A-ha's second album, Scoundrel Days, was released in the midst of the 1986 world tour and represented a move towards alternative rock, as synthpop began to fall out of style. Although the album received favorable reviews and sent three singles to become international radio hits, the album's sales did not match those of its predecessor (except for Switzerland, where it is a-ha's best-selling album). "Cry Wolf" would be the last a-ha single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After the release of the album, a-ha went to tour in the U.S., its last appearance there for 20 years. The album has sold 6.4 million copies worldwide, has been certified platinum in the UK and Switzerland, and has been certified gold in Germany and Brazil. Ned Raggett of AllMusic Guide would later write of the album, "The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and 'The Swing of Things,' a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over...The '80s may be long gone, but Scoundrel Days makes clear that not everything was bad back then."
In May 1988, a-ha released their third studio album, titled Stay On These Roads, which matched the number-2 chart peak of its two predecessors on the British album charts. Stay on These Roads became a big hit and is now the best-selling a-ha album in Brazil, where it is certified platinum. The album has been certified gold in Switzerland, Germany, UK, and the Netherlands. The album includes the title-track theme song to the James Bond film The Living Daylights. The version that appears on their album is a re-recording of the film version and single. The band has said that they are particularly proud of the title track, and all three members contributed to its writing. To this day, "Stay On These Roads" and "The Living Daylights" are a part of their live set. After the release of the album, the band went on a 74-city world tour. The album has sold more than 4.2 million copies worldwide.
East of the Sun, West of the Moon featured a cover version of The Everly Brothers' 1963 single, "Crying in the Rain". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a-ha was very popular in South America, especially in Brazil, where the band sold out some of the largest stadiums in the world. At the Rock in Rio II festival in January 1991, a-ha shocked the international entertainment press by drawing an audience of 198,000 at Maracanã stadium for their top-billed evening concert—a Guinness World Record for paying audiences. In contrast, the other performers (George Michael, Prince, and Guns N' Roses) drew only 60,000 each. In a recent interview in Musicweek, celebrating a-ha's upcoming 25-year anniversary, the band members revealed that the record-breaking concert and the lack of media attention they received were a devastating blow to the band. The 1991 Rock In Rio festival, which should have been the band's crowning achievement was, instead, a moment of crushing disappointment. “MTV interviewed everybody except us”, remembers Waaktar-Savoy. “They were all calling their bosses and saying, ‘We must cover a-ha; it’s the only night that has sold out'. But they weren’t allowed to”. “I felt very alienated”, says Furuholmen. "It made us feel hopeless. We played to the biggest crowd in the world, and they ignored it.”
"East of the Sun, West of the Moon" was certified gold in Switzerland, Brazil, and Germany and was certified silver in the UK. Steven McDonald of AllMusic said of their fourth album, "This is a nicely crafted collection of songs, performed and sung beautifully, with lots of echoes and suggestions tucked into the music. While not an album one can discuss at length, it's an album that's a pleasure to listen to." The album sold 3.2 million copies worldwide.
Their last album before their hiatus was "Memorial Beach" in 1993. The album was a commercial failure, with sales of 1.2 million copies. The only single to officially chart outside Norway was "Dark Is the Night", which went top 20 in the United Kingdom. Ironically, given the lack of attention to their later work in the U.S., "Dark Is the Night" nearly charted on the U.S. Hot 100, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, a position often construed as being #111 in reference to the Hot 100. "Memorial Beach" is the last official American release by a-ha to date, though their material has continued to have (limited) availability there as imports. In February 1994, a-ha performed two concerts during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, followed by tours of South Africa and Norway. a-ha was also chosen to compose the official song for the Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, which they entitled "Shapes That Go Together". Because of apparent internal conflicts between the band members and conflicts with the record label at the time, a-ha took a break in 1994, and the members started focusing on solo projects.
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