Take on me hot take

Back in the day I was among those who turned up our noses at electronic-heavy pop music which we often called, idiotically, "art-fag music."

But now I can't stop listening to Norwegian synth-pop band a-ha's big 1984 hit "Take on Me." 

I came across it in one of those Apple Music collections, probably "music of the 80s" and for the first time really noticed the singer's vocal range. 

As it says in the Wiki page for "Take on Me"

Harket demonstrates a vocal range of over two and a half octaves.[14] He sings the lowest pitch in the song, A2 (the tonic), at the beginning of the chorus, on the first syllable of the phrase "Take On Me".[14] As the chorus progresses, Harket's voice hits ever higher notes, reaching a falsetto[12][16][17] and hitting the song's highest note, E5, (the dominant) at the end.[14] Rolling Stone has thus noted the song as "having one of the hardest-to-sing choruses in pop history".

It really is something. 

And then I discovered that the band Walk Off the Earth did a cover. 

I've blogged about that band, way back in 2012 because I was very impressed by their video of "Somebody That I Used to Know" which is also a cover. It's the first video on this blog post.

Anyway the vocals on Walk Off the Earth's cover of "Take On Me" are not quite as swooping and exciting, but they are impressive, and the almost nil electronica would have made even dumb 23-year-old me happy.