the blue nile: hats

btw this is impossible

fuck polling a hat

most inexplicable discovery from the 5 favorite albums thread, never heard of this, had no idea so many people held it so dear.

Going for a sleeper, "Let's Go Out Tonight". By the way, if you've never seen the hour long film made of their one(?) US tour, it's on You Tube, called "Flags and Fences", it's great

what i never heard of flags and fences!

I have been saving the book about them (Nileism) for the right moment.

i've listened to this about 6 times since discovering it a couple of days ago (from the 5 favorites thread) and i think i do have an early favorite but right now all i think i can say for sure is that it's not "seven am". and "seven am" is not bad by any means!

what i love about this album, and this band (i listened to AWATR once too) is how well it romanticizes the feeling of being in love in (and/or with?) a big city -- so many of their songs evoke walking deliriously down a city street late at night, taking in all the sights and sounds, heart swelled with love, or lust, or...something

there are a lot of classic ilx tim f posts about the particular romanticism of the blue nile that you also nail there k3vin

Isn't 'let's go out tonight' the most pop song in here?

this is like asking to pick your favorite child

most inexplicable discovery from the 5 favorite albums thread, never heard of this, had no idea so many people held it so dear.

― flappy bird, Monday, October 3, 2016 12:31 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It feels like a minor hit, maybe an ost appearance? There's a craig armstrong version which I knew before the blue nile one:

https://youtu.be/osP05cpJKNM

the last minute of "downtown lights" :O

nah, downtown lights is the obvious pop song here - been covered by rod stewart, annie lennox, even keane have done a version xp

We had it at record club a few years ago.

https://devonrecordclub.com/2013/02/04/the-blue-nile-hats-round-45-toms-selection/

Rob's reaction was interesting...he doesn't like late period Talk Talk either and, whilst they are not all that similar sonically, there's something about the purity of the sound that I guess is anathema to his ears.

I went for Saturday Night but could have picked any of the seven (seven track albums are always fantastic!).

Isn't 'let's go out tonight' the most pop song in here?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, October 3, 2016 12:48 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know, maybe. I always thought Headlights on the Parade was the poppiest

what i never heard of flags and fences!

I have been saving the book about them (Nileism) for the right moment.

― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Monday, October 3, 2016

It's OK, rather prosaic considering how much a good writer could rhapsodize about them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arOG2_QG4ls

found an OG pristine vinyl copy of this for $1 a few months ago, pretty ridic what slips through the cracks sometimes.

still find it cheap at carboot sales here too, rubbing shoulders with chris rea et al

yeah same here, have been jamming it for the past few days. whatever past discussion there's been of it on ILM has somehow slipped by me for the decade i've been here
― ciderpress, Monday, October 3

Me three.

xpost to scik mouthy

it's hard to make a nuts and bolts case for an affinity between late talk talk and blue nile but i will say that the paul buchanan solo album is the only record that reminds me of the mark hollis solo album at all.

^^ more than enough to get me interested. Only heard abt Blue Nile's album through ilx last week, and Hollis was on my mind frequently.

album is called Mid Air

Listened to the title track of that and it reminded me of Lewis - L'amour

"Seven A.M." because it goes down a storm with just about any combination of Sade's "Make Some Room," the dub mix of Mr. Fingers' "What About This Love," M.E./Virgo's "School Hall," and the Arthur Baker "Rapid Eye" remix of Will Downing's "In My Dreams."

saturday night/quarter to five/when the storefronts are closed in paradise/meet me outside the cherry light

I love the meticulous productions of Talk Talk and David Sylvian's solo work, but I've never got on with The Blue Nile. I can't deny that the production on this record is great, but whenever I've listened to it I've often found my attention wavering very quickly. 'Let's Go Out Tonight' is a great example of a song that I switch off from long before the end.

Listened to the title track of that and it reminded me of Lewis - L'amour

― Evan, Monday, October 3, 2016 7:52 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ok wow...

George Costanza: "If this is a lie, if this is a joke, if this is your idea of some cute little game, we're finished ...

:(

At the office through laptop speakers so maybe that is a dumb comparison.

For example I thought those were synth pads behind his voice and piano. Realizing they're not.

Saturday night obv

yup

yeah "saturday night" is the one that i've been most obsessed with, when the strings come in a little over halfway through the song it's just game over, music doesn't get much better than that

"From A Late Night Train" is imo as sublime as it gets

reminds me of Aztec Camera!

not exactly my bag in general, but will say the singer reminds me a bit of Adrian Belew

Noooooooooo

I would have thought that Let's Go Out Tonight might be a front-runner, but from the comments, maybe not. Anyway, it gets my vote, but all are great.

A lot of people seem to prefer the Craig Armstrong cover (on which Buchanan sings), but I think Hats remains the definitive version. Second place goes to Isaac Hayes version…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vuy0QJ0BA

Evan, all I meant was I want you to be right. I want it to sound like Lewis. And it does. Nothing dumb about it.

Oh, totally misread you then! I'm often a little too worried about offending those who are closer to an artist than I am. New to the Blue Nile myself but liked that solo track much more.

dude holy shit that isaac hayes cover of "let's go out tonight" !!

Oh, totally misread you then! I'm often a little too worried about offending those who are closer to an artist than I am. New to the Blue Nile myself but liked that solo track much more.

― Evan, Monday, October 3, 2016 9:58 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't say I was too clear with Seinfeld reference tbh. Just really, really wished your Lewis reference was on point. And it was.

yeah "saturday night" is the one that i've been most obsessed with, when the strings come in a little over halfway through the song it's just game over, music doesn't get much better than that

― k3vin k., Monday, October 3, 2016 7:00 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I was coming here to say that "saturday night" has the slightest of edges because the string refrain from the 3 and half minute mark is like two lovers walking towards each other on a city bridge.

also it's my "song i would sing on Idol or equiv" song.

"saturday night" is my vote

http://www.primlifestyles.com/wp-content/plugins/RSSPoster_PRO/cache/c9820_Beyonce-Formation-4.gif

most inexplicable discovery from the 5 favorite albums thread, never heard of this, had no idea so many people held it so dear.
― flappy bird, Monday, October 3, 2016 12:31 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya me neither

shouts out to my favorite lyric ever though: "in love we're all the same / we're walking down an empty street"

god that isaac hayes cover

gave this album a listen last night for the first time ever

let's go out tonight is my favourite on it

rest of the album sounds like a grower

7am does sound different but that warbly bass is fun as a pre-dnb/electronica/trap thing

hats!

http://www.glasgowist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/BlueNileTrio.jpg

― piscesx, Thursday, January 11, 2018 9:10 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

excluding the hat paul's outfit there is definitely something i would wear

i also just listened to this for the first time this week! i like the whole thing but man "the downtown lights" is a killer song. i'm assuming the real fans look down on it because it's clearly the "pop hit" of the album but it is so good.

NB. real fans do not look down on the downtown lights

they look up

the way Downtown Lights builds and builds and I'm tired of crying on the staiiiiiirs

again:

in love we're all the same
we're walking down an empty street

^^^^^^^^ otm

uh brad...did u know the universe was creating content esp for u???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_172cffdDJU

lol yeah that's one of my favorite videos on youtube

same

Gorgeous.

I too checked out this album for the first time this week. Bit embarrassing it took so long given how many times I've seen them namechecked in threads of other bands I love (like the 1975). Great stuff

Full album covered by Pure Bathing Culture for Turntable Kitchen, with Ben Gibbard guesting on two tracks. Subscription-based, but available to non-club members, the black vinyl is $25 + $5 s&h, for U.S. folk, and includes digital.

Nice Stereogum write-up of Hats, also.

For the 'things that sound a bit like Blue Nile': I think Epic Soundtracks has aesthetic similarities anyway, but his Good Things album seems particularly apposite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joz9SigJ6eg

sometimes wonder why the Hats thread isn't just always on the front page.

mods, make it so

official album of ilm

Hats belong on top naturally

Re-reading this thread always makes me feel happy

This was posted on the C or D thread in case anyone missed it (re-released this year and available on streaming services)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOJ9QcVXZzE

i listened to hats tonight knowing it might be my last late night jog of summer and i can't imagine listening to it at, like, 6pm in the coming months. it's been the first album i've confidently called my favorite album ever made since probably high school, and i only discovered it in 2018, and it's an album i've actually listened to less this year as i've been consciously trying to revisit old favorites while doing my new favorite activity of "moving my body", but damn if isn't the greatest thing ever made every time i go back to it

one of us!

I find it hard to imagine jogging to any song apart from "Downtown Lights" but more power to you!

official album of ilm

Thought that was Jordan:The Comeback.

great album for a walk in the rain

a walk across the raindrops

this such a great comedown album

i wish there was a 12 min long mix of “saturday night”

the final two minutes of "headlights on the parade" rivals anything on this album for me

i found a mint condition copy of this on cassette at a record store in london last week, made me very happy

one of us! one of us!

this has become one of those albums I don't actually have to listen to to get killed by it, I just have to think about it

otm

I tend to want more "From a Late Night Train" and "Family Life" from this band rather than the usual lite funk, though I guess one of the things that makes those tracks special is that they are uniquely spare.

may I direct you to his solo album

Caution: challops ahead.

"I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner would make a pretty good Blue Nile song.

No.

even if you stripped it down enough i don't think it'd be restrained enough

I can hear it but lyrically no.

Do we have a thread for songs that could be off Hats?

'The Lady in Red' :0

i wish there was a 12 min long mix of “saturday night”

― J0rdan S., Sunday, January 1, 2023 4:03 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Whenever I listen to Hats it's the album plus "Saturday Night" two more times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vuy0QJ0BA

oh man

^^ had a surreal moment when that came on the radio in a cafe near Sagrada Familia while the sun was setting circa 1999.
looking at Gaudi's architecture bathed in a golden glow while this unfamiliar slooooow version of a familiar song played, it felt like my brain was melting.
(being slightly tipsy didn't help.)

Is that a marimba? For someone who nails the late night lethargy of the song, adding that is like throwing in slide whistle or a saw. It's a 10, but ...

an aside: atmospheric slide whistle new fav micro-genre

"it's the poor man's pedal steel"

sorry. as you were.

but yeah, didn't know about this cover. pretty reminiscent of his classic sidelong makeovers of burt bacharach.

ofc i had to look it up and it originates as a b side from a uk only single. nice.

2024 - could this be the year the long-rumored complete second Paul Buchanan album releases?

new song — Paul Buchanan - Mid Air (The Blue Nile)