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rfmcdonaldI mentioned The Blue Nile's 1989 song "The Downtown Lights", off of the group's lauded 1989 Hats, back in August of 2008. I'd actually first heard the song in 1995, when I bought Annie Lennox's covers album Medusa.
Medusa is more of an uneven album than I thought on first listen, but Lennox's version of song definitely holds up on re-listening two decades later. I suspect this might be because Lennox and The Blue Nile's songwriter Paul Buchanan share the same ethos, of the careful construction of quietly passionate songs. Back in 2008, I was struck by this lyric:
I was in love, then.
Now, it's the final monologue, about the dead ends of city life and hopes dashed, that gets me.
Medusa is more of an uneven album than I thought on first listen, but Lennox's version of song definitely holds up on re-listening two decades later. I suspect this might be because Lennox and The Blue Nile's songwriter Paul Buchanan share the same ethos, of the careful construction of quietly passionate songs. Back in 2008, I was struck by this lyric:
Tonight and every night
Let's go walking down this empty street
Let's walk in the cool evening light
Wrong or right
Be at my side
The downtown lights
I was in love, then.
Now, it's the final monologue, about the dead ends of city life and hopes dashed, that gets me.
The neon's and the cigarettes
Rented rooms and rented cars
The crowded streets, the empty bars
Chimney tops and trumpets
The golden lights, the loving prayers
The colored shoes, the empty trains
I'm tired of crying on the stairs
The downtown lights
Yeah, yeah</blockquote
