Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Words are not enough, 17 Jan 2005
I've known the Blue Nile since they've launched their second album, Hats. Other reviewers do a better job than me in singing the glories of this music so I'll content myself in stating bluntly the pure simple matter of fact: Hats is an absolute masterpiece of music.To me, it is the best of all (just 4!) the Blue Nile albums and it is in that terrible list of "the 5 records to take to a desert island". Can music ever be so melankolic and at the same time so joyously happy? Can it sound so despairing and ultimately brimming with hope and enchantment? Yes, the Blue Nile answer yes with this album. I'd like to end up this review with a three-sentence personal story: I once lend Hats to the woman I loved. I already knew by then that there was no hope. Hats did not moved her.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The river that runs with love, it won,t run dry., 1 Feb 2004
Enigmatic Scottish band The Blue Nile have released three albums in 20 years.This band know how to take their time , but when the results are as stunning as this album then you know it,s been time well spent.
The phrase "classic" or "not a bad track on it" is all too often bandied about when albums are reviewed or talked about but i am aware of very few albums where not a note is out of place, where every lyric or nuance seems to fit perfectly into the scheme of things."Hats" is such an album."Hats" is perfect.
The Blue Nile are evocative mood magicians.When Paul Buchanan sings about rain lashed streets, empty neon lit bars or trains crawling out of stations late at night the pictures flicker instantly into your mind.No band has ever made the small things seem to matter so much How "An ordinary girl can make the world alright"Allied to their lush transcendental wall of strings and synths this is heart stopping stuff, a quiet genius is at work here.
"Hats" is essentially a concept album about love and the constant clashes and conceits it puts us through."Over the Hillside" starts procedings off in a plaintative mood.The voice is world weary ,resigned.Some sort of relationship is ending and he can,t even dredge up the energy to care.It,s set to funereal keyboards and measured guitars and drums.
"The Downtown Lights" is a goosebump/spine tingler of a pop song.When Buchanan sings "Sometimes i walk away whem all i really want to do is love and hold you right" and shimmering keyboards cascade in wide screen its like someones got hold of your heart and given it a quick squeeze."How do i know you feel it?" he implores as walls of hearbreak sound ebb and floe like the churning of his guts as he realises the person he,s with does,nt love him anymore.Superlatives can,t do this song justice but i had to try.
Serene ballad "Lets go out tonight" is about two lovers sat at home trying desperately to re-kindle what was once so special.Theres a point in this song when Buchanans voice almost breaks as he trys desperately to articulate, but it,s all too much again.Another sublime moment.
On "Headlights on the Parade" the trademark washes of sound are more to the fore as he faces the choice of finishing/staying in a relationship while a lonely trumpet and piano carry the mood on "From a late night train" Once again "It,s over now/ but i can,t let go"
"Seven A.M." almost gets funky and sounds a little out of place at first buts it,s the signifier for the albums story arc as he prepares to try again and give love another shot.So does closing track "Saturday Night" a colossal number with a life affirming chorus and triumphant belief in our ability to love again and the excitement that promise can bring.Yes, we,re back to that "ordinary girl".
Words, as i intimated earlier really cannot do justice to this music.For me this album lies unchallenged as the greatest ever made.It,s that good.Any talk of it not dating well is utter tripe. Music this moving,cinematic and well human will never date.
There are,nt enough stars in the sky to give this album.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Frank Sinatra is alive and well and lives in Glasgow!, 25 Feb 2007
I will personally hunt down and stick pins into strange dolls if I discover the person who did the official Amazon description on Hats! Anthemic like U2? compares to Simply Red and Deacon Blue? While I hope his or her GSCE Music exam went well the comparisons are laughable and "Hats" deserves better. I too agree that all Blue Nile albums are brilliant but this is the masterpiece. Peace at last for example contains the superb Family Life and Body and Soul but also a couple of duffers. The same also true of the Walk across the rooftops and High.
On Hats every song is perfect in every way. No real point in singling any out. What you should do is listen to them in key settings. I put on Downtown lights on top of the Empire State building in New York one evening the world suddenly made sense and 5 minutes of a wonderful memory will never leave me. "From a late night train" is that song when your on your own, the darkness has descended and you want to be alone, the beauty of it is almost delicate but also earthy. Over the Hillside creeps up on you and then explodes. There is only one person I know who dislikes this album drives a Subaru, supports Man U and thinks James Blunt is brill. What greater recommendation could I give you to get Hats?
Paul Buchanan has one of the most fragile and beautiful voices. I remember a live Radio 1 concert from the Blue Nile broadcast many years ago when in silence before a song someone shouted from the audience to him "don't be nervous". Buchanan laughed quietly and retorted that he had State Registered nurses waiting in the wings. Blue Nile are that type of band; you want them to succeed but not too much in case everyone likes them. And yes it is all a bit precarious and it is true that they only release an album about 6 to 7 years, but my god "Hats" was worth the wait. Stop what your doing and immediately download it.
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