Hats - Blue Nile (The)

Background

For the 3 University graduates who make up the Blue Nile (Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and P.J. Moore) the pressure was on now that their debut album “A Walk across the Rooftops” had generated rave reviews and the attention of the a major record label in the form of Virgin, but with having no manager in place to take care of the day-to-day running of a band and the drudgery of dealing with record companies and ...
...phone calls from fans the writing of new material got relegated to the back burner.

Paul Buchanan recalls “We went into the studio with no songs and we felt a bit of pressure to come up with something good and something quick and it just didn’t work, we would start things and then get bogged down and it just felt awful”.

In the end, after 2 years of recording, we had two dozen half-decent ideas and ... more

Background

For the 3 University graduates who make up the Blue Nile (Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and P.J. Moore) the pressure was on now that their debut album “A Walk across the Rooftops” had generated rave reviews and the attention of the a major record label in the form of Virgin, but with having no manager in place to take care of the day-to-day running of a band and the drudgery of dealing with record companies and of course their own private lives and answering letters and phone calls from fans the writing of new material got relegated to the back burner.

Paul Buchanan recalls “We went into the studio with no songs and we felt a bit of pressure to come up with something good and something quick and it just didn’t work, we would start things and then get bogged down and it just felt awful”.

In the end, after 2 years of recording, we had two dozen half-decent ideas and the rest was terrible so we just took the tapes and burned them.
Paul says that he then went back to Glasgow and sat around for most of 1987 and that’s when the songs that became “Hats” came to me.

Paul took about a year to write the songs he felt the pressure was no longer on him, taking phone calls from the record company, who would ask about the new songs and then ask what have you been up too?
His answers where always vague which the company took for him being awkward, it wasn’t that at all he just didn’t want to tell them the songs weren’t quite right.
For this collection Paul has again taken the ordinary and made something extraordinary out of it, weaving his romantic sounding voice with the sparse electronic musical background that is both grand and simplistic in construction.

When the album “Hats” was finally released it reached number 12 in the UK Charts in the autumn of 1989, the collection also sold well in the States and the band crossed the pond to promote the album in 1990.

During this visit Paul met and began a relationship with the actress Rosanna Arquette of Pulp Fiction fame and also the bands run off bad struck again when their American label A&M was bought over by Polygram and then the band found themselves going from talking to record company executives to being shown the door and meanwhile because of problems with contracts the trio from Glasgow found they where released by both Linn and Virgin and to put an end to this the band signed a worldwide record deal with Warner Brothers in 1992.

The Album

This album opens with “Over the Hillside” (5.03) just like their debut album “A Walk across the Rooftops” the music starts very quietly, a drum machine plays a simple 4/4 rhythm along with a single hissing of a hi-hat and the fairlight keyboard plays a big sounding warm string section which along with a rhythm guitar adds colour and melody at the back of it that there is a bass guitar giving the sound an added punch and depth, Paul then sings the first lines “Working night and day I tried to get ahead but I don’t get ahead this way, working night and day the railroad and the fairs watch the train roll round the bend” now comes the chorus “Over the Hillside over the lowland over the hills and way down” and then he repeats the first line expect for the change “working night and day don’t make no sense”.
The middle 8 section has a keyboard that sounds like a trumpet; this gently slides along to the lines “the stars in your eyes know what’s right, the stars in your eyes don’t explain, over the hillside, over the hillside, over the hillside, with the third repeat Paul on the word “Hillside” he sings “side” louder to bring it to the listener’s attention followed by the line “over the hills we’ll go home” on the word “go” he elongates it, as this is sung the signature sweeping strings create the perfect backdrop along with the simple percussion section.

This for me is a wonderful opening track as it reminds you of the first album and yet at the same time brings something new to the table in the newly found confidence of Buchanan’s vocals.

The Downtown Lights (6.26) after the quiet beginning of the previous track this song starts with a flourish of keyboards then the sound of a real snare drum with a hi-hat being played on the off-beat is heard to announce a change of feel and the sound.
The flourishing effect from the keyboards is used throughout the intro, the strings have a stabbing sound to them giving the song a real sense of urgency and a melodic pattern for the rest of track too hang on and for Paul’s vocals to begin with the lines “Sometimes I walk away, when all I wanna do, is love and hold you right, there is just one thing can say, nobody loves you this way, it’s alright can’t you see the downtown lights, there is now a break followed by the line “ In love we are all the same, we’re walking down an empty street, and with nobody calling out your name, empty streets empty night the downtown lights” this leads up to one of my favorite chorus’s in a Blue Nile song “ how do I know you’re feeling” repeated 5 times and then on the last repeat the words are changed to “how do I know it’s true” followed by “yea” “yea, yea, yea, it’s alright” as the chorus is sung the keyboards are cross-panned to give it dramatic impact this is used every time the chorus is sung and this builds to the end section that has a rhythm guitar solo which Paul plays during live performances of the track to a great cheer from the crowd.
The song is only a few lines of lyrics built around a stunning string arrangement and the pleading vocal delivery of Paul and still remains a live favorite with both the band and their audience.

Let’s go out tonight (5.12) after the more up-tempo feel of the previous track this song is back to a more sombre almost funeral like pace, in the days of vinyl this finished off side 1.
The music slowly builds as the sound of a keyboard which again has a trumpet feel to it and is heard it is getting louder and louder and is used to introduce the other instruments starting with the bass guitar and the sound of the high-hat along with layers of keyboards, one layer sounds like a harp and another recreates a string section, this gives a sonic atmosphere that is both simple and majestic for the sound of Paul’s singing to start with the words “Where the colours go by, all day and night, why don’t you see what’s so wrong tonight?” “Pray for me, praying for the light, baby, baby, let’s go out tonight, where the lights don’t shine, I can move there” as the lines are sung harmonics are played on the neck of the guitar giving the lyrics a compelling potency, at the word “tonight” the snare drum starts together with a piano which is played in a minor key giving a stark contrast with the harmonics on the guitar, these are both played in a way as to support the vocals which are sung with more of a croon than usual as if to making the message more intimae and romantic.

Headlights on the Parade (6.11) after the romantic interlude of the last song this up-beat pop song which is the most immediate sounding track on the album as it begins with the sound of booming kick drum and a cascading guitar and piano whose sound is filled out by the sound of bass guitar, both the guitar and piano sound like they are singing the title of the track this gives the listener 2 points of reference with the steady bass and drums giving a satisfying boom sound.
The lyrics start with “And if in love she cries, something wasn’t right, I’m sorry but it would be easy to say I love you”, chorus “headlights on the parade light up the way, headlights on the parade light up the way I Love”, Yea, back to the verse close your eyes come with me, only love is alive, close your eyes can’t you see only love will survive, yea, after this back to the chorus with a slight change on “I Love” Yea to “I Love You” after this is the piano led middle 8 section where keeping your feelings secret from your love no longer matters and the track finishes with a wonderful piano sound that is filed out with handclaps and vocal adlibs, a song for me that recounts being in love or is that lust whatever, the rush of feelings that pulls you in so much that you don’t care that you say “I Love you” first.

From a late night Train (3.59) begins with a wash of keyboards, the pace is doleful and dark the keyboard is played off the sound of a piano that is playing the same chords, the vocals are delivered with an air of reluctance about them “From the midnight train, reflected in the water, when all the rainy pavement, lead to you, it’s over now I know it’s over, but I can’t let go” the music returns to the mournful intro and then the dejected singing returns with the lines “the cigarettes the magazines all stacked-up in the rain, there doesn’t seem to be a funny side, it’s over now I know it’s over but I can’t let go” the music again returns to the dark and somber themes of the intro the first words are then repeated “From the midnight train, the little towns go rolling by and the people in the station going home, it’s over now I know it’s over but I love you so” the last 4 words are almost whispered so as to try and kept them secret..
For me after the optimism of the previous track followed by this dark tale of saying goodbye forever to your love is the track that took me the longest to listen too and because of this is the song I most enjoy on the album now you can almost see “Queen Street” train station in Glasgow (if you have been there) in your mind’s eye.

Seven A.M. (5.09) for the beginning for this song a single note is played on a keyboard followed by a up-tempo deep sounding bass line on the fairlight together with a drum machine and real drums this gives a percussive backbeat that has the machine playing the off-beat and the real drums playing the hi-hat and snare, this is where Paul sings the opening lines “Where’s the love that shines, every single time I’m near you, where’s the love that’s all, all I want is you, where is the love?” this track has at it’s heart he question “where is the love?” this is a question that probably we have all asked ourselves at some point in a relationship, we just to have to have faith in our partner, for me this song sums this up very neatly.

Saturday Night (6.26) this song bookends the album and superbly brings the collection to a close with for me the best song on the album, in an album full of passionate and memorable tracks, this stands head and shoulder above them all in my opinion.
The track commences with an increasing in volume keyboard and a guitar picking out single notes then a run of wind chimes with a 4/4 rhythm played on a real drum kit and crashes on cymbals “Who do you love?, who do you really love?, who are you holding on too?, who are you dreaming of?, who do you love?, when it’s cold and it’s not light, when the streets are so big and wet, I love you, an ordinary girl, can make the world alright, love me all the way, Saturday night, Saturday night, quarter to five, where the storefronts are closed in paradise, meet me outside the cherry light, you and I walk away, an ordinary girl, can make the world alright, she’ll love me all the way, it’s Saturday night, yea” the music returns to the percussive intro now with added signature strings and has Paul repeating the questions from the start.
A song that is simple in construction but brings home the feeling of love a man has for a woman or is it just me?
I love this song so much that if I where ever too get married this would the song to beat for first dance!

My biggest criticism of this album is again the sound, unfortunately this is again only available in it’s original 1989 CD pressing and has yet to be re-mastered, as with the first album I again asked my friend who has the Linn turntable (LP 12) and a Naim CD player (CD5) along with a full Naim set-up if he had this album on vinyl as well as the CD, he again did so we played one format against the other, just as before the vinyl sounded superb and the CD just didn’t come anywhere near it, it was cold and empty sounding.
This is a shame as this album is amazing and still sounds as fresh as it did all those years ago and takes the themes of the debut album that little bit further,
I have again seen copies of this CD in Fopp for a Fiver which isn’t bad.

The sleeve is just a cover card with the cover picture on one side and little info and no lyrics on the other, so if I have got any of the words wrong sorry it was a case of the laborious task of stopping and starting the album over and over again to try and hear the lyrics.
All the back ground information came from the official Blue Nile website and I used as my main source an article called “Songs of Love & transport” from the site.
 

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