Trevor Horn - Slaves To The Rhythm
by Mark Nobes, chief editor
So what happens when a legendary 80s producer recreates a classic 80s song? The result should be something epic, right? Well, not quite! Although the 2019 album Trevor Horn Reimagines The Eighties has several highlights, unfortunately, his orchestral version of a-ha's mega hit "Take On Me" doesn't quite hit the mark. Okay, so the piano and orchestral arrangements are quite beautiful, but Horn choosing to perform the vocals himself was a bad decision. Sadly, he sounds like a depressed choir boy who's voice has just broken, and the result is rather mournful.
The original song was penned by the Norweigan synthpop group themselves (Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Pal Waaktaar-Savoy), and reached No.2 in the UK during October 1985. It featured on the band's debut album Hunting High and Low.
Whether Horn reimagines the eighties or simply destroys them is up for debate, but it seems the album has certainly divided opinion in a Brexit kind of fashion. As a fan of 80s synthpop, I guess I will always prefer the more upbeat original, and it's a song that doesn't really require reimagining, in my eyes, at least!
