Here's what
@Saddleworth2 had to say:-
Hats - The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile.
This is an album that has been with me since it was released. One I return to frequently when the mood takes me and the vibe is right.
I suspect that The Blue Nile are not particularly well known outside the UK. They are a Glasgow band formed at the University, centred around Paul Buchanan and including Robert Bell and Paul Moore. From 1984 to 2004, they released only 4 studio albums (the first two on Hi-Fi manufacturer Linn’s own record label), each followed by a long period of silence. Hats is their second album and was released in October 1989.
Before I went 'Mutton Jeff' in one ear I was mad keen on good hi fi equipment and it was at a trade fare in Edinburgh that I first heard the band (funnily enough demonstrating Linn kit). In fact if I remember correctly, every demo room was playing either Sade’s 'Diamond Life' or Blue Nile’s first album, 'A walk across the rooftops'. As you might expect, the production of both their first two albums is absolutely pristine and the better the hifi, the better they sound.
So what about this album? It's not rock that's for sure. I think of it as 'sophista pop'.
Five years in the making, (and an entire albums worth of music discarded) Hats was well worth the wait; sweeping and majestic, it's a triumph of personal vision over technology. While created almost solely without benefit of live instruments, it is nevertheless an immensely warm and human album; Paul Buchanan’s plaintive vocals and poignant songs are moving, and his deployment of lush synth washes and electronic percussion is never gratuitous, each song instead crafted with painterly precision. Impressionistic and shimmering, tracks like "The Downtown Lights" and "From a Late Night Train" are perfectly evocative of their titles: Rich in romantic atmosphere and detail, they conjure a nocturnal world lit by neon and shrouded in fog, leaving Hats an intensely cinematic experience.
I'm not going through track by track as it's an album to listen to in its entirety. The original album had seven songs although the remastered version has a few more. It spawned three singles, The Downtown Lights, Headlines on the Parade and Saturday Night. Each of them brushing the top 100. The Downtown Lights became instantly famous a few months ago when it was mentioned in Lyrics on Taylor Swifts new album (downloads instantly broke the internet!)
It’s an album for you to put on (hopefully a good hi fi) late at night when the world is out of sorts and let its subtle magic wash over you like a warm bath. Let the melancholy vocals sooth you, let the waves of glistening synths lap against your consciousness. Let its delicate beauty wash away your cares and leave you cleansed.
Back in 1989, this album sounded like something absolutely new. 35 years later it is still stunning and fresh. If I had to choose one Album to take to a desert island, this one would be a top contender.
It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It lacks ’grit’. It lacks a great deal of what seems to be popular on this thread but give it a few listens and maybe some will be captured by its beauty.
