Is there such thing as a "good" Simple Minds song?

[eight6]

[quote][i]Originally posted by obs[/i]
<br>Obviously, people didn't care about taking your own tastes into consideration before making recommendations.

[i]I remember thinking I would like "Love Song" when I purchased Classic Alternatives vol. 4 a while back, TERRIBLE! Then I just heard this God awful song on XM Fred called "This Is Your Land" but I think the worst yet has to be "Speed Your Love To Me"[/i]

Love Song is from Sons and Fascination and Speed Your Love to Me is from Sparkle in the Rain.

Sons was their last experimental style album, and Sparkle was the start of their stadium rock sound. The one in between, which most think is their finest hour, was New Gold Dream.
[/quote]

New Gold Dream was the only Simple Minds lp I listened to with any regularity. I thought it was an excellent lp start to finish...other songs I like by them:

- I Travel (I'm partial to the ext. mix)
- Changeling
- Life in A Day
- Chelsea Girl
- Belfast Child

There's probably a couple more, but they're not hitting me now. You may need to comb through the lp's/CD's avoiding the singles to find some of their more interesting work.




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I was smellin' alright, and lookin' alright.

[Freaky Trigger]

[quote][i]Originally posted by obs[/i]

Sons was their last experimental style album, and Sparkle was the start of their stadium rock sound. The one in between, which most think is their finest hour, was New Gold Dream.
[/quote]

.... I'm torn between NGD and the Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call double album, as to which is my favourite. I remember Kerr saying that "Sparkle In The Rain was sounding too much like New Gold Dream 2 so we went in a different direction". All too sadly true - you can hear a NGD-styley to tracks like East At easter; everything they did after that left me cold although the Neapolis album was a partial return to form - they got most of the original line in and had Pete Walsh producing it as he had on NGD.

Tracks to listen to if you like Prmoised You A Miracle? Try :

I Travel
Colours Fly & Catherine Wheel - my favourite Minds track, great bassline by Derek Forbes.
Sweat In Bullet
The American

I've quite a few concert recordings from 1981 to 1983 (I recommend Dutch Daze and Life In A Day (recorded at the Milky Weg Club in the 'Dam)) and songs from this era absolutely go off like a bottle rocket when played live! Even some of the more esoteric stuff, like Premonition and 30 Frames A Second, just brilliant.

BR
Freaky Trigger

[British]

I only like "New gold dream". Many moons ago, I was impressed with "All the things she said"(or whatever the heck that's titled). But that was a long time ago.

With their Breakfast Club track being played 20000000 times since its creation, I have fallen onto the impression that they are a bunch of pretentious snobs.

[wozgo]

[quote][i]Originally posted by DevoManiac101[/i]
--> I just realized Simple Minds really suck <--
[/quote]Oh no he dint!

[NuWaveRx]

I'll echo most of the posts here. New Gold Dream is in my top 10 NW LPs of all time. Sparkle in the Rain and Once Upon a Time are good, but less so (I really like Ghost Dancing from the latter LP). Sons and Fascination and Reel to Reel Cachophony are the other Lps I own--A bit more experimental but good in their own way. I remember reading somewhere that after Once Upon a Time Jim Kerr suffered a severe case of writer's block and wasn't really satisfied with a lot of the music of the several albums after that.

[Rubellan]

You are missing out on way too much. They were a great band for several albums, from "Life in a Day" to a few songs on "Sparkle in the Rain". Some albums are difficult and take repeat listenings, though there are always standout songs. My personal favorite is "Factory" from their second album. The band despise their first album, though I think it's some of their best work. The track "All for you" is an excellent rock song. "Empires and Dance" has the excellent single, "I Travel", however the experimental nature of the album can make it difficult the first few times. It took me some years to appreciate the amount of it that I do now. "New Gold Dream" is a great album, but the taste of success spelled disaster for their creativity. "Sparkle in the Rain" had a couple of good songs, but the pop intentions were expanding. By "Once Upon a Time", they were absolutely terrible! I've hated everything I've heard since. Their cover of Pete Shelley's "Homosapien" was criminal! Buy everything up to "Sparkle", the pretend like they disbanded.

[glokstadt]

All releases from Sparkle backwards... SITR was the last SM lp I bought... their early releases are great, and they wrote great instrumentals. I don't think you should write them off so quick Justin. I like the Razormaid version of New Gold Dream('81,'82,'83,'84).

Feel free to post your top 10 songs at:

http://www.nwoutpost.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16127


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[rotator]

The answer to the question is there are as many good Simple Minds songs as Devo songs...or should I say Devo 2.0....[:D]

[Surly]

Sorry to hear you don't like them...they are my all-time favorite band! All I can say is that if you like "Promised You A Miracle," then you should at least explore the entire [i]New Gold Dream[/i] album (and if you already have, then try it again). Personally, I also love [i]Sparkle In The Rain[/i]. Sure, they dressed up their sound in "American chrome" for [i]Once Upon A Time[/i], but there are some solid rock tracks on that album. My favorite from it is "Come A Long Way" which features some amazing drum work.

Their covers album and the "lost" album [i]Our Secrets Are The Same[/i] are probably my least favorites of their output. The title track from [i]Cry[/i] is amazing, but the only other song from that album that I listen to regularly is "Spaceface." Their latest album [i]Black And White 050505[/i] is pretty solid, though...lots of repeat listens to that one in my iPod!

The early albums certainly have lots of great material, such as "Someone" and "Chelsea Girl" from [i]Life In A Day,[/i] and the sonically interesting album [i]Real To Real Cacophony[/i] includes my favorites "Premonition" and "Changeling."

And if I were to ever produce a movie, I'd use "War Babies" from [i]Neapolis[/i] in the opening credits.

I'm OK with them changing from an experimental-sounding synth band to a straight-ahead rock band. Jim Kerr has a great "rock" voice, and Charlie Burchill is (in my opinion) one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Mel Gaynor can beat the shit out of his drums. I love to "synth out" as much as the next new-waver, but I also love to "rock out" as well. I think I'm happiest when they combine the synths and the rock, though...probably why I also love The Fixx so much!

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[DevoManiac101]

Thank you all for your comments and recommendations, I think I will begin to explore the Simple Minds catalogue a little more in depth and let you all know what I think. I was only used to the mainstream stuff but it looks like the album tracks are the way to go! I will first venture into "I Travel" courtesy of marie3, thanks again guys!

[DevoManiac101]

I just listened to "I Travel" and ... wait

Was I just listening to Simple Minds? Wow ... not bad, not bad at all ... and it makes me wonder why I had not explored them sooner, I guess the songs I heard and knew turned me off that badly for me not to take a listen to some of their other work, cool stuff! Thank you!

[marie3]

Cool [8D]

Did you get the other song I sent over?
If so, what did you think?

[:D]

[glokstadt]

Hey devo-Man, check your e-mail account! _Gerald

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[darwinsky]

I think we should have more threads like this. I remember playing some of their cds and absent-mindedly skipping the tracks if the intro/ first 2-3 lines didn't catch my interest. Now, I'm going to give the tracks until the chorus lines, at least. [:D]

dar

[obs]

[i]I'm OK with them changing from an experimental-sounding synth band to a straight-ahead rock band.[/i]

I'm the same way, but I didn't get into them until Once Upon a Time, so their loss of coolness didn't affect me [:)]. The same deal with OMD. I don't tear up Crush just because it was less cool.