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Rating:
Simple Minds need no introduction. The Glasgow-based band wrote an important part of the music of the '80s. Live, the group had an impressive strength, due in part to its leader, the charismatic Jim Kerr, who could command the stage like few others at the time.
This is the third chapter of their long history, and it is also considered the most "dark" episode of their career.
We are in 1980, and after two works still searching for a full identity, Simple Minds release this album that surprises both critics and fans simultaneously. Perhaps infatuated with the techno-decadent danceable trend of the time and especially with the robotic rhythms of Kraftwerk, Kerr and company decide to steer towards a compressed and mechanical sound, claustrophobic and dark, confusing and disorienting. To immediately convey their new direction, they place "I Travel" as the opening track, and the choice couldn't have been better. The song is indeed the manifesto of this new direction, a futuristic nightmare, a technological dance track for intellectual discos interspersed with intricate synth games, with a chorus that slightly opens the melody only to plunge back into an overwhelming mechanical rhythm.
No glimpses of clear sky to speak of, and if anything, "Today I Died Again" makes the scenery even darker with its claustrophobic electronic carpet. Kerr declaims from afar, with a voice laden with echo, threatening and accusatory.
The hypnotic "Celebrate" is a lullaby punctuated by a synthetic ticking, a prelude to the long decadent dance tinged with orientalisms of "This Fear Of Gods," 7 minutes of inexorable descent into a psychotic and sickly discomfort.
Sometimes these dark and obsessive arrangements are the excuse to stage Kerr's performances as in the case of "Constantinople Line" and the succeeding "Twist-Run-Repulsion," an avant-garde experiment that sees Kerr duet with a female voice in French, in an expressionist cabaret register.
"Room" closes the discourse, with keyboards again as the main protagonists, shaping a crescendo sound that seems about to explode at any moment, only to suddenly stop.
In conclusion, a work that is morbid and obsessive, frightening, perhaps a bit monotonous but fascinating, undoubtedly an album to own, among the best testimonies of the period.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 I Travel (04:02)
Cities, buildings falling down
Ideal homes falling down
These pictures I see on the wall
Timeless leaders stand so tall
Assassin in a hit and run
Asia steals a new born son
Evacuees and refugees
Presidents and monarchies
Travel round
I travel round
Decadence and pleasure towns
Tragedies,luxuries,statues,parks and galleries
Europe has a language problem
Talk, talk, talk, talk, talking on
In central Europe
Men are marching
Marching on and marching on
Love songs playing in the restaurants
Airport playing "Bi Some Lo"
Travel round
I travel round
Decadence and pleasure towns
Tragedies,luxuries,statues,parks and galleries
Europe has a language problem
Europe has a language problem
America has a language problem
I Travel
Euro-Bureau-Interpol
Making love to the criminals
Asia has a language problem
I Travel
And on and on and on and on and on and on and on
03 Celebrate (05:09)
Act of love
Is a luxury
The suit he wears
Belongs to me
The road is long
Seven thousand miles
Soldier talk
And uniform
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
She rag doll
Keeps him warm
This negative
Shows no form
He salutes the crowd
"Go west young man"
Run run run
The hollow man
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
To a distant land
Sand and sand
Touch to touch
A marble man
The house is glass
Furniture's chrome
Soldier talk
And uniform
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
We can live
I can live
Celebrate
Celebrate
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
09 Kant-Kino (01:53)
Instrumental
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
10 Room (02:28)
In your room
In your room
Silent man
Once again
The razor's song
The razor's song
Wear the mask
Another fave
In your room
In your room
City red
City red
Wear the mask
Wear the mask
A private hell
A secret sin
A friend of mine
Waiting for
A western man
Waiting for
New kind of glory
A view of glory
From this room
I only live here
I only live here
A fragile man
Waiting Waiting
Echoes...
I only live here
Echoes
In this room
Echoes...
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
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