Simple Minds Album by Album Thread

I really hope I'm not covering old ground. I did a search and did not find this thread so here goes. Simple Minds has an interesting history covering the gamut from hard working and talented up and coming band to a perceived "overnight success" including the accusations of selling-out to being on top of the world, falling from grace and culminating in a positive, nostalgic comeback.

The first version of this band was called "Johnny and the Self-Abusers", one of many young, punk and glam rock influenced bands coming out of the larger cities in the UK. In my opinion, they had something special that differentiated them from the crowd. Wisely changing their name to Simple Minds and establishing enough of a following in Glasgow led to that coveted recording contract which delivered their first album "Life in a Day" which was produced by John Leckie. IMHO, it would be fair to say the album was overproduced a bit which flattened some of the potential spark of some very interesting tunes. The album received mixed reviews with some finding potential that would come to the forefront on the band's following albums.

First album: Life in a Day

Track listing:
1. Someone
2. Life in a Day
3. Sad Affair
4. All For You
5. Pleasantly Disturbed
6. No Cure
7. Chelsea Girl
8. Wasteland
9. Destiny
10. Murder Story

Here we go!

 

Love the Minds! This will be a great thread. I don't have much to say about the first album other than the fact that I love the combination of post-punk energy and what might be called "Celtic soulfulness."

I got on board with them around the time of the Breakfast Club song and Once Upon a Time, so for better or worse, my affections lie with the "stadium rock" years. But I like all of the albums.

 

I just listened to Sparkle In The Rain (2002 remaster, CD) for the first time in a long time yesterday. What a fantastic album! It's lost none of the grip it had on me in the 80s. I'm looking forward to the discussion in this thread.

 

Their first album showed a hint of the band that would truly blossom with third third album. It's well made and the songs are solid enough even if they lack the inspiration of later material.

Nevertheless, I still like it an break it out on occasion.

I think it was an interesting choice to have John Leckie produce given his work with XTC and, later, The Stone Roses among others. Given the work he did with each of these bands early on, I find the production here interesting to say the least.

 

I think you touched on the most important characteristic that differentiated this band from the rest when you mention that "Celtic soulfulness". If you know about the genesis of so much of their music then you know about a wee, quiet guy named Michael MacNeil who was born and raised on an island named Barra. Being a 2nd generation American with extremely strong ties in Scotland, I'm familiar with the environment he grew up in and the massive and majestic soundscapes he strived for while in Simple Minds made perfect sense. Add a dash of Kraftwerk, some American gospel soul that influenced other members (among a whole host of other influences) and Simple Minds is truly something unique. Michael and Charlie would present these powerful and massive soundscapes, challenging the others to match them in the context of their contributions. Back in the early years the punk influence was strong enough to temper the lyrics but as they matured, you had some very grand lyrics to go with the music. I think Life in a Day is an interesting sort of time capsule that presents the strongest influences (Kraftwerk, Bowie, Roxy Music) while giving hints of what is yet to come. I had caught on with the band right before New Gold Dream after hearing some of "Sons/SFC" and immediately scooped up everything I could. My mom heard me playing LIAD and thought I was playing The Cars but that makes sense and now that I listen to them they are very similar.

 

I remember that period well. They seemed like they were on the verge and then the crowds at their shows were massive. The first concert I got in to see was SITR and everyone there were quite a bit older and were some pretty serious punks there. A year later, seemed like most of the crowd were in their Sperry Topsiders and the punks were distressed at losing their private band.

 

I love Simple Minds. The thread works for me.

 

Me too. Write away!

 

Great idea for a thread - love the Minds.

New Gold Dream is their pinnacle and one of the greatest albums ever.

 

Couldn't agree more. Love the album, didn't know there was a remaster....have to track it down

 

I still had the cassette until about a year ago, but I haven't had a tape deck for years so I bought the CD. One of the few cases where a record sounds like it was recorded in a closet and it turns out to be a good thing. Hopefully someone can dig up some production insights on that album for this thread, because I'm not sure what's going on there, but it works.

 

from wikipedia:
In September 1983, Simple Minds travelled to Monnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, near Monmouth in Wales,[16] for three weeks to work on some new material; Lillywhite accompanied them for the last two weeks to meet the musicians and suggest some modifications to their music.[17] This material consisted of around six tracks developed during a session the band had spent at a recording studio called The Chapel in Lincolnshire in January,[16][17] and other initial samples recorded in London's Nomis Studios before their performance at Phoenix Park.[17] At Rockfield, most of the tracks were dramatically changed, as they had begun as demos consisting only of work by Mick MacNeil and Charlie Burchill, with some drum and bass machine sounds overlapping.[17] With drummer Mel Gaynor now having fully integrated himself into the band, the songwriting was beginning to be influenced consistently from all group members.[18]
The group relocated to Townhouse Studios in London by October,[16] by which time their updated material retained "only a bassline or keyboard melody from the original four-track demo".[17] As a producer, Lillywhite differed from Peter Walsh on the previous album by going with "the feel of the moment" rather than following "any preconceptions about he wanted the album to turn out".[19] He tried to emphasize musical unity between the band members; for instance, he pressed Jim Kerr to write lyrics for songs as soon as he could, such that his vocal melodies were influenced by the instrumentation.[19] "On their earlier records, everyone's parts didn't really bear much resemblance to everyone else's," discussed Lillywhite. "Mick would be fiddling away like this, Charlie would be going like this, then Jim would come in and sing something completely different to what the other two were doing. Whereas I now think Jim is taking some of the melodies from the guitar and the keyboards, which he didn't use to, which makes it more like a song."[19]
Burchill likened Lillywhite's producing style and manner to that of the film director Werner Herzog.[20] Generally starting studio work at eleven o'clock in the morning, the band found the recording process repetitive, as each track was meticulously refined and sharpened through multiple iterations.[21] With this leading to the group becoming tense and distracted,[22] Lillywhite occasionally asked the band members to vacate the studio while he worked on mixing.[21] The album's working title was Quiet Night of the White Hot Day,[23] which eventually survived as a lyric in the complete album's seventh track "White Hot Day".[24] The recording process drew to a completion with Lillywhite and the band adding some finishing touches to "Up on the Catwalk"; Jim Kerr sang some additional lines that had been stored in his notebook instead of name-dropping some extra famous people towards the song's end.[25] Minor imperfections in phasing and pitch were then corrected to complete the album.[25]

 

Ah, so there is life beyond "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Bring it on!

 

Love this band. Will have to spin this first lp again and reconnect. But New Gold is my top 3 lp of the 80's

 

Simple Minds, no band was so much played at new wave clubs ('I Travel', 'Theme for Great Cities', etc, were amazing good songs to dance to) of the early eighties which I visited weekly in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and my own town. They were amazing innovative and all their first (or six, one of their double albums was split in two) albums were real gems. I was shocked by the album 'Sparkling in the Rain', stil some great singles but for the first time also with some awfull fillers and silly songs. The album after that (with that socalled soulfull background singer, oh horror) ruined it all for me and most old fans I knew. I think no band lost their old fanbase that fast by such a sell out! It took me also many, many years to listen again to that band...

That was their fine box set 'Simple Minds x 5' with their first five albums (great sonics, great bonus tracks and even the return of the former double album 'Sons and Fascination' - my favourite) of some years ago. I played - after all those years - their first five albums again and got back all those cool years. How great was that band and why did they all exchange that for just some short term commercial success....

 

Don't You (Forget About Me) is a fun 80's pop song but light years away from the other worldly soundscapes of New Gold Dream.

They still put out some interesting music post 1985 - Neopolis which goes back to their earlier sound is quite good.

 

Echo, your SM history goes back farther than mine. The "Don't You..." single and what I thought were three killer albums in a row ('New Gold Dream', 'Sparkle in the Rain', 'Once Upon a Time') was my intro to the band. Your perspective is quite different. I've never heard any of their earlier music. Do you think I might like the X 5 box set?

 

This will be useful to me- great idea for a thread as I'm reacquainting myself with their music and I didn't really pay close attention to them in the past. For one thing, I only kept hearing about a certain 3 or 4 songs (I think almost all of us can name them! Great that they are though.)

I bought a couple of their albums in the last week or so and this will give people like me a good idea of what to expect, also.

 

Here's an example of pre New Gold Dream Simple Minds - the sort of club stuff Echo was talking about.

 

Nice idea!
I like the 1st album, but the arrangements are a bit overcooked, especially the keyboard parts. Supposed to sound like Roxy Music, but as I never cared for that band I wouldn't know .

Great:
Someone
Life in a Day
Chelsea Girl
Pleasantly Disturbed

Good:
All For You
Sad Affair
No Cure
Wasteland

Nah:
Destiny
Murder Story

 

I hope so, but if you like New Gold Dream, I think you will like also the albums before. Only their first album was a little bit too close sounding like a band whose members were all fan of Kraftwerk. The albums after it were amazing. Of course, you was still able to hear some Bowie, Roxy Music, Kraftwerk and krautrock (nothing wrong with these influences!), but they found also definitely their own voice.

That box set 'Simple Minds x 5' does not only have the best sonics and some extra tracks and remixes, but is also very, very cheap to get. So don't wait too long if you want to discover their most arty and experimental side!

 

I liked them from the start, I heard Chelsea Girl on the radio, and up to New Gold Dream, which is a wonderful album and their peak.

Then, as Echo says, they sold out to get stadium success in the US and it was over. I guess they saw the success U2 had and thought we have been struggling for years playing great music and getting nowhere, **** it let's just go for the money.

One thing I would like see released is they did a BBC radio concert around 1980 and the sound was great - it was a great mix of their early sound and the more electronic sound, I did think at this time that they were breaking new ground in the way the very best post punk bands were, it's a shame they couldn't sell any records it seems.

 

Er, that's part of what made them great, Mr Lillywhite.

 

For many of us early fans the early stuff was up there with the best cutting edge music at the time, then they just sold out and became a Scottish U2, all big statements and stadium rock dynamics.

To be honest I don't begrudge them making some money, they did make a pile of great records before.

Don't You Forget About Me is a great track though, a guilty pleasure.

 

I think "Live In The City Of Light" is kind of unbearable stadium rock ("Once Upon A Time" has some great songs), and"Real Life" and "Good News..." are weak, suffering from the departure of Mick McNeil.
Then there's the unnecessary covers album.
Otherwise everything is worth owning. IMHO!