Big Dog 92-7 Music Guide

Saturday Night

RELEASE
1990
LABEL
Linn/Virgin
GENRES
Pop/Rock, Dream Pop, Alternative/Indie Rock, Sophisti-Pop

Album Review

The second single from the Blue Nile's second album, 1989's Hats, this elaborately packaged EP contains both the six-and-a-half-minute album version of "Saturday Night" and a surprisingly effective four-minute remix edit that doesn't simply chop off the song's lengthy coda, with singer Paul Buchanan's Van Morrison-style ad libs, but rearranges the song, removing the intro and subtly moving the chorus to a more prominent position in the song by taking out a verse. It's instructive, not only because it shows how easily this rather abstract song could be modified into a potential hit single, but also because comparing the two versions reveals how structurally odd this Scottish trio's songs are, despite their easy-on-the-ears gloss. The middle track is equally impressive for Blue Nile fans, as it's both a memento of the trio's very rare live performances and an extended version of one of the best songs on Hats, "Seven A.M."
Stewart Mason, Rovi