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Talking Away: 30 years after ‘Take On Me,’ listen to a-Ha’s new single, ‘Cast In Steel’


Few things annoy us more than the characterization of Norwegian synth-pop group a-Ha as a “one hit wonder.” Beyond “Take On Me”, the global phenomenon that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, the trio not only released a string of successful singles, like “The Sun Always Shines On TV”, but also one of the finest albums of the ’80s in Scoundrel Days. The band is regarded as royalty in their native Norway, and among electronic music fans.

Now, after officially retiring in 2009 after the release of Foot of the Mountain, Morten Harket and company are back with a new record, Cast In Steel, and you can hear the title track below. Cast In Steel, which has already yielded the single “Under the Makeup,” is out this Friday across the Atlantic and around the world, three weeks before a-Ha are set to play the Rock In Rio music festival in Brazil.

There are some confirmed tour dates for April 2016 in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, but nothing to suggest the band will come over here to the States in the next year. A-Ha have promised that they are not back together permanently; they’ve returned to create and tour this record for a two-year period before heading back to retirement.

Hopefully we here in the U.S. will get to show the love back.