What can I say about "Hats" without risking a thousand eggs (or worse) being thrown at me by the Blue Nile faithfuls? Daunting but here goes……

Blue Nile was an "accident" for me. My first encounter was on a cable tv music channel when they played "Headlights on The Parade". It was one of the singles taken off from "Hats". That was the first and last time I ever saw anything of Blue Nile! In fact, Headlights just caught my imagination and it was love at first "sound". It had such an uplifting spirit to it. I hardly remember the video but I had visions of things being in black and white, a warm summer evening, neon lights, two people in love and a woman being led away by her man and her arms wide open as if wanting to break out and embrace the love that's engulfed her……. .

Unfortunately, that is the only song on "Hats" that does that to me because the rest of the album gave me this melancholy, cold, bleak, wintry feel especially "From a Late Night Train". That was the first impression that it had on me when I first listened to it on a New Year's day. The songs sounded achingly "sad" to me then.

That was almost a decade ago and the album has taken on a different meaning to me since then. Listening to the album now is like surfing underneath a big wave of love. You don't have to be in love to know what it is like to be in love. Just listen to the music and you'll feel it.

That is the magic of "Hats", it is evergreen and like a chameleon it adapts to one's life's experiences. One never tires of it and some lyrics just sticks to your head as if it is your "theme" in life….."who do you love, who do you really love??" (from "Saturday Night"). "Hats" takes on a different meaning at different phases' of one's life. It is like a rose that takes its own sweet time to bloom and unravel its beauty.

It also adapts to the weather! Try listening to "Hats" in a hot tropical climate, do away with the cold and bleak wintry days, think of bright, sunny, blue sky days, deserted sandy white beaches and it takes on a completely different feel! It can be terribly dreamy and romantic especially "Let's Go Out Tonight"……no more dark alleys and neon lights but moonlit nights, sounds of gentle waves rolling against the soft sandy beach and all one can see is each other's silhouette against the moonlight……..

Leonardo di Caprio and The Beach soundtrack, eat your heart out!!