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A-ha vinyl reissues due in May

By Paul Sinclair

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27

huntinghigh

A-ha kick off their 30th anniversary celebrations late in May with vinyl reissues of their first two albums Hunting High and Low (1985) and Scoundrel Days (1986).

These have been remastered by Ron McMaster at Capitol Studios and are pressed on 180gm black vinyl. Both releases will include a download code for an MP3 versions of the album.

No word on the packaging, although one would expect Rhino to replicate the originals with the spot varnishing used on Hunting High and Low and the Scoundrel Days embossed sleeve (both these elements were present on the digipack versions of the 2010 deluxe reissues).

Surprisingly, neither album made it to number one on the UK charts back in the day, both stalling at number two, as did Take On Me, a single often assumed to be a UK number one (only The Sun Always Shines On TV got to the top spot in Britain).

For some reason both of these vinyl reissues are currently very expensive on Amazon UK. Those prices will inevitably come down, however they are available for around £15 apiece now on Amazon Germany.

Hunting High and Low has been promised as a super deluxe edition box set in 2015, but unless some other announcement is imminent, it looks like the vinyl reissue is happening ahead of the box set, rather than simultaneously. On the band’s Facebook page we are promised “more information about these and other vinyl reissues in the coming months”, so perhaps we will see vinyl editions of Stay On These Roads and the subsequent albums along with the forthcoming deluxe CD reissues that we already know about.

Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days are reissued on vinyl 25 May 2015

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Track listings

Hunting High and Low

  1. Take on Me
  2. Train of Thought
  3. Hunting High and Low
  4. The Blue Sky
  5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
  6. The Sun Always Shines on T.V.
  7. And You Tell Me
  8. Love Is Reason
  9. I Dream Myself Alive
  10. Here I Stand and Face the Rain

Scoundrel Days

  1. Scoundrel Days
  2. The Swing of Things
  3. I’ve Been Losing You
  4. October
  5. Manhattan Skyline
  6. Cry Wolf
  7. We’re Looking for the Whales
  8. The Weight of the Wind
  9. Maybe, Maybe
  10. Soft Rains of April

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27 Comments

27 thoughts on “A-ha vinyl reissues due in May”

  1. For any of you A-Ha fans that live int he UK (or anywhere else that the magazine is distributed) A-Ha are the feature stars of this months ‘Classic Pop’ magazine.

    Looks like a good career retrospective. Have not checked if it features a band interview or not…

  2. The vinyl editions have arrived, HHaL has got the spot varnish nut SD has not got the embossed sleeve, tut tut.
    Both sleeves have been updated with new copyright info, HHaL still have the address for the a-ha fan club. SD text has all been updated and made clearer. Not played the vinyl…yet. and criticism is the outer sleeves are printed on very thin card and will probably get creased if stored between other records.

  3. Vinyl doesn’t really do anything for me, but I log into this site three or four times a day eagerly looking forward to the announcements for the tracklists in the CD reissues for the rest of the catalogue coming late this year. Really hoping for a complete video collection–I have Headlines and Deadlines, and I’ve tried to find the limited edition of 25 that came with the DVD of videos, but I can’t find it anywhere. It would be nice to have a complete, cleaned up version, maybe with a proper surround mix. As a huge fan of both East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Memorial Beach, I can’t wait to have expanded editions of those as well. I never got into Stay On These Roads when I was younger, but I went back to it again recently and realized that I must have just had lousy taste as a kid, because it’s quite good as well. I’m hoping there’s a nice, extended mix of “Crying in the Rain” (but please not a dance one) and “Stay on These Roads” (also, please not a dance one). I love some of the extended mixes that were done of ballads in the late 80s/early 90s, before everyone tried turning them into floor thumpers. The extended mix of Madonna’s “Bad Girl” especially is brilliant.

    1. Didn’t realise that the ’25’ with the DVD was now hard to get… There are no extended versions for any of the East of the Sun… singles but there is a decent extended version of Stay On These Roads and that will definitely be on the reissue. The extended version of Move to Memphis (which irritatingly wasn’t on the CD single at the time) should also make an appearance on the Memorial Beach reissue. They should put the seven-inch ‘Headline and Deadline’ version on there too since that’s different to the MB album version.

  4. I used to own both of these and, yes, friends made fun of me. Have no idea why as their music in its day was fabulous. Not sure if it would hold up now, but am tempted to grab these just to find out.

  5. No longer have a turntable, so I don’t worry about vinyl reissues, although I am glad they are being released. What I am desperate to know is the track listings of the next lot of deluxe CDs, and of course the super deluxe of Hunting High And Low. These I will get without hesitation.

  7. “Scoundrel Days” is a near-perfect album…blighted only by “Maybe Maybe” in my view. A terrible song that just ruins the beautiful mood and flow of the rest. Had they replaced “Maybe Maybe” with a fully-realised version of “Days on End” it would have been more of a masterpiece! :-)

  8. Big fan of both of these albums, especially “Scoundrel Days.” I will definitely be picking up these vinyl reissues. “The Swing of Things” is one of the best pop creations of the ’80s as far as i’m concerned, and the rest of side 1 is nearly as good.

  9. Nope, no vinyl for me! I know some say (or prefer vinyl because) they are (getting) better than the (loudness war) CD’s! I prefer a decent mastered CD than vinyl. Those vinyl days have passed! Kept searching/hoping to find everything from vinyl on CD or digital download again!

    They always say fashion has a “return”! Someday something might come back! I also see it in other things like mobile phones from a water bottle size ones to the small tiny thin ones & now from small touch screen smartphones to the tablet size smartphones. Turntables/cassetteplayers to CD players/discmans to mp3 players. And now turntables/vinyls are “hot”/”in” again for some of you/us. :P

  10. I found a near-mint copy of the original Stay On These Roads vinyl a year or two back, and it sounded perfectly good to my ears. I’m not really sure what remastering can do for music that was pretty well recorded and mastered in the first place.

  11. Bought them both on vinyl too back in the days. Though I guess these versions will probably sound much better.

    I agree that the A side of Scoundrel Days is fantastic. The intensity of these five songs and the way they flow is perfection to my ears.

          1. I found them for a tenner each online, from the same (UK) source. Hopefully no crushed or creased spines, it’s my biggest worry with these sort of editions. Half my Suede ones turned up in a state, and Demon wouldn’t/couldn’t replace them.

    1. Despite the acclaim I could never find a ‘way in’ to that album. Thought quite a few of the songs ‘chugged’ along pleasantly, but there were not enough hard edges for me. I enjoyed “Analogue” more –  “Cosy Prisons” is excellent.

  15. Very glad to hear this. I was afraid the box sets coming out would trump a vinyl release of at least the first two albums. Hope they continue with the vinyl releases as indicated, would love to get Foot Of The Mountain on vinyl.

  16. Not interested in the vinyl as I bought their albums on CD originally. So, when are the Deluxe Edition CD Sets due to be released?

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