundbreaking in their time and even in this day and age are pretty damn impressive. In fact in 1985 they won an award for the video to Take On Me and they have an impressive 8 MTV music awards to their name, so you can imagine this DVD contains some purely brilliant stuff.
Take On Me from 1985 must surely be the tune which anyone who's ever heard of A-ha will remember. For those who haven't a clue who A-ha are, the BOYBAND A1 decided to totally ruin this song and couldn't even come up with an original video. Anyway the video to this is fascinating. Half of it is set in a comic book whilst the rest is set in 'real world'. This video MADE A-ha in 1985. Without such a groundbreaking and attention grabbing idea they'd have probably remained busking and squatting in Norway.
Other famous videos in this collection include such ones as Hunting High And Low which sees Morten morf into various animals with hunters chasing him. It may sound rubbish by the way I've described it but it's fascinating stuff, it really is. To go with that are Mortens powerful vocals and brilliantly emotive music. It doesn't quite live up to the Take On Me video but it has to be up there in second place.
So why haven't I mentioned what style of music they do yet? Well you can't really put A-ha into any kind of bracket. Y'know when usually a band/group have their own kinda sound? Well A-ha go throughout just about the entire spectrum, so although you can always tell it's Mortens voice each song sounds different in it's own way. For example You Are The One is a fun and poppy track with a fun and bright video to match. Crying In The Rain almost verges on being a slow country style ballad with a moody video. Then you've got ones like Move To Memphis and I've Been Losing You which have a soft rock feel to them. Incidentally the I've Been Losing You track on this DVD is a live recording of them in a studio which shows just how well they work and perform together as a band.
Another stand out track is one entitled The Living Daylights which most people won't even know was the theme tune to the James Bond film of the same name. In fact just about all the tracks and videos on this DVD stand out for one reason or another. I hear a lot of people saying to me "did A-ha make enough records to have a greatest hits album?" but I can assure you that half the tracks on here are pure classics that a lot of people will probably recognise from the radio or MTV, even if they don't know it's A-ha who sang them.
Possibly the only weak point of this DVD is a song called Sycamore Leaves which I'm not too fond of, nor the video (apart from the Morten part of course) Perhaps another weak point could be that there's no extras at all, shame cos i'd have loved to see a bit more of Morten. Not really big weaknesses here but I gotta remain objective.
You've probably guessed that I'd recommend this DVD by now. Watching this brings back happy memories and gets that blood pumping through the old body. I love their music, it puts me in such a good mood. I'm gonna sound really sad here when I say this but I've watched it about 15 times in the last 3 days. I know that's a bit pathetic but I've had withdrawal symptoms for so long and a good dose of Morten Harket was what I needed. Oh yes Morten. Now that's another good reason to buy it but I won't go there. Honestly though, if there's a single person out there who can watch this DVD and tell me you didn't like one single song then I'll drop dead from shock. You can't help but sing to it or tap your foot, even without realising.
erika26's review and ratings | 1147 words | 1 comment added.
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