Ace Audio: "Take on Me" - A-ha (80's marathon part 2/6)

The 1980s gave us a lot of music that was, very much reminiscent of the time. This is true for all decades, and most of the songs that are, let's say representative of their respective decade, aren't always the best. The problem with many of these songs is that they are outdated, which does not make an interesting review. Songs like "We Built This City" are bad songs, but not the most interesting kind of bad songs. A dated song that "Glycerine" is more interesting because it's problems were not common to songs of the era, "We Built This City" is a song that has problems that were common for the time, which makes it less interesting to review, and in some cases listen to. Songs that are outdated are generally those songs you put in the background for noise while you work, not to dissimilar to a podcast or a video review you've seen before, even I was watching a few reviews while writing this review.

Anyway, I bring this up because, one of the more interesting things to review are dated songs that are actually good.

"Take on Me" is a song that practically defines the 80s, you take one listen to this song and you immediately think 1980s, similar to how you hear "Eve of Destruction" and think 1960s. This is something you can do in any decade, at the risk of making your song dated. This is the surprising thing about this song though, although it is dated by a long time, it has also never aged a bit. Unlike a song like "Johnny B. Goode" which you can tell is from the fifties and yet also hasn't aged a bit, this song could not have been as successful as it was before or after the 1980s. The fact that it does not sound dated, and yet is completely dated is a baffling thought that could only have been pulled of in the 1980s. "Take on Me" is my favourite of these kinds of 80s songs, but there is also "Safety Dance", "Whip It", "Land of Confusion", "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "Mexican Radio" among many others. These are the songs that are obviously from the 1980s, and so unashamed of being from the 1980s that in a strange way, they actually become sort of timeless.

But what is a claim without a fact to back it up, short answer a YouTube Copyright claim. So, is this song still an 80's classic, or should we leave it in a box alongside Simon and our unsolved Rubik's Cubes. Seriously, who actually solved them in that day and age?

The song opens with a very catchy faux drum beat. I don't actually hate drum machines, sure I prefer real drums, but honestly, they don't bother me too much because they aren't often a big part in songs. Especially in a song like this, or something by Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. Then, we get one of the most iconic and memorable synth lines of the 80s, NEIGH, of all time. How memorable is it? Pitbull sampled it for "Feel this Moment", to absolutely no avail, that was one of the worst songs of 2013.

Although the instrumentals give the song a very nice beat to it, the vocals are not to be overlooked. Morten Harket can range from very smooth to incredible high notes. The chorus is one of the most recognizable and memorable parts of the song. Everybody who has heard this has tried to replicate the very high notes Morten has used.

The instrumental break is also a very nice touch, I especially love the piano that kind of gives off a vibe that escalates into something tense. However, after that we get the iconic bit of the song once more, that synth riff is so good, and it's so damn catchy. It makes the song even better, one of the best songs of the 1980s, in my opinion.

I guess I should also talk about the lyrics, well, it's a love song and what don you expect it was an 80's pop hit. Not that they can't have lyrical depth or anything, I mean "Born in the USA" was a hit as was "Welcome to the Jungle", but the majority of them are songs about love, or related to love. It's telling when one of the songs that the 80's is known for is called "The Power of Love".

Yes, this song is dated, but it's dated in all of the best ways. Any generation can listen to it, and even if they will know it came from a different decade, it summarizes all of the best parts about said decade. The upbeat pop music, the unique vocalists and some of the catchiest music of all time.

Yes, this song holds up, even if not in the ways most songs hold up. I'm the Entity of Darkness, and the 80's marathon is just starting.

Ace Audio: "Lights" - Ellie Goulding

A lot of my Auditory Abominations are often about pop songs, mostly because a lot of pop songs are just fluff, which is a term of many definitions, but it generally means that the product is really nothing but sugar and air, giving it very little substance to it in the end, but sometimes a fluff product can work. Fluff is not really accepted overall by most people because after a while when whatever fad it is a part of dies off there really isn't any thing to hold on to. A lot of the songs I talk about have many things that fail on their own merits, such as "This is How We Do" (You know, I really need to stop picking on Katy Perry so much), that is a song that has horrid lyrics, awful music and a dreadful theme all of it sung by someone who can't sing. The song on it's own is awful, but when I compare it to a song that has good beats and tempos, good lyrics and a good theme by singers that can sing, it becomes even more unbearable, and that's not even comparing it to heavy metal music I'm just in my head comparing that song to "Face to face" by Daft Punk.

Pop music is going to be a regular on that series, but sometimes there is a good pop song, and for those of you who have been reading my previous posts, you'll know that I have been praising this song pretty much since the beginning. But I don't think that is really enough to describe my thoughts about this song, so I'll say this; this song is in my top 15, on the same list as "Chlorine and Wine" and "Octavarium". That means that I put this song higher on my favourite songs list than most of the other songs I'll cover here.

I'm not saying this song is better than most of the stuff I'm covering, in fact it may be one of the weakest songs I'm covering, but I say you should recognize failures, but you also have to recognize successes. Often because the failures allow you to appreciate some of the lesser successes.

What makes this song different from most pop songs is that unlike most other pop songs like "Starships", I actually understand the appeal. The song has a bouncy beat that is easy to groove and dance to, and Ellie's voice is just beautiful. Even the song's theme is easy to identify with, it's about the fear of the dark, something plenty of us had and have.

A lot of issues I have with pop music is that it is often beyond basic, I mean repeat four chords and sing some song about being famous, in a break-up or just some generic dance song that doesn't hold up after the next big single comes out. This song actually gives me something to hold onto after all this time, allowing me to enjoy it much more than something like "I Knew You Were Trouble".

Is this a good song, or is it just a victim of what some people call the frozen effect? You know where a lot of the other stuff is crap making whatever isn't really bad sounds so much better. I do have to say that around this time I never really heard a lot of music on the radio, most of what I listened to was modern rock so I can say that this is a good song on it's own, and not just because everything else was crap.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and always keep an open mind, you may find something new to enjoy.