But before all that happened, they were a super cool art-rock European band. New Gold Dream is a straight up classic album. It is both of its time and timeless. It is a dance rock masterpiece.
The album that followed (Sparkle in the Rain), however, was where, for many, the rot set in. They set a course for stadiums and lost what made them great.
As an explanation, I think you can’t go past this story from Jim Kerr:
“A Couple of years ago a young, anonymous musician approached Jim Kerr in a Glasgow rehearsal studio and began humorously haranguing him. "He was like: 'You guys lost it, man, having all those hits, playing all those stadiums. I would never do that.' And I said: 'Well, you might not have that dilemma!'" Kerr laughs. "It's nice to have the choice, to try it and see where it goes. But I understand that for a lot of our audience it was too much of a jump."
I know when they left the dance-art-rock thing behind them was the point where Simple Minds go from being “cool” to being seriously uncool. They became like a poor man’s U2. But the instinct is totally understandable. Isn’t that part of the reason you get into a band? To play to thousands of people?
Not surprisingly, this collection focuses on the hits but, by doing so, it misses out on what made them great. If you were to only to listen to one Simple Minds album, put on New Gold Dream. It’s perfect in every way.
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