a-ha's recording career hit the skids in America with its third release. But in the U.K., the album became the group's third straight to peak at number two, though it charted for a shorter period than the first two albums, and there were four Top 25 hits -- the title track, "The Blood That Moves the Body," "Touchy!," and "You Are the One." (Also included was
a-ha's 1987 theme from the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, a U.K. number five that missed the U.S. charts.) Even in a country with a demonstrated affection for Scandinavians, however (remember
ABBA?), that was a fall-off, if the decline was more gradual, and three albums in,
a-ha wasn't demonstrating any development from its first hit, just more of the same and a little less distinctive. ~ William Ruhlmann