A-ha - Manhattan Skyline (WEA)

Just when you think you can have a little snooze because A-ha have dished up another Eurovision song contest-type ditty, something dreadful happens. The gentle musings about umbrellas flying (?) are interrupted and a Slade record suddenly appears from nowhere - except of course it's not Slade because you can still hear the little tinkly bits. This is really very strange indeed, jumping about madly between quiet bits and lots of crashing drums. What has come over them? (Lola Borg, Smash Hits, February 11, 1987)

Swings and roundabouts here. Much meatier than the annoying "Cry Wolf" but less beautiful than the mighty "Hunting High And Low", "Manhattan Skyline" is edited from Scoundrel Days (and there can't be much of that not on singles) and shows A-Ha quiet and contrite, brash and bold all on the same song - charmer chameleons! It's backed with "Looking For The Whales" recorded live in London. If they'd peered towards Birmingham, they'd probably have seen one! (John Aizlewood, No 1, February 28, 1987)

When Aled Jones grows up, he'll probably be Morten Harket. This, the latest from the denim-clad Adonises, is the muso side of A-ha. Touches of Peter Gabriel and Sergeant Pepper creep in, with those virginal choir-boy-whose-balls-have-dropped off vocals are as forward as ever. If A-ha weren't so pretty they'd be on the cover of 'Q' and treated as the new Tangerine Dream. And that's something none of us need. (Eleanor Levy, Record Mirror, February 21, 1987)