A few weeks ago when Harry Styles dropped his new single “As It Was,” we marveled at its exquisite new wave flair, proving the pop artist had the chops to throw it back to a retro synth sound while still maintaining his place in the modern mainstream. Landing somewhere between the sweeping grandeur of career highlight “Sign of the Times” and the bubblegum bounce of “Watermelon Sugar,” though admittedly closer to the latter, “As It Was” is the song we needed this spring, sounding a bit like an electro-minded solo project from one of The Strokes.
Now, “As It Was” receives the knighted mash-up treatment it so very deserves, courtesy of AnDy Wu Musicland, who skillfully meshes it with a-ha’s iconic and immortal ’80s synth-pop track “Take On Me.”
Besides the obvious pairing in sound, the mash-up arrives at a time when both creative sides are in the news; Styles for his coming album cycle behind Harry’s House, out May 20, and a-ha for their recent headlining shows at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, a rare stateside appearance, and this month’s limited release of new documentary film a–ha: The Movie.
Wu’s mashup is a whole lot of fun, and we also hope it leads to Styles’ fanbase digging deeper into the brilliant a-ha catalog and discovering some of the Norwegian trio’s pioneering foundation of electronic pop music. Maybe we’ll even see “Scoundrel Days” or “The Swing of Things” in a new TikTok trend.
[h/t to the great Annie Zaleski on Twitter for this one.]