A-ha
Minor Earth, Major Sky (Deluxe Edition)

The album as a whole met the expectations of the band's fans. Despite the fact that a-ha again returned to the pop format (I emphasize to pop music, not to pop), combining acoustic and electronic elements in the album, the group did not change itself, and released high-quality and mature products. The album opens with a tough title track, which again returns us to the traditional A-ha theme of loneliness and isolation of a person in the world around him. The elegant "Velvet" and the epic hit "Summer moved on", which, contrary to the misconceptions of many, do not tell about the weather and seasonal phenomena of nature, stand out especially on an even album as a whole. The beautiful and soft ballad "You'll Never Get Over Me", named by British music critics as the most melodic song since the Beatles and close, in my opinion, to the perfect song, will remind the listener of the best works of the group of the early 90s. The track "I won't forget her", which was originally planned in the guitar-blues version, and in the final version turned out to be some kind of a rollback in the direction of absolutely atypical dance music for A-ha, can be considered a certain failure. However, the soft dance rhythm is still not the leader in the song. As in all the songs of the group, the melody dominates. And the album closes with a tribute to The Beatles - the magnificent "Mary Ellen makes the moment count", produced by the band's guitarist Paul Vauctor and spilling a balm on the souls of ardent followers of "Memorial beach". In a word, A-ha have once again released an album intended not for feet, but for reason. And even though he is far from a masterpiece, and "Minor Earth, Major Sky" is a compromise album, a slight rollback in comparison with the two previous works, A-ha have not changed themselves and proved their right to be the classics of pop and rock music.