A-ha by This Day in Music Books

Author:This Day in Music Books
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916258242
Publisher: This Day in Music Books
Published: 2020-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

‘Little Black Heart’ had reportedly been demoed during a time when the band were on the verge of splintering, and the lyrics to the song seem to offer an insight into the lyricist’s mindset during this period. But while the narrator of the song is seemingly going through a period of great sadness (‘Raindrops on my window / I can’t tell them apart’) and self-doubt (‘You say it’s getting better / You say it’s alright / But I never felt darkness / Like I feel it tonight’), an optimistic beacon, in the shape of a middle eight, offers a welcome counterpoint to the melancholy (‘One day we will shine / Like the moon in the morning / Like the sun when it’s dawning’).

Although the final version of the track was slightly let down by some heavy-handed percussion and a stuttering stop-start production – signalled by the William Orbit-esque echo drum effects that had characterised Madonna’s Ray of Light-era recordings – this was, largely, a sonically satisfying composite of electronics, strings and gently picked acoustic guitar. (An alternative mix of the track reveals a brief a capella moment following the instrumental midsection, as well as a different ending that reprises the ‘You say it’s getting better / You say it’s alright’ couplet.)

The song was also performed during the Minor Earth Major Sky tour (less the modish adornments), while the title itself was also reprised in ‘Spare Me Your Passion’, one of the poems from Magne’s Payne’s Gray project in 2004 (‘The moment before you stop yourself / The things that you hide / The things that you fear / That self-serving part of your little black heart’).

VELVET

Written by Lauren Savoy and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy

Produced by Boogieman and Roland Spremberg

Co-produced by a-ha and Kjetil Bjerkestrand

Chart position: 48 (Germany)

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