Released 4 September 2015 Length 47:01 Release date 4 September 2015 | Recorded 2014–2015 Artist A-ha Label Swinglong Ltd | |
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Producer Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Peter Kvint, Erik Ljunggren, John O'Mahony, Steve Osborne, Alan Tarney, Pål Waaktaar-Savoy Cast in Steel
(2015) Time and Again The Ultimate a-ha
(2016) Genres Synthpop, Pop rock, Alternative rock Nominations Spellemann Award for Pop group of the Year Similar A-ha albums, Pop rock albums | ||
Cast in Steel is the tenth studio album by Norwegian band A-ha. The album was released on 4 September 2015 by We Love Music and Polydor. It is their first studio album since Foot of the Mountain (2009), following their second reunion in early 2015.
Contents
Cast in Steel is the first a-ha album to use the original band logo since Memorial Beach from 1993, and the first album to be produced by Alan Tarney since Stay on These Roads (1988).
Background and recording
Following the release of their ninth studio album, Foot of the Mountain, a-ha announced that they would retire as a band. In 2015, however, the band announced that they would re-unite for a two-year period and release Cast in Steel, followed by a world tour to promote the album. Cast in Steel was released on 4 September 2015, shortly before a-ha returns to perform at Rock in Rio for the show's 30th anniversary.
Initially Pål Waaktaar-Savoy and Morten Harket began recording the album without Magne Furuholmen. Waaktaar-Savoy said of the process: "It began quite small with Morten dropping by my studio now and then, and I played some of my new songs for him. Then he recorded his vocal on the songs he liked and the rest we didn't use. That continued until we had ten to twelve songs." Furuholmen has said the reunion wasn't his decision: "The other two wanted to do it, and I had to decide: do I block it, let them do it without me, or make a fool of myself, with my statements about this being the end."
Singles
"Under the Makeup" was released as the album's first single internationally on 3 July 2015. The music video was shot in Telemark in Norway and stars Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl ( [ The Killing (Danish TV series) and Fortitude (TV series) ) and Swedish actress Frida Farrell ( Bones (TV series), Contract Killers and Cyclops (2008 film) ).
On 19 August 2015, "The Wake" was premiered on BBC Radio 2. The song was released as the album's second single in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2015.
A-ha performed the album's third single "Forest Fire" on 3 September 2015 at the 2015 Radiopreis-Gala in Germany. On 15 September 2015 a lyric video was released on YouTube. "Forest Fire" was added to the BBC Radio 2 playlist on 28 October 2015 as the third single from the album in the UK.
The Steve Osborne remix of "Cast in Steel" was released as an international single on 12 February 2016. On the same date, the Osborne remix of "Objects In The Mirror" was released as the fourth single in the UK.
Commercial performance
Cast in Steel debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart, selling 7,828 copies in its first week. It is a-ha's sixth Top 10 album in the United Kingdom. The album debuted at number four on the German Albums Chart, and became the 99th best-selling album of 2015.
Track listing
a-ha
Additional credits/musicians:
Songs
1Cast in Steel3:50
2Under The Makeup3:26
3The Wake3:46