Simple Minds
Néapolis

THE REVIEW

Has no one ever talked about "Neapolis"?

I'll talk about it, but first, a necessary preface.

As someone who was a teenager in the Eighties, and therefore, like many adolescents, was highly receptive to every stimulus, I confess, Jim Kerr represented an Idol for me. Perhaps the only true idol I truly perceived as such, no one like him seemed to speak and pour words into music to my heart... and that was true both with the harsh, introverted, and extremely complex harmonies of the pre-1982 works, as well as with their new wave paradigms "New Gold Dream" and "Sparkle in The Rain", and with the emphasis—which then as now sounded sincere to me—of "Once Upon a Time."

Then, something stalled.

Maybe I was becoming an adult, discovering other talents, other music...

But now, 22 years later, "Live in The City Of Lights" still sounds like a betrayal to me: Jim screaming instead of singing? A "live" album with so many overdubs? "Promised You a Miracle" and "Book of Brilliant Things" with accents flipped compared to the originals I loved?

"Street Fighting Years" 20 years later? Simple Minds trying to be progressive? Hmm... and then the most terrible thing: Charlie Burchill, the magical carver of atmospheres, excellent at his craft precisely because he blended and interacted with other instruments... here, for me, it's a disaster, a soloist who stands particularly awkward and always comes in at the wrong moment.

Yet I loved them, even these albums...

"Real Life" and "Good News From The Next World" came too late for me, the magic was gone, and I had fallen in love with other sounds and currents.

"Neon Lights" is chilling and without passion, this said with serene equidistance.

"Cry" and "Black & White" leave me rather indifferent, more the second than the first.

And in between we find "Neapolis," this album from 1998... so mistreated that when I searched online for comments—positive or negative, but sufficiently articulated to show that the album had been given even minimal attention—... I found nothing, apart from generic "en passant" ("the lowest point of their career," "anonymous album," and so forth).

Instead, said by a former fan of Simple Minds (or rather Jim Kerr), this album, as far as I'm concerned, stands out powerfully, it is a peak of inventiveness compared to what came immediately before and after it. If only because here, and not before or after, it seems to me that there is a pursuit of sonic construction... If only because here there is a lot of "Sons & Fascination" vibe—with all due proportions!—due to the airy keyboards and the brisk pace, agile, swift, of tracks like "Tears Of A Guy" or "Lightning" ... If only because Derek Forbes still participates in the sound of this album, THAT Derek, that bass which contributed to the uniqueness of the Simple Minds' sound as much as Michael Mc Neil's keyboards. Is this co-presence, the bassist, and the newfound vitality a coincidence?... and then, yes, if only because they end the album with an instrumental like they've not done in 20 years, which just from its title "Androgyny" sounds intriguing... And don't tell me you didn't love the Simple Minds' instrumental tracks!