Time and Again: The Ultimate a-ha

There is a reason why the unreleased mixes were not released before. They are all rather poor.
The Sun Always Shines On TV is more or less just a cheap techno beat over the original. It has the same percussion loop as the Steve Thompson mix.
Cry Wolf is only an extended album version as far as I can hear.
The House mix of Touchy is not really house. Not convincing either.
Of the (now) 4 “gun” mixes, the “three-time gun mix” is the weakest. And all of them lack the cool groove of the original.

The by far best track is Kygo’s Take On Me. The guy’s a genius! He made everything new, only using the original vocals (telling from what I can hear on the track). Check out his performance with a-ha at he Nobel Peace Prize concert! :-)

Did anyone know/listen to the 3:54 Cry Wolf Jellybean 7″ Mix unreleased (on youtube), legal download made available by Rhino around the release of Time And Again? If the 7″ mix is 3:54 I hardly can believe the 12″ mix is only 5;14 long!

I only cared about the 4 unreleased mixes. Those are the reason I bought this. I thought You Are The One Dub Mix Edit might be just an early fade of the 7:20 Dub Mix. I’m glad it was an Edit which has a proper beginning and ending. Of course if Rhino had included the full mix that would be perfect :D The Blood That Moves The Body Three-Time Gun Mix also has a proper beginning & ending ;) I will buy them again! Just get Paul Sinclair on board this time do a 2 or 3 CD set of remixes like Paul Young’s or the Thompson Twins’ with these 2 unreleased mixes (IF the fuller/longer versions of Cry Wolf Jellybean Mix & Touchy Paul Simpson House Mix really exist) & put the You Are The One 7:20 Dub Mix along with all omitted remixes from A-ha’s recent expanded deluxe editions like The Sun Always Shines On T.V. (Flexi-Disc/Exclusive U.S. Dance Mix) 4:33 etc I’m willing to pay again :P

I certainly have no regrets getting this release.

I’ve been enjoying the remix disc more then I thought I would, putting it on a few times since purchase. My preference is with the later mixes, but I even enjoyed the four unreleased vintage 80’s mixes. The edited version of “You Are The One” is more enjoyable this way imo, but ofcourse, as disussed before, the unreleased long version is now still missing from many fan’s their collection.
While I have no reason to believe that Rhino edited other tracks for this release there are some other minor issues, most of which comes down to personal taste. I would have liked some more remixes from the Lifelines era. I always felt that those on the cd singles were great and could have easily gone on the final album. So I wouldn’t have minded this being a 2 disc remixes release. “Touchy” is mentioned as being from the “Scoundrel Days” album instead of from “Stay On These Roads” but now I’m nitpicking.

But I like most of what’s on here. It’s convenient to have some of my favourite remixes on this one cd instead of having to go through my cd singles, which are stored away and usually never listened to anymore. The black dog mix of “Minor Earth” , “Lifelines” is even more beautiful in the boogieman remix, ofcourse the great reamped “Did Anyone Approach You” mix. I only had an mp3 version of the “Foot of the mountain ” remix, so it’s nice to have it now on cd. And I also don’t have to take out my “Butterfly” cd single if I want to listen to the “Steve Osborne” mix. It’s all here! Well almost all, but still a nice addition to my collection.

Okay, thanks. It’s good to know that. It was only my point of view, belief or assumption. Because I don’t really have any real evidence to back it up. As long as Jellybean, Paul Simpson, Warner/Rhino can’t come up with their sides of the story I guess we’ll never really gonna know about this. Perhaps A-Ha, but I doubt they were involved, mostly record companies would commission some remixers for the remixes, sometimes artist gets a say whether a remix can be released or not. Other times record companies decide on their own.

It’s a bit hostile here. Okay, Dub Mix Edit, so I expected/accepted it as an early fade out perhaps due to the disc space but I still gave it a go & pre-ordered it! The promo only Dub Mix was out there (I found it on youtube to compare to the one on CD)! Rhino must know every fan wanted it! Why on earth would they give us the another edit of it from the vault? There still about 1-2min disc space unused! They could have faded the 2 unreleased mixes even earlier! 1 or 2 more mins shorter it doesn’t matter anymore, still they are incomplete. I wasn’t really judging the 2 mixes! I was listening to them expected the highlight of Cry Wolf! But it faded out already! I found it strange so I ripped it in wave to see that it was faded out rapidly. I listened & own many 80’s mixes! Jellybean was big! I like almost all his mixes done by himself! I don’t think Jellybean would put his name on a mix like that! Every remixer would finish a mix as (s)he thinks it’s the best at that moment! The one on CD is like a unfinished product/mix! Rhino should have labelled it as an early unfinished mix! I doubt Rhino or Warner back then would have paid Jellybean for an unfinished job! Paul Simpson’s mix sounds like a early mix prior the go-go mix! I didn’t really like the effect on the go-go mix! But there was no other official mixes of the song! So I accepted it! Now I know about this mix I believe this was probably an early mix before he had added the effect of the go-go mix! If the go-go mix clocked over the 8mins, the early mix wouldn’t be a 5mins mix! I wasn’t complaining about the 1991 gun mix! I own that CD single myself: 2x 4mins single mixes and an extended about 6mins! So the unreleased gun mix could be 5mins long! But after the edit & early fades I wasn’t 100% sure! I guess we’ll never know about whether they have done that intentionally or not! As a custumer paying for a product I guess I can have my opinion about it! Common sense tells me they weren’t like that.

The outro for the extended remix of “Cry Wolf” last a minute, on the “House Mix” it’s faded within 30 seconds. But still that doesn’t say anything if this was originally done this way, or if it has been faded early for this release. Not much has been added by Jellybean tho.
Even the dub edit for “You Are The One” could have been in edit done in 1988 that was never releaesed before. I would still prefer the full length version and it is still (more) likely that it’s a new edit for this release, but I like more information on the other remixes.

Received my copy today. But it’s very disappointing to find out that Rhino screwed us by releasing the “previously unreleased” mixes in an early fade out or heavily edited version. #3-6 on disc2 are the ones I’m buying this CD for! Do they expect us to pay for the full length version when they somehow will release again in the future?

3. “Cry Wolf “ (Jellybean Mix)* sounds pretty straight like the original, I believe Jellybean had much in his sleeves after the vocal part, unfortunately I couldn’t listen to it as they had it faded out early ;(

4. “Touchy!” (House Mix)* I quite like this one, it different than the Go-Go Mix (I had always found it’s a weak mix compared to other A-ha remixes)! But bad it was faded out early as well ;(

5. “You Are The One” (Dub Mix Edit)* this is actually to same as the 7:20 Dub Mix except they edited the intro & middle part!
Dub mix:
0:01-2:55 (=2:54)
You are the one, that is the state I’m in…
2:55-6:39 (3:44)
You are the one…
6:39-7:20 (=0:41)

Dub edit:
0:00-1:19 (=1:19)
You are the one, that is the state I’m in…
1:19-4:43 (=3:24)
You are the one…
4:32-5:21(=0:47)

6. “Blood That Moves The Body” (Three-Time Gun Mix)* this one I’m not 100%, cold beginning & ending, no reference. It could be that they edited in the middle or trimmed off the intro! I guess we’ll never know.

*Previously unreleased

Too bad Rhino still don’t know we want QUALITY (unreleased mixes in their full length as they supposed to be) and not Quantity (a number of mixes on disc 2)! They could have ditched some already released & perhaps 2000 or newer mixes to have these 4 unreleased mixes in their full glory. Perhaps they can put those full length versions out for the people who bought the CD!

This is due next week 25/03/16 isn’t it?

Just saw A-ha are playing a special show for Radio 2!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/r2_aha_24mar16

Both Steve Osborne single versions of ‘Objects In The Mirror’ and ‘Cast In Steel’ are available at Spotify, I think worldwide now. ‘Objects In The Mirror’ should be a UK release only, but it’s available in the Netherlands as well. Here the links to listen/stream:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6BIJvhGjjEhf8kSbtKVH0V (Objects…)
https://open.spotify.com/album/7hxyHsW0WnRuruBaqW0i7o (Cast…)

Also the ‘You Are The One (Dub Mix Edit)’ 5’21 is available already.
(https://open.spotify.com/album/44Bt5j90br8dV8ZGAEe12o)

The new mix of “Cast in Steel” is available as 16 bit flac files on sites as 7 digital and Qobuz as well, at least the dutch stores as it. A nice and better way then iTunes to make up for the lack of a release on cd.

Not looking forward in owning yet another greates hits cd but I don’t mind the second cd with remixes. Not all of them are great but things like the reamped version of “Did Anyone Approch you” is certainly worth having. This set will also be available on Qobuz it seems as you can already download the Cry Wolf (Jellybean mix) on there, it’s also on iTunes. So I have hopes you can just download the tracks you want as Flac and even Wav files. The Cry Wolf mix also sounds great. You can still recognise the song but it highlights other aspects of the song, which is what makes some of these remixes interesting. So I certainly won’t dismiss this release out of hand, notwithstanding some missed chances and the repeat factor.

Still confussed about the “Cast in Steel remake or remix. Nothing on the official site stating this is a rework?
And it seems that the dutch release has the Foot Of The Mountain (Erik Llungren Remix) as track 15 on disc 2 instead of the “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” (Steve Osborne Remix).

https://www.bol.com/nl/p/time-and-again-the-ultimate-a/9200000055637181

I’m disappointed this is not more comprehensive and includes all their singles. The remixes disc is a nice idea though but don’t know half of those mixes. I would have liked just the extended versions of all their songs on a separate disc.

Paul,thank you,but sicne I live in Italy,I cannot,unless otherwise stated,download anyting [e-book,songs, albums etc.]for copyright and international laws reasons.I should have an acconut on Amazon UK – just to use it as example – with an UK address,so they can check and then bill my cerdit card,to the address it is associated.Anyway,I’ll wait for it on iTunes,I don’t see why a-ha shouldn’t put it on it too,since they use their catalogue on the digital musci store their catalogue,So,we’ll see.

@Anthony C: Yes,it’s odd,but maybe it’s because I checked just on the “singles” section of their site,not on the news.Thought they could put the covers on there,too…It’s no big deal anyway,but thanks for pointing it out,next time I know where to serach for! :)

Oh,I didn’t see Mark’s comment,sorry…Unavailability on iTunes Italy only,then…

Hello

I’ve read a few people say they can’t find details of A-ha new singles on there website!

This is odd as they are both featured very prominently on their news page, here are the links:

http://a-ha.com/news/categories/english/

http://a-ha.com/news/articles/new-single-cast-in-steel-out-now/
http://a-ha.com/news/articles/objects-in-the-mirror/

Cheers.

A jewel case! What a relief.

Paul,never mind,I read all the answers ensued,thanks to you,to Victor and to Mark!Very appreciated help!

It’s strange both singles or re-recorded,o remixed versions,call it what you want are not cited on their official site,tough…Last single pictured is sitll “Under The Makeup”…

Hi,

This is my first post. Excellent website Paul !

Just to confirm the single mix of cast in steel is a re-recorded version. Apparently it was re-recorded during the band’s time in South America last year and given to different producers to bring out the best musically from the song. The Steve Osbourne version was preferred.

Yes, Paul, I understand, but is it a big deal to obtain the publishing rights both to please the fans and breathe some more of selling potential into otherwise doubtful compilation?

@Nicola
Yes, I meant Steve Osbourne single version which is very different to the original album track. Also ‘Objects In The Mirror’, another Steve Osbourne, single version is being aired in the UK at the moment, it’s very disappointing for me not to have this great and much different to the original versions on the forthcoming compilation.

Want want want!!

what? no bonus dvd with music videos???

Shame its an edit of the dub mix of you are the one, still baffling. Surely the full version could have been included at expense of any of the mixes from the last 15 years!

Awesome, can’t wait!

:-)

And no recently nicely re-recorded ‘Cast In Steel’ single version. Brilliant. :/

Who is going to London O2 show, anybody? We should do SDE meet and greets at gigs!

Great news for me it is not a digipak (-:

I know people are unhappy about another “hits” collection, but if it’s going to happen, this is an exciting way to do it. The commentary from Magne and Pal is a nice bonus, and of course the remix CD has much to recommend it. I’m looking forward to this!

For me, the ultimate a-ha was the one used by Alan Partidge after sacking house band leader Glenn Ponder during Knowing Me, Knowing You.