How to follow up a masterpiece? The Blue Nile are masters of the art. The slow, almost tortuous, way they produced their debut, A Walk Across The Rooftops, was a portent of things to come. It took a full five years to bring to fruition. It was time well spent.
The results were mesmerising. Without any musical training or even musicianship among their number, they conjured something truly groundbreaking. For ears tired of the same old humdrum it was a gift from the gods. Manna from heaven. A crisp, sharp electronic sound accentuated the emotional depth charge of Paul Buchanan’s rich voice. So unusual was their sound they could have come from space but it was from Glasgow they hailed.
Their paeans of love and despair were tinged with a monochromatic perfection. The phrasing was precise and evocative. It took us deep into the half-lit world of their beloved but battered home. The crumbling industrial city loomed large on the landscape. To listen to it was to go somewhere with them, With no little grace and considerable panache, they took us there: Straight to the heart of the matter.
The album made waves but sold jot. The subsequent few years were a catalogue of errors on the part of their record company, applying pressure when space was what was required. Frustration apart, the extended gestation period suited the band. A new sound unfolded at a time when musical technology was evolving at the rate of knots. Buchanan’s writing plummeted new depths, diving for pearls.
The way they crafted their songs with such painterly precision provided Buchanan with the perfect backdrop to unfurl his tender take on the highs and lows of true romance. The arc of a love affair is the narrative. The desire for transcendence is set in the same shadow world as before. Cars, trains, streetlights and corners are where we see the stories unfold. The emotional tug of the deeply affecting music brings us real close to the action.
The joys of true romance are laid bare as is the icy cold chill of its sad and inevitable demise. There’s truth and beauty in all of it.
