Tuesday Playlist: Azure River

It's getting perilously late for a Tuesday over here, even for those of us who are currently looking for a new job rather than worrying about getting enough sleep before they have to clock back in for the Man. But I don't want to let all that get in the way of me making my regularly appointed rounds, so I'm leaning into the late-night vibes of it all and serving up a Tuesday Playlist that'll always sound even better after the sun goes down.

If you haven't figured it out already, I'm talking about a brief assortment of personal favorites plucked from the heartbreakingly slim catalog left behind by Scotland's own Blue Nile, plus a couple cuts from frontman Paul Buchanan's (currently) sole solo album. Those familiar with the band's whole deal know exactly what I'm talking about when I say this is night music — spare and melancholy, urban and urbane; the type of stuff that sounds amazing when played while driving through a city after dark, or looking out over a city from the upper stories of a high-rise apartment building or hotel. The sparsely arranged, slickly produced music leans up against Buchanan's poignant, fragile vocals in a way that makes you feel like you're smoking a cigarette with most of the lights off while contemplating your third divorce, and also makes you feel like all of those things are super sad, yet also super cool.

I may be doing a poor job of selling the Blue Nile's charms if you've never listened to any of their records. If so, please forgive me, and just know that if you're unfamiliar with their body of work, you're in for a treat.