Mid Air

Paul Buchanan, mainstay of Glaswegian soulful pop perfectionists The Blue Nile, presents his debut solo album.

'Mid Air' is an extraordinarily intimate record, its spare piano and vocal-based arrangements unfurling at a meditative pace. Thirteen of its fourteen tracks are less than three minutes long, but rest assured all life is here. Buchanan's beautifully bruised voice remains a faithful conduit of all things emotive, and 'Mid Air' was written from a place of humility and wee-small-hours contemplation.

Says Paul: "I think if I'd tried to make a record that sounds like the band I'd be quite nervous, but this is more of a record-ette. It's quite small in stature and the songs are very brief, but don't get me wrong - it kept me awake at night."

Buchanan also concedes that, in some ways, he is "continually re-writing the same song", chipping away at the themes that have absorbed him from day one. 'Far above the chimney tops / Take me where the bus don't stop" he sings here on "My True Country".

Naturally, such starry-eyed sentiments will chime with fans of the Blue Nile's charmed 1983 debut, 'A Walk Across The Rooftops'. At root, these beautifully smudged miniatures represent a still more potent distillation of all that has made Buchanan's past work so special. 'Mid Air' - his little "record-ette" as he calls it - is wonderfully big of heart.