The Daily Spin II

The Blue Nile | Hats

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Hats (1989)

Artist: The Blue Nile

Link:

Few artists are bigger reasons to believe in ‘less is more’ than The Blue Nile, a Scottish pop group that have only put out five albums in the forty years since forming.

It’s this low output that makes each release all the more special, and it’s backed by the music itself - ethereal, enthralling, and captivating at its best. Though it is definitely a bit overblown - some of the raving is a little bit put on for an album and a band whose discography is entirely love songs, often somewhat kitschy love songs at that.

And yet, this is an album that turns woe into joy, a triumphant call to finding the silver lining in anything. Every song is its own miniature play, a love story written with all the peaks and valleys - and crooning over lovely soft-pop instrumentals that call to mind groups that have obviously taken homage (the xx, the 1975, Destroyer), you get glimpses into these windows of the soul - sometimes patched up, sometimes broken, sometimes a little shabby, but always full of love.

Rating: 8/10

Best Tracks: From A Late Night Train

Worst Tracks: Seven A.M.