"What can I tell you?" sings Paul Buchanan on She Saw the World. Well, Paul, glad you asked. You could tell us what you and the rest of the Blue Nile have been doing for the past eight years. You could tell us how your band creates music that so obviously strives for technical excellence, yet simply oozes soul. You could tell us how you manage to make the most repetitive drum-machine patterns sound so warm and human. You could tell us how music so slow, chords so melancholic and a voice so aching always end up leaving the listener uplifted and optimistic. You could tell us how many songs you throw away to end up with albums virtually devoid of filler. You could tell us how you survive financially when this is only your fourth album in 21 years.
You could tell us how you create that almost tangible sense of urgency in She Saw the World. You could tell us how, on the title track, you fashion a yearning epic about the human condition from a few lyrics about trying to cross a busy street. You could tell us how, in a form where most people burn out in five years, you're still reaching the peaks you reached on your amazing Hats album, more than a dozen years ago. You could tell us how you create music that gets so close to perfection. Or perhaps you can't.