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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still as good as ever, 9 Jul 2006
In the late 80's I picked up the Blue Nile album Walk Across the Rooftops and it became one of my 'must take with me to college' tapes.
For some reason I never looked to see what had happened to this band and just assumed they would have split up. That was until I heard the recent excellent duet by Texas 'Sleep' with Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan. A search on Amazon showed Blue Nile had released a couple of albums since the one I owned. The 2004 album High has just been re-released (probably following on from the exposure with Texas).
I've now had High on in the car for a couple of weeks and it's just like being at college all over again. Paul's vocals as strong as ever and what a collection of tracks. Ever had one of those albums where you keep coming back to one track again and again? For me it's track 5, She Saw The World, what a belter.
Why isn't this band better known? Perhaps they are all the better for their relative obscurity.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A polished gem., 22 Nov 2006
Blue Nile fans. Who are they?
I got into The Blue Nile because someone told me they thought I'd like them. They weren't wrong. And now everyone I know who likes good quality music likes them too, following a referral from me, because this band seems to exist on personal recommendations.
Which is just as well, as they only manage one album every 7 years, on average!
Whenever they do release an album, the critics fall over themselves to praise it. Maybe that's the kiss of death for them....
Well, these critics are quicker than me. I find that each album requires time and quite a few listens to actually love. Each time I've got my hands on an album, I am initially a bit disappointed. Until about 10 listens time, when I am raving to anyone who will listen to me that it is a work of unmitigated genius etc. etc.
Their (relative) downfall is that their tracks don't tend to have the instant appeal that a lot of listeners appear to need. Still others refer to the smooth, glossy, meticulous productions as background music. Surely that's unfair, if you listen to Paul Buchanan's impassioned vocal.
The religious overtones to some of the work can also put people off, but when music is this dizzily hypnotic, I just don't care one way or the other.
Unashamedly soulful and romantic, The Blue Nile carve an individual furrow through pop. Every album has been released on a different label so far - faith and longevity is clearly an issue for the record labels.
Their next album is due in about 2011 (on current stats), but I, for one, will queue up to get it. Come on, Mr Buchanan, write more, write faster.
But he won't. Tortured genius, or pedantic megalomaniac? Who knows? And who cares? We may only have 4 albums, but by crikey they're all corkers! If all songwriters took this much trouble, the aural soundscape would be awash in beauty all the time.
As close to perfect as Mr Buchanan can make it, this album's highlights include the title track and the awesome acoustic ballad "Because of Toledo". Oh, and the beautiful, bizarre and mildly disturbing opener, "The Days of Our Lives", featuring the same chord beating out for the duration of the track, with a snaky little bass riff set against a lyric that is either domestic stream-of-consciousness limbo, or the musings of an omni-present narrator berating modern life. Yikes! Compelling, though.
Stylistically, "High" harks back to the 1989 release "Hats", in that it feels more programmed than the more guitar-y, organic "Peace at Last". But, if it's possible, the songs are more mature and thoughthful than ever.
Exquisite. Measured. Moving.
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Evans, 9 Aug 2004
After the opening chine of a repeated piano chord, the unmistakable voice of Mr.Paul Buchanan opens up with the first line from the forthcoming Cd ...."She lives in a house in London,she lives in a house in Town".And once you have taken in the first track "Days of our lives", you know that you are in for another quality Cd from the boys.I decided to part with some hard earned to a cyber tinker on e-bay to get this early, and have listened to it quite a few times and would say that it is not as immediate as "Peace at last". The second track,and new single is a slow (Like they would ever record a 12 bar boogie!)love song proclaiming"I would never turn my back on your love" and this is followed by the hypnotic piano intro to "Broken Lives" which has a steam train like rhythm to it- there is noticably more piano on this CD than on previous work.I do not claim to be a very good reviewer,so i am not going to review it all (Just to say that Soul Boy is an immediate highlight and the pace of the music is picked up on Track.5 "She saw the World") but I do know a quality bit of work when I hear it.If you have the previous three cd's from "The Blue Nile" you are going to be at the local store first thing on the day of release,or put your pre-order in here,and you will be looking forward to hearing more fragile,soulful,quality songs that were more than worth waiting for.Your ears are in for another treat!
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