Timeless Beauty
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday October 23, 2004
Pop
The Blue Nile High (Sanctuary/Shock) In a world where there is far too much music, the Blue Nile, who have released only four albums in the past 20 years, deserve to be celebrated just for their artistic modesty and lack of excess.The fact that each of their albums - A Walk Across the Rooftops (1984), Hats (1989), Peace at Last (1996) and now High - sits seamlessly within the collection makes their output sound as though it was all recorded in a single session.But then the Blue Nile are not like other groups. Formed in 1981 by three Glasgow University graduates - Paul Buchanan (English), Paul Joseph Moore (electronics) and Robert Bell (mathematics) - they made a commitment at the beginning of their career that they would only release songs and albums they believed were genuinely great and timeless. They have never deviated from that commitment. It may have taken eight years to complete High but, as Buchanan has observed, "that's just how long it takes to do something this good. It's unbelievably difficult to write great songs. But when you do they last ... and last forever." And that is not some uncontrollable ego talking. Those who remember Stay or Tinseltown in the Rain (both released in the early 1980s) still have their rare and delicate beauty embedded in their memory bank as though they first heard the songs yesterday.So what makes the Blue Nile so special? First, they create a sound that is beautifully sparse, yet warm and intimate. Producer-engineer Calum Malcolm knows exactly how to create a sense of musical spaciousness and grandeur against which he sets singer-songwriter-guitarist Buchanan's delicate vocals. Buchanan has a remarkably original voice that is soulful yet evokes an image of a simple, honest working man trying, in an almost inarticulate way, to give expression to complex and deeply felt emotions. Thus when, in the gorgeous I Would Never, he sings the chorus line "but I would never turn my back on your love", it is not a shallow pop sentiment but a passionate voicing of a genuine lifelong commitment.Most of all, the Blue Nile just make incredibly beautiful music. It is music rooted deeply in levels of emotional integrity that are beyond easy definition. It is music that achieves what so much pop aspires to: it understands the true and complex nature of love as it affects ordinary people and it finds the words and sounds to give oh so deep emotions truth and resonance. Listen to the Blue Nile's I Would Never at smh.com.au
© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald
