Morten Harket - Letter from Egypt (2008)

aha een nieuwe cd van de zanger A-ha, ben benieuwd!

Dit album is schandalig slecht gemastered. Send Me an Angel is zelfs onbeluisterbaar door de hoeveelheid clipping.

In het engels, hopelijk geen probleem...

It’s been twelve years since “Wild Seed” was released with way too little promotion by the record company but still the album from 1996 seems to have found ways of reaching a respectable sized public, across multiple continents. That album showed Morten as a solo artist, collaborating with Norwegian poets and co-writers but even though I think it is a really good collection of beautiful and rich songs, it was produced by Chris Neil, a man who to my opinion didn’t do much justice to A-ha’s “East of the sun West of the Moon”, with his vacant, dull sound and ability to make rock songs sound like easy listening pop tunes. Once I read that this new album was to be produced by Kjetil Bjerkestrand, a man who previously worked with Magne Furuholmen (A-ha’s keyboard player, respected solo artist) on various, really brilliant soundtracks and with Morten Harket on a Norwegian album called “Poetenes Evangelium”, I wasn’t much positive because the man seems to have a way with keyboard based sounds and polishes everything until the smoothness makes your mouth water for a little more dry and raw sound. I was for the major part and to my surprise, wrong. Maybe because Morten himself worked on the producing as well.

I spend a little time on the production aspect because of emphasising that most A-ha albums got treated so poorly that the only way the songs got the coat they deserved and needed, was to hear them being played live. To my opinion there are just two producers who did justice to the A-ha studio albums, David Z (“Memorial Beach”, 1993) and most of all Martin Terefe (“Analogue”, 2005, the songs mixed by Flood).

The album “Letters from Egypt” has set out to become a collection of for the major part down tempo songs with styles varying between pop/soft rock, soul and even a bit of blues (the genre Morten at one time held for the dullest). The opening track “Darkspace”, the second single after “Movies” that quickly reached the highest position in Norwegian charts, gives a full and rich sound, one of the more up tempo songs with an at first hearing, cliché chorus but it sticks in your mind and becomes grander with each new listen. “Two reminders who we’re on the back of, Darkspace is a love song from Mother Nature to us”, as Morten said when he played it live at the Royal Albert Hall on 24-05-08, a concert where the three lads from A-ha played their solo songs, performing apart from each other and ending with them playing together as A-ha. Do search on Youtube for the previously unreleased songs “Shadowside” and “Riding the Crest” to be on the new A-ha album, pretty much brilliant.

“Send me an Angel” was the first song he played at the gig mentioned above and it showed why the sound is so much better live: it’s one of the songs on the album that could have sounded more energetic and organic, to my humble opinion that is of course. “And all these things my hands will touch outside the name of love. Out here where nothing is too much and people pray in gloves” are among the lyrics I can really appreciate and admire. The song displays the wide variety of vocal styles Morten can use, here it can be souring and in a certain rock mode. It is a thing I have become to appreciate very much in his abilities, whereas singers such as Tom Yorke only seem to be able to sing in one or two different styles/emotions, Morten’s voice can be tender, sweet, aching, transcendent, powerful, explosive and at times hypnotising. If he would learn to remind the lyrics when singing live and be more of a true front man like Magne Furuholmen is (getting in touch with the public-wise), looked less beautiful and perfect, he would be perfect.

“We’ll never speak again” is a song Magne Furuholmen wrote and does the backing vocals to, it was on his soundtrack “Hotel Oslo”, back then sung by Anneli M. Drecker and Freddie Wadling. That first version held much raw emotions but in Morten’s version it seems to have become a warm ballad, almost contrary to the lyrics but it really is interesting to me, the chorus gives us the high voice most people come to love about him. Rich instrumentation and the string section orchestrated simple in its beauty.

Morten’s words to “There are many ways to die” when he played it live at the RAH: “A part of us would like to live as if there’s no tomorrow, most of us never do. There are many ways to die”. For those who have heard him talk in interviews it is nothing new but Morten can be a true philosopher, not for all to be understood, as a true philosopher is due to be perceived, an irreversible fate as fate is irreversible by itself (…). A bit dark and elegant song with lyrics pretty much intriguing, painfully beautiful. “I’m deep inside this world now, got to take a step aside. I’m deeper than I ever was, I must have crossed a line”. I have got a feeling these lyrics are very personal.

“With you-With me” is the first ballad on the album, showing the magic to Morten’s voice that no other singer can come close to, again in my own humble opinion. The chorus isn’t wildly original but that doesn’t matter, the string section here again beautiful.

“Letters from Egypt”, one of the two songs he played at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert last year, after he spoke words of admiration to Al Gore, who was in the crowd. I was quite curious how the song would work on a studio recording because of the huge child choir joining in at the concert but to my relief a choir sings on this version as well. It’s a political song lyrically, just like “Brodsky Tune” on “Wild Seed” (Morten came up with the music and melody, the words were taken from a poem by Joseph Brodsky, almost completely ruined by the mediocre production by Chris Neil). His voice sounds different in this song, a bit weaker somehow but it also creates vulnerability this way. I do love the song, although I prefer the live version because the building up to the song is more powerful.

“A name is a name” is a little piece of good song writing. “This could be the dream of the angels above, to fly on the wings of a woman in love”, lyrics I do tend to love quite a bit. “Movies”, the first single he also played at the Nobel Concert, a cover of a song called My Woman by Norwegian band Locomotives. At first hearing back then not a song much to my liking as it really does seem to be a song written for the top charts but with each new listen it grows to a special little thing. “Slanted Floor” is a good song, played in an acoustic setting, not much more to mention about it by me.

“Anyone” holds such a beautiful melody and instrumentation and the way Morten sings the high notes towards the ending can make even a man dream away. Again, beautiful string compositions at the end. “Should the rain fall”, strong song writing that reminds me of the best songs from Mary Black, except for the chorus that really does bring a nice change to it. “Goodbye love you almost broke my wings, this is my goodbye to that little thing”… I’ve got this feeling that when performed live it could end in an explosive rock mode, in stead of this slow ending which is nice but it could have been…

“The one you are”, my personal favourite by far and I won’t spend much words on it because of that, also because it’s one of the best “little” songs I’ve heard in quite a while. How his voice seems to change with every year passing by, it really is intriguing to me and with this song you can hear the depth, variety and wisdom blending into one small but grand masterpiece.

All in all I think it’s a really good album, maybe it could have used a bit more up tempo songs but as always it’s such a treat hearing the man with the most beautiful voice sing his song…

Het is een vrij rustige cd geworden, dat hij zo 'schandalig slecht' geproduceerd zou zijn heb ik niet gemerkt. Vond het een aardige cd welke een aanvulling is op het repertoire van A-ha

Ik heb ook niets gemerkt van een slechte productie...
Vind het wel een lekkere plaat. Heerlijk om aan te hebben tijdens het schrijven van de discussie sectie van mijn proefschrift
Doet me een beetje denken aan Novastar... En zoals hier boven al wordt geopperd, de man heeft inderdaad een heerlijke stem voor dit soort nummers...
Prima!!