CD suggestion of the day

[BarryL]

Never heard of him. Thanks for the post.

[Demetrio]

My today's suggestion:



Group: THE BLUE NILE
Title: Hats
Year: 1989
Genre: Alt-Pop Rock

Tracklist:

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


Led by charismatic vocalist and songwriter Paul Buchanan, THE BLUE NILE has only four albums released to date, despite their longtime career: A Walk Across the Rooftops (1983), Hats (1989), Peace at Last (1996) and High (2004). All them, though, are excellent releases IMO, being this Hats my personal favorite.

This is slow, introspective, mellow rock music at the best. Paul Buchanan's highly emotive, soulful voice, combined with lush arrangements of keyboards, bass, drums and sparse solos of trumpet, plunges you immediately into the mood and, as you can easily infer from the titles of the seven tracks from Hats, the mood of this album is nighttime city life, evoking themes such as melancholy, loneliness, disillusion and hope of love. It sounds like a cinematic urban soundtrack, evoking immediately in your mind romantic landscapes of crowded streets in the night, of empty bars, of lonely lovers, of trains passing by, of coloured neon lights shining all around.

As you may infer from the above description, this is sort of a perfect album to listen to when you want to be alone, maybe watching the city life outside in a raining night, by the window. Just turn your lights off and relax, this is great music to be immersed in.

When I first listened to Hats I was also amazed by the great technical quality of the recording itself. Looking at the technical information of the recording I just discovered why: this album was recorded at Linn Records, a part of Linn Products (a Glasgow-based industry of hi-fi audio & home theater equipments), which makes it recommended for the more exigent listeners as well.

Favorite tracks: "The Downtown Lights", "Headlights on the Parade" and "Let's Go Out Tonight".

Demetrio.

[Demetrio]

Hey, proggers, my today's suggestion:



Group: SINGULARITY
Title: Of All the Mysteries
Year: 2007
Genre: Progressive Rock

Musicians:

John Green – Vocals, keyboards
Jamie McGregor – Drums, vocals
Scott Cleland – Electric & acoustic guitars, cello, vocals
Jonathan Patch – Bass, acoustic guitar, flute, vocals

Tracklist:

1. Mongrel – 3:12
2. Smile – 14:50
3. XOT – 6:48
4. Patchquilt – 3:55
5. Kaleidoscope – 3:22
6. Islands – 20:27

Of All the Mysteries, released in 2007, is the third release from Colorado's progressive band SINGULARITY – the other two previous were Color of Space, in 1999 (which is said to be very Rush influenced), and Between Sunlight and Shadow, in 2002 (that is said to remind Porcupine Tree a lot).

In this recording, though, the echoes of Rush and Porcupine Tree are much less evident (one would even say almost nonexistent). Instead, in Of All the Mysteries what we hear is a very nice mix of symphonic prog influences reminiscent of other contemporary prog bands such as Anglagard, Anekdoten, Phideaux and Spock's Beard (and yes, some sparse reminiscences of Porcupine Tree too). The absolute highlight in the album is "Islands" (track 6), a wonderful, 20-minute suite with even some Camel atmosphere and Latimer-inspired guitar work.

All in all, one of the best progressive albums I have listened to lately, definitely worth recommending to everybody else who is also into prog.

The audio quality of this recording is also top-notch, definitely one of the best sounding albums in the genre I know.

Samples available at these links:

http://www.myspace.com/singularityprogrock

http://cdbaby.com/cd/singularitymusic2

Demetrio.