Search - Morten Harket :: Letter From Egypt

We can live someday, like if we're gone.

Jason Stein | San Diego, CA United States | 07/26/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Morten Harket steps out from behind A-ha once more for his fourth solo album, "Letter From Egypt". It follows 1996's "Vogts Villa", 1995's "Wild Seed" and 1993's "Poentenes Evangelium". The first and third are Norwegian language, with "Wild Seed" being English language. I have all 4 albums and I feel that "Letter From Egypt" is about the same as his previous three.



I have all of A-ha's albums as well, and while I think Morten Harket has a magnificent voice (always have), I think I prefer the music of A-ha as the backdrop. When Morten is solo he has a tendency to sound maudlin. Like another reviewer said, this cd is all mid-tempo to slow balladry for the most part. There's nothing upbeat like "Take On Me".



The lyrics are, for the most part, good. The music, for the most part, is good, but rather repetitive. Pleasant is the word that comes to mind. Nothing overly memorable or hook driven. "Movies" and "Darkspace" are the first two singles, and "Movies" is pretty good, whilst "Darkspace" is all right. I liked "We'll Never Speak Again", "There Are Many Ways To Die", "With You-With Me", "Letter From Egypt" and "The One You Are".



I give this three stars, and I would give all four of Morten's solo albums three stars. They're all good, but maybe only recommended for hardcore fans like myself. I would give five stars to "Hunting High And Low", "Scoundrel Days", "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon" and "Minor Earth Major Sky".



I'd like to see Morten Harket experiment more with his music and not play it so safe."

A disappointed hard-core fan

Mr W. T. Reilly Jr. | Downingtown, Pennsylvania United States | 11/20/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I'm going to assume that other hard-core fans have this album, like me, along with everything else borne of the a-ha legacy. If you are new to Harket, please start somewhere else, or get his Nobel Prize Ceremony performance, because this is not very good. It's almost all mid-tempo balladry with very strange, sometimes trite, lyrics. "Heaven's not for Saints", "Forever Not Yours", "Los Angeles", ... none here, and none even close. I just want him to do an album he's capable of, not the one he's comfortable with. This is like Leonard Cohen meets Chris Rhea at a high school poetry reading. I am truly a Harket fan of epic proportions, and I can tell you, aside from Darkspace... and maybe Letter from Egypt, I won't be listening to this again.



"

Amazing voice

J. Brinas | 08/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Morten's voice is always breathtaking but I find some of the songs in the album a little boring. Though just a cover song, Movies is the best in the album for me."