The Blue Nile: C or D?

Peace at Last is phenomenally underrated. Perfect music for late night jogging

i think my homework over spring break is to get into the third album

i love the blue nile and have never gone back to the third album because i suspect it is forever tainted for me by the fact that my dad is a fan of the band and bought and played the hell out of that cd when it came out and i thought it was awful and corny as hell at the time - i was 12

i mean having a refrain on the opening song of an album that is

now that I've found
peace at last
tell me jesus
will it last

is a bit much

it's very dated in a way none of the other albums are

It's definitely a step down from the first two albums, but there's some really great stuff on Peace At Last. I think the main problem is that some of it sounds a bit unfinished. Holy Love sounds like a demo that might well be the worst song they ever did. God Bless You Kid is a great tune but it goes on two minutes longer than it should. Soon, Happiness, War Is Love and Family Life are my favourites. Family Life is kind of a blueprint for Mid Air. Overall, High is a much more satisfying listen.

family life is good

Peace At Last is one of my all-time fav albums. I've never yet been able to get into any of the other albums quite at the same level. I adore PaL from my heart and soul, and am regularly moved to tears any time I choose to listen to it anew. Its imperfections are just perfect to me. A "human(e)" album, that's how I would describe its appeal to me in a nutshell.

i love "broken loves" now

my fav song on high that's not "stay close"

um...."christmas"

https://soundcloud.com/rte-radio-1/in-search-of-the-blue-nile

have we talked about this? i thought we did somewhere. matty from the 1975 apparently makes an appearance

yeah, it was posted in this thread back in december. it's a great listen

This is wonderful, thank you for sharing Kevin K. Those first two records and the singles. . . nothing else really approaches that sound and feeling.

https://m.soundcloud.com/louise-burns/downtown-lights-1

am i reaching if i say AWATR-era buchanan has some jonathan richman in him?

i was doing a facebook music quiz thing and wanted to name a walk across the rooftops as my favorite post-punk record so

god i don't know how i never fell in love with the first album til last night but it is just so perfect in its own way

it's peerless.

It's one of those albums that paints a full-color mental picture with every song.

why is it rolling down on the young and foolish

Also subtly inventive: "Rags to Riches" sounds like pop produced by Steve Reich; "Automobile Noise" makes me think of David Sylvian or Kate Bush circa Hounds of Love.

Oh yeah it's quite experimental when you get over how fucking beautiful it is.

With latter Talk Talk, they were doing truly amazing stuff on another level from 99.9% of even the other best popular music, like the Blue Nile's first two records (and singles). But I always imagine Talk Talk might've been. . . a little self-serious, even if they totally earned it like few others. So it's amazing to hear the Blue Nile guys, who, while they're not falsely modest, don't give the impression that making this higher-plane music was anything but what basically came naturally. I mean, they suffered in some way for their music, I guess; but they just seem like regular people more or less--in that audio documentary, he speaks like areal pop artist in that he felt he was (and he was) expressing the universal, only belatedly recognizing the specificity of his individual experience, too. Just wonderful.

I do kinda have to flog this mix here, because it was very much inspired by the feeling the Blue Nile give, and I think people who like them would almost surely dig the mix:

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/musicophilia_00_various_-_the-dawning_1981-1989_cover.jpg?w=1536

Various – ‘The Dawning’
(1981-1989)

Part I

01 [00:00] The Blue Nile – “Over the Hillside” (Hats, 1989)
02 [05:00] Heaven 17 – “Let Me Go” (The Luxury Gap, 1983)
03 [09:16] Hot Gossip – “Morale” (Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, 1981)
04 [12:18] Dif Juz – “The Last Day” (Extractions, 1985)
05 [16:13] Tears for Fears – “Start of the Breakdown” (The Hurting, 1983)
06 [21:03] Mick Karn – “Tribal Dawn” (Titles, 1982)
07 [25:12] Thomas Dolby – “The Flat Earth” (The Flat Earth, 1984)
08 [31:34] Peter Gabriel – “Zaar” (Passions, 1989)
09 [35:56] Nona Hendryx – “Off the Coast of Love” (Skin Diver, 1989)
10 [40:23] Cocteau Twins – “Lazy Calm” (Victorialand, 1986)
11 [44:34] Talk Talk – “I Believe In You” (Spirit of Eden, 1988)

Part II

12 [50:40] Comsat Angels – “After the Rain” (Fiction, 1982)
13 [54:31] King Crimson – “Two Hands” (Beat, 1982)
14 [57:48] Bel Canto – “Without You” (White Out Conditions, 1987)
15 [61:43] Scott Walker – “Dealer” (Climate of Hunter, 1984)
16 [66:33] Scritti Politti – “Absolute” (Cupid & Psyche ’85, 1985)
17 [70:53] Arthur Russell – “This Is How We Walk On the Moon” (Another Thought, 1984)
18 [75:34] David Sylvian – “Orpheus” (Secrets of the Beehive, 1987)
19 [80:20] Durutti Column – “Love No More” (Vini Reilly, 1989)
20 [83:06] Kate Bush – “Never Be Mine” (The Sensual World, 1989)
21 [86:42] David Byrne – “Ghosts” (The Knee Plays, 1985)
22 [89:54] Colin Newman – “I Can Hear You” (Commercial Suicide, 1986)
23 [94:16] This Mortal Coil – “Ivy and Neet” (Filigree & Shadow, 1986)
24 [99:04] Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Of All The Things We’ve Made” (Dazzle Ships, 1983)

[Total Time: 1:42:27]

Download:

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/post-post-punk-the-dawning-1981-1989/

Oh I never noticed that one! That looks great and I'll totally DL it.

good stuff

That radio piece was really nice. Forgot that for a short while they were booked a show to play here, back in ... 2007? What was that all about?

The Dawning mix is now on my player, gonna listen to it the rest of my workday. psyched.

that mix looks amazing

great mix

who called this stuff "silk bathrobe music"?

Well but this is like silk bathrobe music where when you look at the embroidery on the silk it's actually pretty uncanny and disturbing

i love how "AWATR" opens the album so abruptly, like a slap in the face telling you to pay attention to the masterpiece you're about to hear

Well but this is like silk bathrobe music where when you look at the embroidery on the silk it's actually pretty uncanny and disturbing

― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, April 20, 2017 2:12 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i think it was more like yuppie ennui, staring out of your luxury condo in your bathrobe, wondering why you're still sad etc

this kind of music is somewhat like Gaucho era Steely Dan, expect more romanticism and less cynicism. more staring across the river at the city by yourself in your condo, less staring across the bay next to a pair of passed out, drugged up escorts. also the bathrobe in the Dan song would be soft white cotton, imo.

so actually nothing like steely dan maybe.

no the blue nile are definitely steely dan-ish! musically they're like a new wave dan

there's certainly a lot of romanticism in their lyrics but hats has always struck me as quite bleak. or at the very least wistful and nostalgic

ugh this mix is so good. this is basically my favorite vein of music at this point in my life. this and horror film scores.

Crossfade karn-->dolby = a+

Flat earth was my favorite album in 8th grade and still blows me away

What is it about masterful 7-song albums that year? AWATR, Flat Earth...

this music has something to do with a conception of what being an adult who lived in a big city was like when i was a small child

otm and i am still that child, not knowing what the fuck to do in nyc

you're just in the wrong new york you need the old one where you could work in the mailroom and get your big break

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPuj9_94TBQ

It's the balcony and blue half light in the final scene of Local Hero.

Also that Dawning mix is terrific. Cheers, soundslike

nice to see the comsat angels on that mix - 'cutting edge' from a few albums later would work too.

some sad rain-smudged mysticism from gigi would also fit the whole 80s adult contemplary vibe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsYRfOy0J9w

I've never listened to comsat angels before this. Total bark psych precursor at least on the track included on this mix. Really like it.

the album 'sleep no more' is their real masterpiece and an early highpoint of brooding atmospheric 80s rock

just discovering the musicophilia mixes this week with 1981 being up for download, this is a wonderful one along with all the others I've nabbed. I have most of these songs and have been deeply in love with this sound since the late 80's, but the sequence for Dawning is really something else. also this: "this music has something to do with a conception of what being an adult who lived in a big city was like when i was a small child" OTM.

Listening to 'Sleep No More' and The Blue Nile was basically my life as a fifteen year old.

that was my life as a 19 year old so you had a good four years on me there

this mix is so great