Hunting High and Low

Recorded at Eel Pie Studios, which belonged to Pete Townshend and was still being built, the album was made on a block booking that gave the band a good deal. Waaktaar said there was no proper live room, just a recording room and a small booth, and that they worked longer and longer into the night. Everything now had to go through a Fairlight, one instrument at a time, and when the booking ran out they had only six or seven songs. Getting a producer had taken six or seven months. Tony Mansfield, who had been in New Musik and produced for Captain Sensible, took on most of the album. After his version of Take On Me failed to chart, Alan Tarney re-recorded some tracks, and Waaktaar said the whole album was reimagined a bit. Waaktaar said he missed the feel of the demos on the songs where the Fairlight limited them. Tarney produced Take On Me and The Sun Always Shines on T.V., and John Ratcliff produced Love Is Reason. Claire Jarvis played oboe on Living a Boy's Adventure Tale.

Most songs were written by Waaktaar. Here I Stand and Face the Rain was written on a trip to Tenerife to celebrate their first publishing deal, and Waaktaar said its verse dated from the Bridges years. Five singles were released: Take On Me, Love Is Reason, The Sun Always Shines on T.V., Train of Thought and Hunting High and Low. The cover photograph by Just Loomis was nominated for a Grammy as album cover of the year in 1986.

Chart performance and reception

The album reached number one in Norway, number two on the UK Albums Chart and number 15 on the Billboard 200, and was certified triple platinum in the UK and platinum in the United States and Germany. Until 2014 it held the record for the highest-charting album by a Norwegian artist on the Billboard 200. Tim DiGravina of AllMusic called it cohesive, with smart pace changes, and said it rarely fails to delight a listener who wants synth-pop. Ron Hart of the New York Observer, reviewing the 2015 reissue, wrote that it enjoys a brilliance far beyond its lead single. Steve Harnell of Classic Pop called it a noir gem among the great debuts. A two-disc deluxe edition with demos and rarities came out in July 2010. A-ha played it from start to finish on their tour from 2019.