THE BLUE NILE : HATS

Disc One (38:45)

1. Over The Hillside
2. The Downtown Lights
3. Let's Go Out Tonight
4. Headlights On The Parade
5. From A Late Night Train
6. Seven A.M.
7. Saturday Night

Disc Two (33:17)

1. Seven A.M.
2. Christmas
3. Let's Go Out Tonight
4. Saturday Night
5. Headlights On The Parade
6. The Wires Are Down

Label : Virgin

Release Date : October 16, 1989 / Janury 22, 2013 (Collector's Edition)

Review (AllMusic) : Five long years in the making, the Blue Nile's stellar Hats was well worth the wait; sweeping and majestic, it's a triumph of personal vision over the cold, remote calculations of technology. While created almost solely without benefit of live instruments, it is nevertheless an immensely warm and human album; Paul Buchanan's plaintive vocals and poignant songs are uncommonly moving, and his deployment of lush synth washes and electronic percussion is never gratuitous, each song instead crafted with painterly precision. Impressionistic and shimmering, tracks like "The Downtown Lights" and "From a Late Night Train" are perfectly evocative of their titles: Rich in romantic atmosphere and detail, they conjure a nocturnal fantasy world lit by neon and shrouded in fog, leaving Hats an intensely cinematic experience as well as a masterpiece of musical obsession.