Memorial beach is the second of a-ha's albums showing them coming of age. East of the Sun, West of the Moon its predecessor marked the bands steo into adult orientated guitar pop. Memorial beach was the culmination of the band's 3 years hard graft and was produced partly at Prince's Paisley Park by David Z who ensured the band's sometimes dodgy use of rhythm was brought up to scratch on songs like Dark Is The Night. a-ha perform an 8 minute plus epic in Cold As Stone and Angel - the song written for Pal's wedding is beautifully arranged and delivered by Morten. The album second half is more raunchy and Between Your Mama and Yourself typifies this with a very clever song penned by Pal Waaktaar. a-ha remember The Doors with Move To Memphis and Magne shows he can write songs to (Lamb To The Slaughter).

A true sense of melancholia looms all over the album - something which wasn't let shine through by over production of the first three chart toppers.

Throw away al prejudices - this is a master piece and the forthcoming new album (Novemeber 1999) promises to be more of the same.

8 out of 10.