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Hats is the second album from Glasgow, Scotland adult alternative/pop group The Blue Nile, released in 1989 (see 1989 in music).
Lush and evocative, this album is considered by many music critics as the band's most enduring work, and one of the best pop albums released in the 1980s. After a prolonged delay in which an entire album's worth of work was scrapped, The Blue Nile released Hats to rave reviews, including a rare five-star rating from Q magazine.
Hats is also The Blue Nile's most successful album, reaching #12 on the UK album charts, and spawning three singles: "The Downtown Lights," "Headlights on the Parade," and "Saturday Night." Rickie Lee Jones, a huge fan of the band, personally selected The Blue Nile as her opening act for her US tour in 1990. She would later record a duet with them, a cover of their own "Easter Parade," which was featured as a B-side to the single "Headlights on the Parade."
Track listing
All songs written by Paul Buchanan
- "Over the Hillside" - 5:05
- "The Downtown Lights" - 6:29
- "Let's Go Out Tonight" - 5:16
- "Headlights on the Parade" - 6:16
- "From a Late Night Train" - 4:01
- "Seven A.M." - 5:09
- "Saturday Night" - 6:27
Personnel
- Robert Bell - Bass, Synthesizer
- Paul Buchanan - Vocals, Guitar, Synthesizer
- Paul Joseph Moore - Keyboards, Synthesizer
Production
- Producer(s): The Blue Nile
- Engineer: Calum Malcolm
Trivia
- Since The Blue Nile was essentially unknown in the United States in 1989, the cover artwork for the US release of Hats was slightly modified for marketing reasons, so that the band's name would read more clearly.
- As a promotional tool, A&M Records--who distributed Hats in North America--took out a full-page advertisement in Billboard offering a free copy of the CD to anyone who called a toll-free number which was provided.
- Annie Lennox, with whom The Blue Nile worked on Diva, later performed a cover of "The Downtown Lights" on her second solo recording, Medusa.
"Hats (album)"