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Rating: Writing about the music of Simple Minds seems easy given how much this Scottish band made waves in the past decade, or rather I should say the past two decades. Yet, to avoid repeating the same overused and already heard phrases, I must give it my all to give due credit (=honor) to these Simple Minds because the impact of this band, in my opinion, influenced the path of much subsequent music and certainly marked an epoch, at least mine.
There was a time when no one seemed to keep up with them, and everything wanted to resemble them, their energetic and youthful yet mature vibe, their style, even the way they moved on stage like only he, Jim Kerr, could at that time... perhaps only Dave Gahan from Depeche could match him naturally.
When I hear, think about, or rewatch Simple Minds, I always feel a strong emotion, yes, because those were the years of thrilling music, it was the late 80s for heaven's sake, everything had changed and hadn't stopped changing to reach us today with all its products, clones, and real novelties. Back then, we were coming out of a period, and it was tangible, you could feel it, and it was terrifically fascinating. Some call the culture of the 80s trash culture, with which I strongly disagree, perhaps because I lived, breathed, assimilated, and digested that culture, and if I now listen to and love Radiohead, Interpol, and A Perfect Circle, for example, it's because my ears carefully listened to the decade above, and Simple Minds.
"Only with you life moves so fast" they sang in a verse of Hunter & the Hunted (but do you remember Hancock's keyboard riff, recorded unbeknownst to the band during a break in the recording studio, as a sign of respect from the black keyboardist?), a thrilling song, from a historic album, and "These are the years of living in temptations" and it was so true...
Simple Minds' music, before being decadent rock, new wave, sophisticated synthpop or whatever, and not devoid of references and quotations, is pure energy, it's charge, it's emotion and a desire to live, dance, and play wildly in front of a crowd... have you seen them live? I even did last year, July 2002, and even though we were all a little more tired and out of breath compared to the last concert, we all had the same bright and slightly teary eyes.
The Simple Minds marked an epoch, this album and its natural continuation, Sparkle In The Rain, all the more so.
Songs like Someone Somewhere..., Promised You A Miracle, New Gold Dream, Glittering Prize, Waterfront, Upon The Catwalk will still make us stand up and dance with a wistful smile even many years from now and also still appreciate sophisticated and unforgettable sounds and riffs, over which Kerr pours out all his energy with his unmistakable voice that becomes ours.
Simple Minds? I wouldn't say so.
This is love, I admit it.
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