― Colin Meeder, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
'Hats' consolidated the debut, practically down to the track listing, but suffered from having Phil Collins' recommendation stickered to the front. 'Saturday night' was an epic transfiguration of the commonplace, a pop Les Parapluis du Cherbourg, and the kind of song Brett Anderson would like to write in his Scott Walker moments if a) he had clue and b) a few thousand years in which to try.
The last lp - Peace at last? - is very disappointing. The cinemascope sheen was replaced with acoustic guitars, the singing had all gone a bit Michael Bolton, and yes the sleeve was terrible. Maybe this is what happens when you go out with Rosanna Arquette. It seemed to bear out all those who'd had them pegged as some MOR monstrosity, a Dire Straits in waiting. A couple of songs - 'Family Life', 'Tomorrow Morning' - might be worth downloading, but the rest of it is a bit bleh.
― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
My favorite performance by Mr. Wossname who is the singer is actually his turn on the version of "Let's Go Out Tonight" -- I think that's the song -- on Craig Armstrong's first album.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Melissa W, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Recommendations... A Walk Across The Rooftops has "Tinseltown In The Rain" which is one of my favourite love songs ever, but Hats is the better album, with about five perfect songs on it. Amazing how similar they are though, despite the six-year gap (there's your big difference to Talk Talk - these guys stumbled upon a vision of perfection early on and stuck with it).
― Tim, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― , Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Billy Dods, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Dr. C, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tim, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― XStatic Peace, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
the second is all concerned with the death of love/getting older/etc. eg - 'i'm tired of crying on the staiiiirs...'
it's kind of a godfather/godfather part 2 deal. and all they're bestheard back to back
― piscesboy, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Juan M., Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
(okay truthfully I can see the connection at least with Bark Psychosis, but it always seemed to me that The Blue Nile represented the "other half" of BP's source material). Hats multiplied by Spirit Of Eden = Hex.
― Tim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― hamish, Wednesday, 23 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 00:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 01:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 11:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
one) You won’t like them. A Walk Across The Rooftops contains slap bass, trite lyrics on the debris of relationships, pans from (yawn) Coppola’s One From the Heart into (yawn) Paris, Texas, sung by Springsteen impersonating Sinatra. Hats has two white reggae tracks, gated snares, repeated use of the word ‘baby’, yes, is ‘lush’, ‘cinematic’ and MOR. Annie Lennox and Rod Stewart have covered their songs. Phil Collins endorses them.
two) I don’t like American Music Club, John Cale, Talking Heads, Rickie Lee Jones or The Cars either.
three) Men in American books tend to wear hats.
four) Katy (my girlfriend) was in a philosophy class and, as the hush of young students began to stifle and choke, the teacher, by way of gesture, mentioned the best class he ever had occurred when Paul Buchanan, ‘you probably haven’t heard of him’, suggested they talk about love.
five) No-one has registered the scientific unproveability of ‘love’ in song more heart-rendingly than Paul Buchanan: singing “how do I know you feel it?”, just moments from loss, or the frustrated ‘I can only tell you’ of “do I love you? YES I love you!”
six) What do you say when three years into a relationship the only things holding you together is the fear of breaking the ties you’ve built in the outside world as a unit? When an offer of tea is the only lull in the silence? “Let’s go out tonight”, one last time, meet up with the ghost of your happiness, it can be the same again, you will dance, for one night, oh to bed the same different woman every night, and leave the relationship strafed with cigarette burns and headaches in, alone.
seven) Such compassionate pop. During Hats, the band’s lives were fragmenting and none of them felt they had any support around them, it would have been so easy to become insular and dismissive of others in such a situation.
eight) Below a peat sky, her hair is scraped through with coral orange and tickles of grey, and a smell of moist pollen sewn into the webs of her fingers. Scotland’s inability to say Carl strains a last laugh out from her, smoke knuckles through our hair, as the aftertaste of other men places her lips and her eyes’ slow moulder.
nine) You will like them. A Walk Across the Rooftops is a deeply emotional water, Buchanan a child lost in the weave of a Frank O’Hara poem. Hats refuses Don Paterson’s cycnicism of romance and insists on the transcendental of the ordinary and of the journey, the pressure difference.
!) I think romanticism suggests this sense of wilfully not having it all, leaving that one bit back, the whole, the mysterious ‘last’ that can never be reached, romanticism is the journey to try and attain that that you’re purposefully denying yourself. I have never listened to their third record, I most probably never will.
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 15:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 16:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 18:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 18:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
or it could be a disaster too i suppose.
''(Haha, Julio, that's where I nicked my structure, but I guess it was alright cos I think he nicked the turn from the X Y Zedd post on the 'What if Punk Never Happened?' thread).''
I just thought i had seen something like that. but yr post is triffic in its own way.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 18:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
Yes! "If You're Not The One" works in exactly the same way as the peerless "Tinseltown In The Rain" ie. a "generic" love song rendered strange and fascinating by the force and peculiarity of its emotional over-investment.
Although Cozen you should really check out that there new Coloma album which is almost self-consciously an update of The Blue Nile for the post-glitch generation. As with The Blue Nile it's svelte literary studio-pop that feels like all the sound-politics have been surgically removed (eg. this is click-pop only because, well, why not if it sounds good? cf. Schneider TM's "The Light 3000") so I imagine that in a decade or so it'll have that same lovely timeless-datedness as TBN's first two albums have. It's very much like A Walk Across The Rooftops in particular. Much better than their first album.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 27 March 2003 00:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 27 March 2003 00:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
I saw him on 'today with des & mel'.
― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 27 March 2003 00:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Keith McD (Keith McD), Thursday, 27 March 2003 04:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 04:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― hamish (hamish), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 04:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 04:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
I figured out why I like Daniel Bedingfield earlier. Or one aspect. I remembered something Frank Kogan said to me about how he really liked the way that I wasn't scared to be overwrought when the usual rock-crit approach is to come across all Ed Casual (hehe, what's Frank's e-mail address again?). I suppose I see a lot of myself in Daniel. All thing considered, a juxtaposition of poets might be in order:
Everywhere he saw his own image, -his perfect face...
When he rode out of the city, the peoplegathered to admire him: a ribbonof faces, fixed on this one faceand haunted by its indifference. They said:'as beautiful as a painting', and wefeel a chill cast across these yearsfor we know there is another paintingthat does not hang in any gallery
- John Ash
I like you so much I'm acting stupid I can't play the game I'm all intense and alive I'm losing control of my heartI'm not supposed to be this nervousI should play my hand all cool and calm I can't breathe I'm losing control of my heart
- Daniel Bedingfield
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 16:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 17:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 17:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
I was trying to think of more music from the eighties that fits into this area of explicitly emotional quasi-dance pop, but I couldn't get far beyond The Hounds of Love. Any ideas?
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 10 April 2003 00:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 10 April 2003 01:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
Associates surely fit this description.
But Tim is OTM regarding Tinseltown being a lost dance classic, I certainly remember hearing it in clubs in Dundee in the mid-80's. Apparently they had some of their work from Hats remixed by Oakenfold (or some other name remixer), but they nixed it on hearing it. Now that I'd like to hear.
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 10 April 2003 07:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jean bowman, Sunday, 20 April 2003 09:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
Where did the up and happy songs go, then? Left to rot as demos?
― Cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 20 April 2003 10:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jean bowman, Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't think I'd have the bare-faced gall to actually talk to the man though.
It feels a bit criminal to actually listen to the Blue Nile at this time of year though, like I'm going to shatter the mood.
― Cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
1. The only track I know is 'I Love This Life', which the Nipper gave me. The Nipper is right about it.
2. Cozen's big post above is indeed good, and indeed structurally resembles one of mine. But no, I didn't take my own structure from anyone else.
3. Whether or not the Bedingfield link is apt, I don't think 'emotional overinvolvement' etc is necessarily the key to 'If You're Not The One': what woke me up to that track was simply the rare quality of its tune.
― the pinefox, Monday, 21 April 2003 09:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jean bowman, Wednesday, 23 April 2003 19:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
I’m just sitting here listening to “here come the bluebirds” and trying to keep it together
― k3vin k., Tuesday, June 16, 2020 5:07 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
<3
'I' and 'Bluebirds' are plain amazing imo. What a gift.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 12:01 (four years ago) link
i haven't gotten to the new tracks yet but man, high sure is a great album
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 17 June 2020 15:08 (four years ago) link
i love how propulsive "broken loves" and "she saw the world" are, it felt new for them
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 17 June 2020 15:09 (four years ago) link
yeah those are a couple of my faves. the propulsive-ness of “she saw the world” kind of anticipates “buy a motor car”
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 17 June 2020 17:46 (four years ago) link
i can’t believe i have “new” blue nile music to enjoy nor can i believe it’s so good. “i” just knocked me flat today
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 18 June 2020 00:31 (three years ago) link
yeah I just want to retract all my reservations about “i”
― k3vin k., Thursday, 18 June 2020 00:55 (three years ago) link
Just got the vinyl reissue of High in the mail. It sounds fantastic. The title track still kills me.
― kitchen person, Thursday, 18 June 2020 01:26 (three years ago) link
also thanks to all of this I just discovered the track Paul Buchanan wrote on Jesse Ware's Glasshouse, Last of the True Believers, which is wonderful, but I really wish he was 'featured' on more than one line repeated twice in the last 30 seconds. I guess he cowrote it though and it sounds like it.
― akm, Friday, 19 June 2020 17:36 (three years ago) link
lol that would contradict the credits i was given when i reviewed the record but then again there were a lot of holes in those credits
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 19 June 2020 17:51 (three years ago) link
It might be recency bias but I'd even say this 'Song' album is better than any Blue Nile album that is not Hats..
Sorry, who's this by?
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Friday, 19 June 2020 18:11 (three years ago) link
https://www.allmusic.com/album/song-mw0000886575
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 19 June 2020 19:04 (three years ago) link
Ah right, thanks. I remember that one hit single they had in 1986. Slightly strange but really good.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Saturday, 20 June 2020 09:03 (three years ago) link
ok well I'm not positive he cowrote it, but in an interview i found she said she wrote it with him:
https://www.iheart.com/content/2017-11-09-interview-jessie-ware-shares-track-by-track-breakdown-of-glasshouse
"Track 11. "Last Of The True Believers" featuring Paul Buchanan
"I wrote after my first record and it was a song that I wrote this with this amazing guy called Paul Buchanan, who is from this cult band of the 80's called The Blue Nile. They're a Scottish band. I managed to get in the studio with him, and we wrote this song, and it was in demo form, and I loved it.
I started to play it when I was doing my American tour because I toured the Devotion record so much, and my last ever tour was in the States. It was a six-week tour. It was amazing, one of my favorite times, and I never do encores, because I think they're annoying, but I did do an encore and so I had to backtrack on what I'd said. I don't think we went off stage though, because I think that's naff. We started doing this, and it's nothing. I've never done that before. We had a demo. We didn't do it how the demo is and we kind of learned it, and I felt like I was in a real band. I didn't feel like I was dictated by the album track. It was just this idea, and people really liked it. Pitchfork put it up. It became this thing that was on the Internet, and people asked me, 'Are you gonna put it on your second record?' I didn't, and it didn't make sense to put it on the second record.
My sister reminded me of this song, because she adored it, so I got my friends (and) they're in a band called The Maccabees, who are really good friends of mine from school. They're massive fans of The Blue Nile. I asked Hugo if he'd like to produce it, and he did, and he brought it to life. He brought it back to life, and I'm really, really happy that it made it onto this record. It fits this record so much more than the second record."
so this doesn't mention that he sang on it, so maybe he didn't? It kind of doesn't sound like his voice.
― akm, Saturday, 20 June 2020 15:30 (three years ago) link
he def sings on it
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 20 June 2020 15:31 (three years ago) link
but i'll take jessie's word for it! again the credits for that album were a mess
Paul does sing on the track, but not as much as I expected based on having a feat. credit.
― michaellambert, Saturday, 20 June 2020 15:42 (three years ago) link
Does anybody know the story of "Young Club"? It haunts me. From the sound of it, I would take it to be post-'Hats' but pre-'High,' but really don't know, and kind find anything about it. But it's just so, so, so fucking good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvcd0ADqu94
― Soundslike, Saturday, 20 June 2020 16:14 (three years ago) link
Another post of it, sounds slightly differently sourced?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmbIfI7EdU
― Soundslike, Saturday, 20 June 2020 16:15 (three years ago) link
'Young Club' is indeed a track from the Hats sessions. It's on the B-sides and Rare CDr
― Scampidocio (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, 20 June 2020 16:32 (three years ago) link
Damn, wish it had been included in complete/quality form with the 'Hats' deluxe, then...
― Soundslike, Saturday, 20 June 2020 22:15 (three years ago) link
still getting knocked out by "i" on a daily basis
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 1 July 2020 01:00 (three years ago) link
Do I remember right that there is a collection of b-sides and whatnot that has not been rounded up on these reissues? Anybody got a link? I fell in love with this band due to seeing this thread repeatedly bumped for a while and I'm trying to hunt down everything I can.
It's weird that Peace At Last Deluxe is the CD that is hardest to find. I thought that was the one that was less loved?
― Cow_Art, Monday, 12 October 2020 01:54 (three years ago) link
not sure if this has been posted in another thread on here, but even if so deserves a repost - fantastic quality live show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fItoUZunua4&list=PLwXOGPZXptBCsQGmwc55lb5YgzZzcpAhT&index=10
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Thursday, 22 October 2020 16:46 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fItoUZunua4
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Thursday, 22 October 2020 16:47 (three years ago) link
Beautiful and melancholy short film of Paul talking about Tinseltown in the Rain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFoMUAmDGCI
― that's not my post, Saturday, 24 October 2020 06:01 (three years ago) link
@KenSweeney, were you aware this track was re-mixed/re-released for download last month? You're usually my first source for anything The Blue Nile related! https://t.co/xd28FgSDtr— Brad (@ballskwok) August 27, 2021
― k3vin k., Saturday, 4 September 2021 21:42 (two years ago) link
wowee.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Saturday, 4 September 2021 22:57 (two years ago) link
absolutely lush.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Saturday, 4 September 2021 22:58 (two years ago) link
PJ Moore and Co, eight track new album coming soon. Herald article here.
First track, "Need to Believe", available for download, along w/ album pre-order, at PJ Moore's site.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 6 July 2022 15:05 (one year ago) link
ooh good find!
― k3vin k., Saturday, 9 July 2022 10:05 (one year ago) link
There's obvs a hefty wodge of a-Ha in there too, but am I alone in hearing the Blue Nile's 'I Love this Life' in Harry Styles' 'As It Was'?
― Piedie Gimbel, Saturday, 9 July 2022 12:42 (one year ago) link
little piece in Tribune
Forty years ago, Glasgow band The Blue Nile released their first single. Their work was rooted in Glasgow itself, and the changes wrought by the shock of Thatcherism. https://t.co/j6VoGHLErq— Tribune (@tribunemagazine) July 16, 2022
― nxd, Sunday, 17 July 2022 15:24 (one year ago) link
good piece and the live recording linked is immense
― ufo, Monday, 18 July 2022 04:01 (one year ago) link
yo!
― k3vin k., Friday, 12 August 2022 22:48 (one year ago) link
if any nileheads are up for it paul buchanan is selling a remastered 2LP 10th anniversary edition of mid air https://store.paulbuchanan.com
― Clay, Friday, 12 August 2022 22:59 (one year ago) link
still waiting for my preorder to arrive!
― k3vin k., Sunday, 21 August 2022 23:47 (one year ago) link
PJ Moore has a new band:https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23031729.founding-member-blue-nile-pj-moore-teams-new-project-album/
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 23:12 (one year ago) link
Interestingly, only the single is available on streaming (Apple Music, anyway). It sounds good--very Blue Nile, as one would expect.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 23:35 (one year ago) link
You can listen to another track on their website (and buy the album there)
https://www.pjmooreandco.com/music-1
― groovypanda, Thursday, 3 November 2022 06:43 (one year ago) link
this song from last year by Nigel's project Quiet City featuring vocals by Pat was incredible
Quiet City - Due North (Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuYDC2zY3wM
― flopson, Thursday, 3 November 2022 06:59 (one year ago) link
I honestly don't know if I can think of a single artist/band whose first single (a-side and b-side taken together) is more perfectly fully realized, and totally sui generis. I've never heard pure joy captured more wonderfully and without any mawkishness in music than with "I Love This Life," and the world-weary wisdom and old-soul sadness of "The Second Act" is so moving (and rather shocking coming from a 25-year-old). And to think--they got *better* for the next decade, seems impossible.
OTM, I just fell hard for this single, "The Second Act" even more than the A-side. It's so elegantly sad and makes me wish they had spent more time using a more primitive drum machine.
― J. Sam, Tuesday, 29 November 2022 16:50 (one year ago) link
“Drownin’ in The Blue NileYou sent me ’The Downtown Lights’I hadn’t heard it in a while”
(Rumoured to be a new Taylor Swift lyric)
― piscesx, Thursday, 18 April 2024 19:43 (one month ago) link
the rumors are true
― ivy., Thursday, 18 April 2024 19:45 (one month ago) link
Taylor Swift brought me here
― cajunsunday, Thursday, 18 April 2024 20:05 (one month ago) link
You scenester
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 April 2024 20:09 (one month ago) link
CAMEL graciously acknowledging their influence on the BLUE NILE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD7JwGvGtYk
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 18 April 2024 20:14 (one month ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7r2EM-NsMo
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 18 April 2024 20:44 (one month ago) link
matty did it 🥹
― brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 18 April 2024 21:33 (one month ago) link
ill camel jawns thanks qualmsley
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 April 2024 21:47 (one month ago) link