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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
It was only once the smoke had cleared from the early 1980s explosion of Scottish indie (Simple Minds, Orange Juice, The Associates) that Glasgow band The Blue Nile finally made their quiet but formidable emergence. A Walk Across The Rooftops is one of the most exquisitely orchestrated pop albums ever made, a timeless, finely detailed arrangement of funky bass, delicate strings and synth flourishes, not least on the title track. "Tinseltown In The Rain"s dark-hued musical watercolours and flashes of light and shade paint a vivid picture of the city at night--coupled with Paul Buchanan's wistfully romantic lyrics, this album captures with almost cinematic resonance late evening walks along deserted, neon-lit puddled streets turning over thoughts in your mind of a loved one. Broody, bittersweet and wonderful. --David Stubbs
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something Very Special...,
By
This review is from: A Walk Across the Rooftop (Audio CD)
You know you have something very special, when the second song in your set can't be played because the audience is on its seventh standing ovation!
This was the atmosphere when the Blue Nile played an emotionally charged Birmingham Town Hall on September 20, 1990. Mysterious and elusive, rumours had been circulating of a first tour - almost a decade after forming - and anticipation levels were high. The band took to the stage, visibly nervous and appearing somewhat embarrassed by the capacity audience assembled in anticipation. As the lights faded and the opening track from A Walk Across the Rooftops sounded, the wait was over. We were rewarded, as each song from the album was reproduced with meticulous care to an intense pin-drop silence, followed by explosive rounds of applause! As the band's self-belief grew, the set opened out following the running order on the album. A casual mid set glance around the audience saw many in tears during Easter Parade (ignore the limited MP3 extract on Amazon, find the best speakers you have, switch off the lights and listen to the song in full). As the atmosphere heightened and A Walk Across the Rooftops concluded, a similarly faithful performance of the new second album Hats followed. By the end, with the band, audience and play list exhausted, a glowing and ecstatic Paul Buchanan, having earlier requested the support of State registered nurses for his nerves, now filled with confidence asked for favourite songs to be called out so the gig 'high' could continue. (During a Radio One recording of one of the latter tour dates, an audience member was heard to call out, "Don't be nervous, you're too good to be nervous"; and how right they were!) It remains unsurpassed to this day as the best live performance I've ever experienced. A Walk Across the Rooftops is a masterpiece. Observational and richly orchestrated, it contains a unique sense of care that draws on space, timing and economy as additional instruments. And that's without taking into account Buchanan's soulful vocals. Are the Blue Nile one of the best kept secrets in music? Probably yes, but sssssshhh, keep it quiet! Should you buy this album? Well, I think you know the answer...
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Achingly beautiful.,
By
This review is from: A Walk Across the Rooftop (Audio CD)
A jaw dropper.
Arguably Hats is a better, more consistent album. It would be close though. And yes Toledo may well be the finest song Paul Buchanan has written. Again it would be a fine judgement and boils down to personal taste, Family Life would be a contender too. However, this is the one for me. Because it was first, because on its release I had heard nothing like it, because its got Tinseltown, because it mattered, because no-one else sings with such intensity, because because because. . . . Sheer heart rending bliss. And its got Easter Parade.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A guide to teenage infatuation and the discovery of girls,
By
This review is from: A Walk Across the Rooftop (Audio CD)
Perhaps not as easily accessible as the later two Blue Nile albums, "Hats" telling the tale of heartbreak, growing up and finding the right girl and "Peace At Last" documenting adulthood, marriage and happy ever after, "A Walk Across The Rooftops" is still right up there.The fact that it is close to twenty years old is almost unbelievable. It was a showcase for new technology (Linn drum machines and Compact Disc itself) and it is also a showcase for the most emotional singing and song writing I have ever come across. To not know the Blue Nile is to not know yourself. For around less than a tenner self discovery comes pretty cheap these days.
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