
UK import
Without a doubt, this may be one of the most laid back pop albums I've come across and is definitely one of my best finds in the past few years. For a good while, I'd heard good things about this band's debut album, A Walk Across The Rooftops, and had seen it on a couple of "Best of '84" lists. I felt compelled to listen and about ten years ago, I finally gave Rooftops a try. It just didn't do much for me on first blush. Wrong album at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong mindset. Fast forward to 2023 and I see a copy of this Hats CD in the used bin and figure I'll take the chance. I bought the disc and immediately put it in the car's CD player (we were pleasantly surprised when our 2023 Subaru Forester came with a stock CD player and above-average Harman Kardon speakers). You wouldn't think this music would be well-suited for a drive with thousands of my San Antonio neighbors down US Route 281 on a scorching hot afternoon, but you'd be wrong. It was perfect - serene and relaxing. I was hooked from the get-go and played it again on the home system as soon as I arrived at my house. No "sophomore slump" here. The purchase of other Blue Nile discs followed; look for them in the space at some point in the future.
The reviews I've read of this album seemingly all use the same set of words: atmospheric, stripped-down, understated, longing, meditative, intimate, emotional, gorgeous, sublime - you get the picture and I agree with all of those descriptions.
Press of the time:
- Chicago Tribune (★★★½ ): "minimalist minor key melodies and lyrics that sketch out a strangely sad yet compulsive search for something"
- Musician: "capable of evoking romantic desolation and big-city loneliness with such heartbreaking vividness"
- Record Mirror (★★★★): "Wow - sublime!"
- Rolling Stone (★★★): "surely a fine second act from a trio that deserves encouragement"
- Spin: "Hats proves that the Blue Nile really are pasty-faced moths to the flame of self-absorption, not to mention insect-like studio perfectionists"
- Stereo Review: "there is no such thing as ideal love. But that doesn't stop the Blue Nile from trying to capture it. Or us from hoping they succeed."
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Free CD copy! Sadly, we've missed the February 12, 1990 deadline. |
Peak on the US Billboard 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: I guess there are different tracks, but it's just a single 39 minute track to me. (I will mention that track 2, The Downtown Lights, peaked at #10 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.)
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Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above
I found Rooftops cold. The same friend sent me tracks from Hats in 1990 and I was hooked. It only gets better.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I've discovered!
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