"Hunting High & Low" was basically a collection of some strong singles, with some other tracks added to fill an album. "Scoundrel Days", however, is crowded with great non-singles, usually dominated by synths, but otherwise very musically varied. "The Swing Of Things" for me stands as clearly the pinnacle of their entire body of work - a sort of Japan-influenced song with mood changes, a great tune, and possibly Morten Harket's best vocal performance ever. Other strong non-singles are the Bacharach-influenced "October", the catchy "We're Looking For The Whale" and somewhat darker synthpop tracks such as the title track and "The Weight Of The Wind". Add the fact that "I've Been Losing You" and "Manhattan Skyline" are both among their best singles, and "Scoundrel Days" for me clearly stands as their masterpiece.
The album has also generally performed better than "Hunting..." in surveys of the best Norwegian albums ever, and is apparently Sondre Lerche's all-time favourite album. So its Norwegian status is already quite huge, but what do you guys outside Norway think?
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)
My thoughts on one song in detail.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)
― brittle-lemon, Thursday, 28 April 2005 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)
― horten market, Thursday, 28 April 2005 05:59 (twenty-one years ago)
swing of things = A++++++++
― and what, Thursday, 23 August 2007 16:43 (eighteen years ago)
the 3-note 'take on me' quote towards the end!!!!!
― and what, Thursday, 23 August 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)
why is it rated so low on Allmusic?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 23 August 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)
x-post -- Christ, I never even noticed that. Thank you!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 August 2007 16:48 (eighteen years ago)
Wait, IS it rated low? What the hell?!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 May 2008 03:20 (eighteen years ago)
The review itself was kinda/sorta positive, but it received only 2.5 stars. Rolling Stone's review was actually less kind to the album.
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 1 May 2008 03:25 (eighteen years ago)
I should hope it was kinda/sorta positive at the least, given the author.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 May 2008 03:39 (eighteen years ago)
I've come around more on "I've Been Losing You" in recent years.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 May 2008 03:40 (eighteen years ago)
Haha. Oh yeah! Missed that part. Nothing gets by me.
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 1 May 2008 04:02 (eighteen years ago)
The Rolling Stone review was written just after the album's release though. One should expect it to be revalued a bit in retrospect. Because, this is a way better album than "Hunting High And Low". "Hunting...." may be the bigger seller, but "Scoundrel Days" is much more of an artistic masterpiece.
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 1 May 2008 07:59 (eighteen years ago)
wtf? i KNOW there must be a longer scoundrel days thread on ILM somewhere.
― Alan, Thursday, 1 May 2008 11:00 (eighteen years ago)
Maybe?
Anyway, me on said album for the What Was It Anyway? blog.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 9 May 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)
Great fucking album.
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 04:38 (sixteen years ago)
The legend grows.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 May 2009 04:46 (sixteen years ago)
The legend is eclipsed:
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 11:46 (sixteen years ago)
One of the best albums to come out of Norway, ever.
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:35 (fifteen years ago)
agreed.
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:47 (fifteen years ago)
DJP - would i like this?
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:51 (fifteen years ago)
I think you would like it a lot!
quick litmus test, do you like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLxoBBcfY_o
If so, track this down immediately because that's not even the best song on the album.
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:55 (fifteen years ago)
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
So into this :)
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:59 (fifteen years ago)
the swing of things...so so good.
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:00 (fifteen years ago)
basically it is 10 of the raddest songs ever recorded
like, this is the worst one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db3O1KmXGHY&feature=related
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:01 (fifteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfl8hcilaoY
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:02 (fifteen years ago)
I was looking for a studio version of that song and couldn't find one... but yeah
total fucking hotness front to back on this album
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:02 (fifteen years ago)
and of course hunting high and low has lots of moments besides "Take On Me". Living a Boys Adventure Tale and The Sun ALways Shines on TV.
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:04 (fifteen years ago)
Yeah - gonna get this asap. THANKS!
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:06 (fifteen years ago)
^_^
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:07 (fifteen years ago)
Enjoy
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:10 (fifteen years ago)
Morten Harket might be one of the most underrated singers in all of pop music
― ancient, but very sexy (DJP), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:12 (fifteen years ago)
dude is still pimpin too.
― Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah, TWO! (chrisv2010), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:13 (fifteen years ago)
this album's fantastic yes! i might like the debut just a little bit more but this is awesome.
― ilxor you've listened to one odd future album once (ilxor), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:13 (fifteen years ago)
Everything I said above applies, and continues to do so.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:20 (fifteen years ago)
Just listened to "The Swing Of Things" again. And...... still....... wow!
Still playing with the thought about what would have happened had they dared to release it as a single. Would it have become a more known classic, or just an uncommercial flop single. Mind you, the rather "artistic" "Train Of Thought" (which is also a great song) was the one single from the debut that had the worst hitlist performance.
― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Sunday, 8 May 2011 02:01 (fourteen years ago)
i'm not well versed enough in a-ha history to know what they released instead... what was the single?
― ilxor, I know you sometimes feel like ilx revolves around you (ilxor), Sunday, 8 May 2011 02:19 (fourteen years ago)
"I've Been Losing You", "Cry Wolf" and "Manhattan Skyline" from this album.
― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Sunday, 8 May 2011 02:20 (fourteen years ago)
How I feel about "The Swing of Things" remains as it always does. Just stunning.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 May 2011 02:26 (fourteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDLFS-ZFKuk
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 October 2012 14:11 (thirteen years ago)
Yeah, I would have killed to be there.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 October 2012 14:22 (thirteen years ago)
Guitar part in "Manhattan Skyline" sounds so raw, like it could've come straight out of a 1979 post-punk 7" somewhere. How that wound up on a 1986 album produced as slickly as Scoundrel Days is remains a mystery to me even 26 years later.
― Bout to go Jethro TULL on that ass (Johnny Fever), Monday, 22 October 2012 01:03 (thirteen years ago)
for the last six days "Maybe, Maybe" has been the first song my mind wakes up to.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 October 2012 01:15 (thirteen years ago)
What do ppl think of the extra material on the deluxe reissue of this?
― 2 huxtables and a sousaphone (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:55 (twelve years ago)
IIRC most of it was from the various singles...or am I wrong there? Still haven't picked it up (yeah, slack, I know).
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 30 May 2013 17:59 (twelve years ago)
There's also a bunch of live tracks.
― 2 huxtables and a sousaphone (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 30 May 2013 19:02 (twelve years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZhy1JHg1x8
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 October 2014 02:23 (eleven years ago)
I still don't know what I was thinking that I didn't see their LA show on the last tour.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 4 October 2014 02:29 (eleven years ago)
Hunting High and Low has some of a-ha's best known songs on it, but Scoundrel Days pisses all over it from a great height IMO. Their masterpiece.
'Soft Rains Of April' could almost be a late-period Smiths song.
― Turrican, Friday, 4 September 2015 02:17 (ten years ago)
Only just got around to hearing this great album.
Will never be able to not think about this when listening, thoughhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4aD_dZzYpI
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 9 July 2022 21:21 (three years ago)
"October" is pretty perfect. All Frazier Chorus like
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 17 July 2022 07:55 (three years ago)