Simple Minds, classic or dud?

Nice fauxhawk there, Jim.

OMG that haircut he looks like a hungover monk

Good article anyway. Classic older-but-wiser moves. M. I always love that 'total hamburger music' story you tell upthread.

oh yeah - even though I still have a soft spot for "don't you forget about me" this all sounds promising.

I have the X5 box set on it's way, looking forward to the bonus tracks and the full immersion!

There was an interview in the Quietus the other day too:

http://thequietus.com/articles/08040-simple-minds-jim-kerr-interview-5x5

2 revived threads one common love.

"I was like [he puts his head in his hands and groans]: 'We're the Boomtown Rats! This is fucked!'"

i would like to assume that bob had that happen at some point.

haha!

I remember being quite impressed when I heard Empires And Dance for the first time. It was definitely a bit of an eye-opening experience because up until that point I'd only heard the big hits from the "stadium rock" years. I also like how that cover is blatantly where the Manic Street Preachers nicked the font from for the artwork to The Holy Bible.

Still don't understand why Once Upon A Time gets more grief than Joshua Tree, for example

This band was 1000000x times more interesting than Brian En...sorry U2

I'd understand if you're debating both albums song by song, but just because Rolling Stone and Q writers thought U2 did the arena thing better doesn't negate the fact that everyone else (pretty much) prefers the early stuff of both bands anyway...and Simple Minds' early stuff is leagues above U2's

I know exactly three Simple Minds songs: "Don't You Forget About Me" "All the Things She Said" and "Alive and Kicking." And I'm having a really hard time picturing this same band in arty Radiohead mode. This thread has piqued my curiosity and I'm checking this Reel to Real Cacophony out. Should I start there or with New Gold Dream?

I had to go back and listen and see whether I thought this description and praise of "Promised You a Miracle" from the Quietus article was overstated:

'Promised You A Miracle' for all its accessibility and retrospective familiarity is as far a cry from the preset patterns of regular pop as can be imagined. It teeters arrhythmically, glitters and starts, breaks out in distant showers of tinsel and manna. It conjures not just possibilities for a better pop but a better life, to which music could act as some sort of wormhole.

And indeed after doing so, I don't think that it is. Extraordinary record.

yes, i remember simple minds, more than any early 80s band, seeming to point the way to some "better" music world, and that is why so many fans feel like an intense betrayal took place when they went big & bland. sparkle in the rain was the turning point but i feel there were still some great songs on it albeit with a too heavyhanded steve lilywhite touch. once upon a time was 95% shit.

Mr. Snrub: Reel to Real = SM at their most arty. Something akin to what Wire and Magazine were doing at the time (and early Human League in places too). New Gold Dream = less so, though none the worse for it. Just not as "experimental".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1KCqWHhXK8

The X5 box set is a total joy, particularly loving "Reel To Reel" and Empires. There's lots of what-IS-that-sound moments such as the buzzsaw synth on "Changeling" as well as brilliant mutant krautrock like "30 Frames A Second". Even the Bowie/Roxy pastiche of the debut is great fun. Hurray for new opinions of old material!

And, really, "Twist/Run/Repulsion" is so wonderfully insane.

Wow. Indeed it is. Especially to someone like me who knew nothing about Simple Minds beyond "Don't You Forget About Me" and Once Upon A Time. Got some catching up to do, evidently.

Totally blown away by this. It's an exact crossbreed of Roxy Music and OMD, but so good and so cool and such fun.

http://youtu.be/3WXXyacakRo

Let's try that again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WXXyacakRo

Yeah, Simple Minds had a ridiculously good set of influences that you can spot in lots of their early work - Roxy, Magazine, Kraftwerk, Bowie, Eno...

picked up 5*5 today on a whim.

debut passed me by and will need a few more spins, ears pricked up a little more with reel to reel, but then i put on empires and dance, and f*ck me.

'i travel' is just huge.

never expected that.

do things get any better i wonder ..

Sons and Fascination is probably my favourite, so in my opinion YES THEY DO

One thing I love about those early Simple Minds albums is Derek Forbes' bass playing. Respect to him for jumping ship at the right time, though.

blasted I Travel on the way to work this morning

to follow up my earlier post : things do indeed get better.
this stuff is absolutely fantastic.
the 1st two albums i need to live with a little longer i think before the penny drops, whereas the rest of this boxset is superb.

I think the band themselves were disappointed by the way the first album turned out. Best thing on Real To Real Cacophony is Changeling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbvwKqotIAY

this fear of god : the missing link between shriekback and crackdown era cabaret voltaire.

good spot!

so according to mojo article, derek was never supposed to be bass player, but due to his les paul getting half inched ended up doing the bass lines.

how f*cking lucky is that as i totally agree that his presence in the bands sound is a large factor as to why i have fallen hard for this stuff.

if this is the result then more guitarists need to be a victim of theft, and pick up the bass guitar.

(actually thats not that bad a piece of advise for 2012 .. )

Empires And Dance = Real To Real Cacophony > Sons And Fascination > Life In A Day > Sister Feelings Call

Nice to see the early Simple Minds stuff getting its due. There was a while there where I would only listen to Empires and Dance alone because I was tired for having to explain myself.

The recent box set is excellent and it's definitely nice to have those bonus tracks more widely available.

I have a question for those of you who bought the 2003 remastered CDs and the x5 box: how does the remastering differ between the two, if at all?

It's also got me eyeing that copy of Sparkle in the Rain at my local used CD place. It's one that I've never heard, writing it off years ago as something from the "new" (read: more produced) version of the band that I was not interested in.

EUROPE HAS A LANGUAGE PROBLEM!

Currently spinning Empires and Dance after not listening to it for a while, and once more wondering why 'I Travel' wasn't the huge smash hit that it deserved to be.

Where I come from I Travel was nauseatingly ubiquitous. It's cool though. Decades have passed.

Holy cow, the X5 box is going for $75 and up. I guess print runs these days are miniscule.

And even more on Amazon! Glad I picked it up.

Listening to the 5x5 live album. I'm not a big live album guy but this is shockingly fun. Whoever's doing the bass lines is killing it. It's more guitar focused than the studio takes but it all sounds great and the song choices flow really well.

the bass player was some guy from danny wilson if you can remember them. can't be easy filling derek forbes shoes though

It's an enjoyable album if you can overlook the fact that Jim sings songs like Factory and Calling Your Name like they were on Street Fighting Years

love that bass guitar ZAP sound that occurs at the end of every (other?) measure during "seeing out the angel".. simple but badass..like getting electrocuted but funky

simple minds, demigods of bass slappage and poppage

So there's a new album, and there's a new promo photo.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPGfT72VQAIzOrV.jpg:large

This has garnered various reactions. A friend made an edit:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPGslppVoAALtpb.jpg:large

Oh yeah, this band are still going and didn't break up in 1984 like I often pretend they did.

rotten bastards - surely one of them could have helped jim up off the floor?

Charlie's not paid enough for that now.