a-ha, "Driftwood" (1985)


1985:
I borrow a 12" single from a classmate: a-ha's "The Sun Always Shine On TV." I was intrigued, but not completely sold on the group. "Take On Me" was good, but already ubiquitous to the point of being annoying.

The extended version of "The Sun Shines" on the 12" is pleasant enough, but it's the b-side that's awesome. "Driftwood" has a weird elastic bassline, and the chorus melody allows Morten to really utilize his range: "And I go high over, down under, at her lady's will." I'm especially captivated by the way his vocals are double-tracked when he sings the line, "Will your hands still touch me when my face has fallen in with age?" It creates a lovely ghostly effect, as if he has already projected himself into that future. If the band had included it in the album, it might be second only to the title track in aceness.

I put the record on and make myself a taped copy.

1988:
Where the hell is that tape? I've been hunting high and etc. etc.

1991:
"A working group consisting of Leon Van de Kerkhof (The Netherlands), Gerhard Stoll (Germany), Yves-François Dehery (France), Karlheinz Brandenburg (Germany) took ideas from Musicam and ASPEC, added some of their own ideas and created MP3, which was designed to achieve the same quality at 128 kbit/s as MP2 at 192 kbit/s. All algorithms were approved in 1991, finalized in 1992 as part of MPEG-1, the first standard suite by MPEG, which resulted in the international standard ISO/IEC 11172-3, published in 1993. Further work on MPEG audio was finalized in 1994 as part of the second suite of MPEG standards, MPEG-2, more formally known as international standard ISO/IEC 13818-3, originally published in 1995."

2000:
Did "Driftwood" ever appear on CD? Feh. Apparently once, in Japan, when the single first came out, but I guess I forgot to take a weekend off to fly there in order to pick it up.

2006:
Hurrah!