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A Walk Across the Rooftops
 
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A Walk Across the Rooftops

~ Blue Nile
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
Price: £5.78 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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A Walk Across the Rooftops + Hats + High
Price For All Three: £21.44

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  • This item: A Walk Across the Rooftops ~ Blue Nile

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Hats ~ Blue Nile

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • High ~ Blue Nile

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Product details

  • Audio CD (20 May 1985)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Linn
  • ASIN: B00000I3JM
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 18,040 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in this category:

    #13 in  Music > Jazz > Labels > Linn

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. A Walk Across The Rooftops 4:56£0.69
Listen  2. Tinseltown In The Rain 5:57£0.69
Listen  3. From Rags To Riches 5:59£0.69
Listen  4. Stay 4:57£0.69
Listen  5. Easter Parade 4:34£0.69
Listen  6. Heatwave 6:28£0.69
Listen  7. Automobile Noise 5:08£0.69

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


CD Description

The debut album from the enigmatic Blue Nile received tremendous reviews, yet barely scraped the chart. The promise wasthere, and it took shape on the second album Hats. Paul Buchanan's pleading voice is made for late-night listening in acosy bedsitting room. Mulling over love lost, love found, happy times, sad times and kitchen sinks (I lied about the last bit, but you get the picture), a beautiful landscape of evocative music soaks in rather than hitting you first time. Blue Nile can be played over and over again, which is why they have only felt the need to put out three records in 15 years!

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Something Very Special..., 22 Oct 2007
By M. Clarke - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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 the rendition of 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 rendition 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? I think you know the answer...



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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Achingly beautiful., 31 Jul 2007
By Daniel McAllister - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A guide to teenage infatuation and the discovery of girls, 8 Oct 2003
By Matt Sephton (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh my God
This is one of those CD's that grows on you with each listen. I first listened to it over 10 years ago and I can safely say that I am only now appreciating its brilliance. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Brendan O. Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars a hugely underestimtated album!
i was working in a record store when this was released and "tinseltown in the rain" was released and it has taken me till now to realise how great the cd is! Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. Nathan Armstrong

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent first album
The Blue Nile first long player - yes this was completed before compact discs were an everyday release. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2007 by Widnes Bob

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sound of Another Glasgow
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5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Timeless!

I just cannot believe this was released as long ago as 1983, such is the timeless quality in the beautifully produced tracks here. Read more
Published on 27 Jul 2006 by DSR

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking the high road
Just when you think nothing new can be said on the subject of love, its travails, trials and tiny epiphanies, along comes a band to casually toss new colours on to the jaded... Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2006 by russell clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazin' debut...
“A walk across the Rooftops “(4.54) opens with quiet keyboards whose volume builds slowly to sounds like wires in a piano being struck, another keyboard sounds like a... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2006 by Milt Ingarfield

5.0 out of 5 stars A gift to humanity
Why is this album a gift to humanity?
The seven songs contained within encompass love, angst, passion, joy, pain... Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Can Blue men sing the Blues? Definitely
Urban angst from the Clyde. The Blue Nile may be in cryonic suspension (read: working on the difficult fourth album), but this and the other albums are timeless gems that bear... Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Can music sound any better?
This is music at its finest. Perfect production and unique sounds. A timeless classic which still sounds fresh 17 years later. This is a must for every music collection. Buy it!
Published on 1 Aug 2001

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A Walk Across the Rooftops
85% buy the item featured on this page:
A Walk Across the Rooftops 4.9 out of 5 stars (16)
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