 |
High |
|---|
|
|
| Media: |
Audio CD |
| Release Date: |
30 August 2004 |
| Label: |
Sanctuary |
| | |
| Amazon Sales Ranking: |
75 |
| Number of Discs: |
1 |
|
Description |
 |
| |
Some eight barren years have elapsed since Glasgow's nocturnal melancholics The Blue Nile last tendered a studio album. However, patience is a virtue and "High" - which features material conceived and recorded over a ten year period, including a song once gifted to a former Spice Girl - yields a generous dividend for prostrate audiophiles and sleepwalking nighthawks alike. Like a far-away comet circling the universe in sublime and yet static perpetuity, The Blue Nile manoeuvre impressively into view every few years having changed very little, a compliment which can scarcely be applied to many other artists in their profession. In the manner of Talk Talk's Mark Hollis or Jackie Leven, Paul Buchanan's distressed utterances exude a downcast but romantic spirituality, mining a rich blue seam of fatigued detachment from the diaphragm upwards while somewhere in the background pianos, electronic drums and subtle acoustic guitars pulse inconspicuously and yet with all the assurances of a heart steadily beating inside the chest. Eavesdropping on restaurant conversations, gazing at passing cars, looking at "the morning people going to work and fading away" is the stuff of cold, terminal exclusion but "High" is beautifully warm, offering the uncluttered quiescent orderliness of sonic Feng Shui for the soul. --Kevin Maidment |
|
Tracks |
|
| 1 |
Days Of Our Lives |
| 2 |
I Would Never |
| 3 |
Broken Loves |
| 4 |
Because Of Toledo |
| 5 |
She Saw The World |
| 6 |
High |
| 7 |
Soul Boy |
| 8 |
Everybody Else |
| 9 |
Stay Close |
|
Customer Reviews |
|
| |
|
John Evans |
Rating: 4.0 |
After the opening chine of a repeated piano chord, the unmistakable voice of Mr.Paul Buchanan opens up with the first line from the forthcoming Cd ...."She lives in a house in London,she lives in a house in Town".And once you have taken in the first track "Days of our lives", you know that you are in for another quality Cd from the boys.I decided to part with some hard earned to a cyber tinker on e-bay to get this early, and have listened to it quite a few times and would say that it is not as immediate as "Peace at last". The second track,and new single is a slow (Like they would ever record a 12 bar boogie!)love song proclaiming"I would never turn my back on your love" and this is followed by the hypnotic piano intro to "Broken Lives" which has a steam train like rhythm to it- there is noticably more piano on this CD than on previous work.I do not claim to be a very good reviewer,so i am not going to review it all (Just to say that Soul Boy is an immediate highlight and the pace of the music is picked up on Track.5 "She saw the World") but I do know a quality bit of work when I hear it.If you have the previous three cd's from "The Blue Nile" you are going to be at the local store first thing on the day of release,or put your pre-order in here,and you will be looking forward to hearing more fragile,soulful,quality songs that were more than worth waiting for.Your ears are in for another treat! |
|
| |
|
not a review |
Rating: 4.0 |
but I thought it worth mentioning that THIS ALBUM IS COPY PROTECTED I don't yet know if it will play on a Mac, as my copy is in transit, but several people on the Blue Nile mailing list are reporting that it won't play on Windows. |
|
| |
|
Rerturn to form... |
Rating: 5.0 |
I got this album to review last week. It's great. I was a little disappointed with The Blue Nile's 1996 effort Peace At Last and while High isn't (yet) as good as A Walk Across The Rooftops or Hats it's pretty close. Just listening to this album puts me in a pleasurable state. Once again we're in a world of late night melancholy contemplation. Everything is very precise and delicate. It certainly doesn't sound like it has taken eight years to record. Isn't it strange that being a Blue Nile fan means that you have an extreme reaction either positively or negatively to this record? If I were hearing Paul Buchanan's voice for the first time on this record would I still have become a fan? I think so. The single I Would Never is so understated that it stands out from pretty much everything else around at the moment. Broken Loves is a bit odd - with its heavy piano - and might take a while getting used to, but Soul Boy is an immediate hit. I'm not quite sure what being a 'soul boy' involves, but Paul could sing the back of a cereal packet and it would sound the most significant thing on earth. Isn't it strange that sad music can make you happy? Inevitably listening to this record conjures an emotional response based on my experiences listening to Hats and A Walk Across The Rooftops. I'm looking forward to having some new experiences with High as my soundtrack. All good things come to those who wait. See you in 2010 for the next one. |
|
| |
|
Return to form |
Rating: 5.0 |
To any Blue Nile fans who (like me) felt that Peace At Last saw the boys having a brief wobble, this album will be (literally and metaphorically) music to your ears. The stripped down sound of A Walk Across The Rooftops and Hats is back. Gently pulsing synths, electronic strings, minimalist song structures and looped melodies are back in. Guitars and gospel choirs are (mostly) out. Paul Buchanens voice, one of the most remarkable instruments in popular music, again amazes on this album. Lyrically it's right up there with the likes of Headlights On The Parade and Tinseltown In The Rain. Yearning, heartfelt, desperate, hopeful. Always striving for something greater, something just out of reach. One reviewer once described The Blue Nile as the musical equivalent of Venice. I can't really add to that. Its time to get High. |
|
| |
|
WARNING- THIS IS CD HAS EXTREME COPY PROTECTION |
Rating: 1.0 |
Although i think the album is fantastic and can't fault the band for this, however the cd i bought was severly copy protected and would only play on 1 out of 8 cd players tried in, this includes; sacd players, dvd players car cd players and computers among other players. It would also not play on a friends Quad 77, player. THis disc is not marked as copy protected, and is the worst i have ever seen. So please use extreme caution when buying this disc. I have tried to contact the company (sanctuary)but have had no success |
|
|
|
