a-ha podcast | Ranking Highs and Lows

Hallo liebe a-ha Freunde

Hier is Peter aus Dänemark. Vor langer Zeit war ich ein aktives Mitglied dieser Seite, und obwohl ich micht seit langem hier nicht mehr gemeldet habe bin ich absoluter treuer a-ha Fan geblieben og habe auch das a-ha-forum fast täglich besucht! Aber - wie Morten oft sagt - "Ich habe mein Deutsch ganz vergessen!" So, I'll switch to English.

This is a bit of promotion but hopefully something that you'll find interesting. Together with a friend and fellow a-ha fan I have been working on a project which we are getting ready to launch: "a-ha - Ranking Highs and Lows". It's a podcast and a blog where we in six episodes rank 147 a-ha songs from the worst to the best! We're super excited about the project and can't wait to share it with other a-ha fans around the world.

We expect the first episode of the podcast and blog to be launched between Christmas and New Year. There you will be able to hear and/or read our comments to the songs ranked from 147 to 126, and from there on it will continue with the songs ranked from 125-101, 100-76, 75-51, 50-26 and then finally from 25 to the ultimate number 1!!

The project is our attempt to chronicle a-ha's amazing catalogue and is more than anything intended as a celebration of what we think is the best band in the world. And although there will be some 'shameful lowlands' when you rank 147 songs they all make up a part of the story of a-ha and therefore also a part of us as fans. But whether you're a fan from the first hour our recently found a-ha we hope that you'll take a listen and/or read the blog.

The first blog entry is already online and is an introduction to the project - with a couple of pictures of old posters you may recognize from Bravo or Popcorn Read the blog here: https://rankingaha.blogspot.com

And make sure to follow us on Facebook where we will start posting about new episodes - that way you'll never miss an episode: https://www.facebook.com/rankingaha

Liebe Grüsse,

Peter aus Dänemark

Hallo Andreas,

vielen Dank! Und danke auch für deine Mühe bezüglich des Forums seit viele Jahren. Immer eine top Quelle für alles was a-ha betrifft!

Ich melde mich natürlich auch wieder wenn die erste Folge und erster Beitrag hochgeladen geworden sind (oder wie es noch mit der Deutschen Grammatik geht

Quote

auch als stiller Leser

Silence doesn't always win

VG

Peter

Hallo liebe a-ha Freunde,

Our first part of the ranking of all a-ha's songs from worst to best has now been published! We are counting down from 147 to 126 so we hunt low before we hunt high You can find much more information here: https://www.facebook.com/rankingaha

Please check out our Facebook page and give us a like and a follow for more information, discussions and notifications of coming episodes.

You can find the first podcast episode by searching for "a-ha ranking highs and lows" on your favorite podcast platform. We're on Spotify and Apple Podcast already and hope that Google Podcast picks us up soon as well. Otherwise you can always find us here: https://www.spreaker.com/show/a-ha-ranking-highs-and-lows

Please also take the opportunity to check out the blog version of the countdown if you prefer to read rather than listen. Here is the link to the first part of the countdown: https://rankingaha.blogspot.co…and-lows-part-1-rank.html

Danke!

VG

Peter

Quote from thecompanyman

Klasse, macht Spaß die Liste zu lesen und ich habe oft genickt.

Super, vielen Dank! Wie hatten einige Probleme mit Facebook - unsere URL zum Blog wurde als Spam kategorisiert.

Aber jetzt läuft alles wieder:

Blog: https://www.rankingaha.dk

Podcast: einfach nach “a-ha ranking highs and lows” suchen

Und natürlich Facebook besuchen: http://www.facebook.com/rankingaha

2. Teil kommt bald.

Und hoffentlich mache ich mich auf Deutsch verstehbar! 😄😅

Quote from Tanji

Herzlichen Dank, Takk! Ich mag auch lieber den Blog. Bei vielen Sings stimme ich zu - besonders bei den Gründenbei anderen sehe ich es anders… es ist wie so oft echt Geschmacksache. Aber total spannend, wie andere das sehen. Schön, dass ihr wirklich nur bei der Musik bleibt und alles andere ausblendet. Super 👍

Hi Tanji,

Echt super nett von dir! Mehr ist auf dem Weg 😊

Quote from Skandi

Toll, ich mag eure ehrlichen Einschätzungen! Nicht immer stimme ich mit euch überein aber oft sprecht ihr mir aus dem Herzen!

Tak for din indsats! Bliv ved!

Hi Skandi,

Vielen Dank! Das ist echt nett von dir. Übereinstimmen war auch nie unseren Ziel Hoffentlich wird dir auch der zweite Abschnitt gefallen. Wir rechnen damit es in ein Paar Tagen zu veröffentlichen.

Liebe a-ha-Freunde!

New episode of a-ha: Ranking Highs and Lows is up now!

It should be available in your favorite podcast app, but if it isn't then you can always go straight to Spreaker and catch it there: https://www.spreaker.com/show/a-ha-ranking-highs-and-lows. And if all else fails you can even find the new episode on YouTube by searching for Ranking Highs and Lows.

Here in the 2nd episode of our ranking of a-ha’s 147 songs from worst to best we continue with the songs ranked from 125 to 101. In this episode you will encounter a couple of singles and possibly a few fan favorites as well, and although we are still in the bottom third of the list we already start seeing some rather good songs!

We also run into the first song on the list from one of a-ha’s 1990’s albums, discuss a poor attempt at recreating the feeling from Stay On These Roads, debate whether or not a-ha sounds like ABBA and continue the investigation of where Pål and Magne take more or less hidden stabs at each other in songs.

We get to discuss Morten’s recent pronunciation of ‘shine’ and which song lyric sounds like a travel blogger’s Instagram post and of course see which song just missed out on a spot in the top 100.

As always in case you prefer to read rather than listen to the way we talk then check out our blog where we go through the ranking in writing. You can find it here: https://www.rankingaha.dk/

And of course: never hesitate to join the discussion on Facebook where the sun always shines. We would love to hear your thoughts! Did we rank one of your personal favourites too low? Let us know! http://www.facebook.com/rankingaha

If you need a gentle reminder of some of the songs that move our bodies then check out the ranking on our Spotify playlist as well: https://sptfy.com/rankingaha

Thanks for your support so far! Please do join us on Facebook and give us a like and a follow. It would mean a lot

Guten Rutsch!

LG

Peter

Quote from A-hadmin

Kompliment für Eure Arbeit und Euren Mut den Songs in aller Öffentlichkeit eine Reihenfolge zu geben.

Bei vielen Einschätzungen habe ich innerlich zugestimmt, es gab einige schöne Erinnerungen wie die z.B. Idee der Plattenfirma 2000 "You won't forget her" als Comeback-Single zu veröffentlichen. Es stand damals wirklich n der großen deutschen Sonntagszeitung "Bild am Sonntag" und ohne den Song zu kennen dachte ich nur, warum nehmen sie nicht "Summer moved on"? Als ich später das Album hören konnte fiel ich beim Hören von YWFH aus allen Wolken, wie hätte dieser Song mit dieser Produktion jemals ein Hit hätte werden können Zum Glück hatte WEA Hamburg kurz vorher umgeschwenkt und mit "SMO" einen Top-10 Hit gelandet, welcher die perfekte Grundlage für das Nr. 1 Comeback Album "MEMS" bildete.

Das Album Lifelines und die vielen Versionen von unterschiedlichen Produzenten zeigen sehr deutlich, wie unterschiedlich das Endergebnis klingen kann, zwischen Worst und Best ist alles möglich

Danke auch die SAVOY Anekdote zu "Daylights Wasting Part 2" - die Aussage ist auch so 100% true Lauren

Freue mich auf die weiteren Folgen, zumal wenn endlich die Lobeshymnen kommen werden, für die besten Songs

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Vielen Dank Andreas! Toll dass du dich gut unterhalten gefühlt hast! Ja, mit IWFH als erste Single hätte es vielleich kein siebten Album gegeben Wir freuen uns auch auf Episoden 3, 4, 5 und 6 wo die "Lobeshymnen" in Reihe stehen werden!

Quote from Skandi

Das war wieder toll! Ich hatte viel Spaß beim Lesen und musste oft lachen! Manche Sachen sind mir noch nie so explizit aufgefallen, aber ich werde jetzt immer an euch denken, wenn Morten in "Nothing is keeping you here" - "sjain" singt! . Den Song kann man übrigens gut als Stimmungsaufheller im Auto, auf dem Weg zur Arbeit hören. Natürlich schön laut und Mitsingen ist ein Muss! Die Straße sollte allerdings nicht zu kurvig sein, sonst kommt man durcheinander.🤣

Godt nytår til dig!🥂

Vielen Dank Skandi. Super nett von dir! Ich hoffe dass 2022 viel Sonnensjain bringt

Quote from thecompanyman

Tolle Fortführung der Liste, bei der ich immer noch viel nicken konnte, auch wenn ich Between your mama and yourself, Birthright und Cosy Prisons in den Top 100 und Songs wie To let you win, Love Is reason oder And you tell me weiter unten sehe.

By the way, wollen wir am Ende das beste Album aus dem Durchschnittswert der enthaltenen Songs bestimmen (Bestes Album = geringster Durschnittswert)?

Thanks a lot Good question reg. the "Best album" concept. We did discuss it when we did the ranking and I think our overall opinion is that an album is more than the sum of the songs if that makes sense. For example if you have an album consisting of very good and very poor songs and an album consisting of mediocre songs they could in theory have the same average, but you might still like one of them more than the other. It's a hypothetical scenario, of course, and there is no doubt that there is going to be a strong correlation between what we consider the best albums and which albums the best songs come from, but we are considering making an episode also where we rank the 10 studio albums. I actually think that will be really difficult

Hallo a-ha Freunde!

Episode 3 of Ranking Highs and Lows is now available! We have reached top 100 as we count down from 100 to 76 and in this episode we see the song quality increase significantly! We also discover lyrics that may not be considered appropriate today, discuss a-ha vs. Savoy vs. Beatles vs. Madonna and many more. We come across a couple of commercially successful singles, discuss animals and realize that we're probably too harsh on certain songs.

I know some of you prefer to listen to the podcast. For you there's a little treat this time but I won't reveal what it is It should be up on most podcast platforms by now, but otherwise you can always find it here: https://www.spreaker.com/show/a-ha-ranking-highs-and-lows

And for those of you who prefer to read the blog there's plenty to also dive into there as we sometimes have the opportunity to go a bit more in depth in writing than when we speak. The blog can be found here: http://www.rankingaha.dk

But of course I think you should listen to the podcast as well as read the blog

We also have an Instagram account now. Search for "a-ha ranking highs and lows" and you should be able to find us there. Otherwise all the links can be found on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/rankingaha where we would love to hear your comments!

So check out episode 3 to see which non-album track just missed top 75, which songs caused some disagreement among us, and to hear if there are limits to what a manager can ask band members to do.

Vielen Dank für die Unterstützung!

VG.

Peter

Quote from A-hadmin

wie konnte "Shadowside" so weit hinten ranken? Er gehört zu meinen Favoriten und ist sicher das Beste auf dem "FOTM" Album. Ich bin bei Euch, sowohl die Album als auch die Single-Version finde ich echt unglücklich produziert. Ich liebe die Demo Version produziert von Erik Ljunggren, welche ja auch die Version der RAH-Performance gewesen ist.

Hi Andreas,

that's my fault It took me a long time to appreciate Shadowside. I was at the Royal Albert Hall concert and like Riding The Crest a lot more back then. Maybe it was euphoria over the event and the fact that a-ha presented new material. My two friends preferred Shadowside but I stood firm! Over the years I must admit that they were right. Shadowside is better than RTC, but it's still not the best song on FOTM - at least not for me (and my co-ranker Jesper). But Shadowside IS a good song, and it could go a bit higher on the list, but I still don't think it's a top 75 track. Just wait for all the awesome songs that are still coming Plus I would say that it generally doesn't take a lot to be one of the best songs on FOTM because it - to me - was quite disappointing.

I agree that the live version from RAH is better than the album version! More guitar!

And I also agree: Both the video and single mix were kind of mistakes (regardless of the low budget). It's a strange habit in the a-ha camp these days: releasing singles in slightly different versions to what you find on the album. And rarely better.

Thanks for following the project