Category: Music picks

Something something Dire Straits.

I watched a documentary years back, probably something like Synth Britannia where I think it was OMD’s Andy McCluskey said of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence ‘[fook] me, they’ve just produced the perfect pop song.’

Well fook me if The Valenki Band didn’t produce the best cover of it. No measured cadence or synths, this is a visceral, raw, brilliant version that I think captures the essence and should be relished. Could you imagine being a Russian club goer at this venue, three sheets to the wind on rough local vodka, and witnessing this powerhouse performance!?

Some days you just need some tranquility.

“We put an advert in a shop, ‘Female dancer wanted for pop video, must wear black, turn up at this place at this time.’ She was the only person who came, I just turned the camera on and said ‘Okay, here’s the song, dance.’ I just couldn’t stop looking at her. Then Adam took her to the cash point and gave her like £20, said thanks and then that was it.”

Hurts later produced a second video for this track but I think I prefer the rawness of the original rather than the highly produced revision.

Ambitious to take on a titan of an EbtG song, yet Sharon Little and Tim Sonnefeld give a brilliant performance, paring the track to an even more desolate landscape.

Where the original track depicted a wistful ache of absence that may never fade – and perhaps for the listener intentionally so – here there is Sharon’s powerful coda adding a visceral, desperate rawness that the original track never had.

Title track to a entrancing, magnificent album that’s stayed a favourite since my teens. Paul Buchanan’s vocals are a unique treat as is The Blue Nile’s sound. Producing one album about every seven years they never stole the limelight, but each release was eagerly anticipated and acclaimed.

Highly recommend having a read of Nileism: The Strange Course of The Blue Nile by Allan Brown (Apple, Kindle, no affil.) if you’d like to know the backstory. While the book sometimes wanders and loses direction a little, it provides some fascinating insight in to Paul Buchanan and the band, including how the production of A Walk Across the Rooftops, their first album, was footed by Linn Records to help sell the large dynamic range of the Sondek LP12 turntable. Also, how the album photo was shot in some very dodgy conditions.

Love how Leo Moracchioli has an absolute ball with every insane cover he performs. Rob Lundgren’s vocals nail the cover, too.

Stay for the cat cameo and the epilogue.