I’m attempting something I’ve never done before – I’m writing a music review (bear with me). And the reason is because I read something quite intriguing about a song, watched the video (the like of which is something you can’t unsee) and then read the lyrics. And now I can’t stop thinking about it.
Let me start at the beginning, with a confession… I’ve got three books on the go. Four, if you count the only thing residing on my Kindle app. I’m obviously not reading them all the same time (I haven’t got enough hands, for a start). I’m not usually one for reading novels from a screen, I prefer to read from an actual page, a paperback.
However, for various reasons I’ve had a lot of hospital and GP appointments to attend this year and plenty of time waiting in queues at the pharmacy. So, therefore something to read on my phone helps pass the time. I’ve been working my way through Barry Page’s Down To The Tracks – a discography of one of my favourite bands, a-ha. I’m a child of the 80’s, so how could I not have heard of Take On Me – the comic book style pop video where the male singer literally entices the girl through the pages and into his edgy, dangerous but alluring world, only for him to return, bursting into her world and hopefully into her arms (we never see them embrace).
But after then, mainstream media failed to reach the girl brought up in deepest, darkest Dorset. In a time when there were only four TV channels, the radio only picked up the news channels and our family vinyl collection was Michael Jackson, The Jungle Book soundtrack and The Snowman.
Anyone who knows my story knows that I only rediscovered a-ha’s music again in the long days and nights of lockdown. So I am green to much of their music back catalogue and I fancied being tutored through it by way of a book – cue Barry Page, and his work is interspersed with anecdotes and much of the political and creative tussles of egos, etc, but also the band’s own take on the songs.
I am a little embarrassed to have such a massive knowledge gap here of that quirky, unconventional Norwegian band who do things very much their own way and couldn’t be generic even if they tried. But here I have the underdog advantage – I am seeing a lot of this for the first time with fresh eyes and it is taking me a shamefully long time to get through this book on my kindle. But, waiting for one of my many appointments, I read a quote from Magne about the song Celice, released in 2005 (he wrote it), where he said it was like the evil twin of “Take On Me” – which is a positive video with a happy ending. But that Celice is a quest for passion and intimacy, closeness and love but in a negative way. There were warnings about prostitution, sex and drugs in the video. This, coming from the band that have made music videos about imagining and playing out their death scenes, I’m not put off by their macabre and dark humour. How could I not take a look on the flipside version of TOM?
Not one of their music videos is a replica of any previous, visually, in my opinion, though I stand to be corrected. Celice begins with the descent into the underworld – a streetwalker approaching a car and a flickering off and on of the scenes in ‘thermal imaging’. The band, Morten first of all, enters a hallway. He is already shown in thermal hues, an effect which flickers on and off during the song.
It’s quite impressive – no judgement is cast, no sanctimonious tones, in fact, what strikes me most of all, is the band are often bystanders of the debauchery, not complicit, Mags for example is sitting within breathing distance of the semi-naked dancer but resolutely has his back to her. Pal is sitting alone in a bedroom.
Looking back of the ‘evil twin’ comment by Magne, it’s safe to say the events of the dark world culminate in a dark tone. Temptation is served out and spent. But of the band? All of them fall foul to the thermal imaging effects – maybe this is the metaphor for how they are drawn into that world, but never succumb to temptation. As they reach the peak of the song, they are filmed in ‘normal’ mode until just before ending of the song, where they transform in the rainbow hues of the netherworld once more, never to return.
And then I took a closer look at the lyrics. They are short, but anything other than sweet. Toxic, if anything, as Magne described there are relationships where you’re subjecting yourself to a lot of pain. For example, here’s some of the lyrics:
It’s in the way you hurt me
Celice
I know that I’m alive
It’s in the way you hurt me…You know it feels so nice
Hold me tight now
Hold me tight as can be
Pain comes from pleasure, or vice versa. And doing something inherently bad can feel naughtily good. What does that tell us? Being straight-laced all the time is boring, pushing the boundaries of fun might just be worth it, but to not go too far beyond that mark. But leaving how far one would go deliberately blurry is what they have done here. What they do or don’t do in their own private life may be hidden in plain sight, but it is still very much up to them how much they divulge to the wider world.
I think it’s clear from this that it is not only Pal who is the lyrical genius here in this band. We all know every one of them has a special role to play and a special place in our hearts. You couldn’t fail to be drawn into the lyrics and video of Celice, which does beg the question ‘where next will they take me?’ I guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out….
Please ‘like’ my writing page www.facebook.com/LucyGhose to stay updated with my writing journey. My novel The Poison Balance is coming soon, published by Cranthorpe Millner Publishers. I am also on Instagram and Tiktok @lucyghose
Lucy Ghose - writer 