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Rating:
An album composed and played in a state of grace. One of the few albums that identify with an era, a sound, a well-defined mood. Sunny, sparkling, cutting. Translated, albeit rhetorically, into effective images in the video for "Glittering Prize," in which everything (from the backgrounds, to the instruments, to the musicians' faces) is "golden." And not for nothing, on the back of the cover, there reads "made in Summer 82", precisely to identify it with a particular season.
A producer, Peter Walsh, who seeks, even directly manipulating the mixer, to "sculpt" the sound, until then indebted to certain a-la Kraftwerk styles, and make it more open, more pronounced. A finally wise use of electronics (Mike McNeill has never been so in command of his synthesizers), a nod to 4/4 rhythms (the opening of the title track, "New Gold Dream," is emblematic in this sense...), a Charles Burchill who weaves good order, breaking away from the cliché of the "rock guitarist," and often replacing the phrases woven by the keyboards.
Another element of undeniable value is the bass patterns created by a never-so-creative Derek Forbes (definitely a disciple of bass schools like Percy Jones and the contemporary Mick Karn... surely one of the most underrated bassists on the entire rock planet): together with McNeill's Prophet 5, the bass parts are some of the most memorable recorded on this album.
The voice of that old trickster Kerr is deliberately left almost in the background, or surely at the level of the other instruments: heavily effected, gloomy and menacing, evocative. A small example of how to make good use of not-exceptional vocal qualities.
The rest? A bunch of good and "classic" songs, no longer labelable as "new wave" or electro-pop, but true timeless classics.
Dazzling the singability of "Promised you a miracle", despite a very strange compositional structure; the swaying groove of "Big Sleep" (that is, how to play slap bass and not play in a funky band...); the disco-style beat box that is overwhelmed by a flood of keyboards in the title track "New Gold Dream", and the progression that turns the song into a veritable "anthem" (I remember a bootleg where the same song was sung arm in arm with... lo and behold, the usual Bono Vox!).
I repeat, an album in a state of grace, where four musicians in full creative maturity meet, in a hot summer of '82, in a recording studio, assisted by an attentive producer, and bring out a masterpiece full of... sparkling gems.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Someone Somewhere in Summertime (04:37)
Stay
I'm burning slow
With me in the rain
Walking in the soft rain
Calling out my name
See me burning slow
Brilliant days
Wake up on brilliant days
Shadows of brilliant ways will change all the time
Memories
Burning gold memories
Gold of day memories change me in these times
Somewhere there is some place
That one million eyes can't see
And somewhere there is someone
Who can see what I can see
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Moments burn
Slow burning golden nights
Once more see city lights
Holding candles to the flame
Brilliant days
Wake up on brilliant days
Shadows of brilliant ways will change me all the time
Somewhere there is some place
That one million eyes can't see
And somewhere there is someone
Who can see what I can see
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
Someone Somewhere In Summertime
02 Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel (03:49)
Belle
Never turn your back
Great times attack
Inexpensive thrills
And I said Belle
Of all the friends who care
Some should be seen
But never heard
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel
Poor girls cry
In the beauty of both worlds
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Out of the Sky
Belle
When the pulses rise
Love will tranquilize
Just before it kills
And I said Belle
You turn them on
With your reflection
I know so well
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel
Poor girls cry
In the beauty of both worlds
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Out of the Sky
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel
Poor girls cry
In the beauty of both worlds
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Catch a boy
Fell falling
Fall in Love
Fell falling
Out Of The Sky
Colours Fly and Catherine wheels
Some girl cry
Over her boyfriend
03 Promised You a Miracle (04:27)
Promised you a miracle.
Belief is a beauty thing.
Promises promises,
As golden days break wondering.
Chance as love takes a train.
Summer breeze and brilliant light.
Only love she sees,
He controls on love,
Love sails to a new life.
Promised you a miracle.
Belief is a beauty thing.
Promises promises,
As golden days break wondering.
Only love she sees.
He controls on love.
Life mirrors a cure.
Everything is possible,
With promises.
Everything is possible.
Oh no.
I promised you a miracle.
Belief is a beauty thing.
Promises promises,
As golden days break wondering.
Chance reflects on them a while,
Love screams so quietly.
Slipping back on golden times,
Breathing with sweet memories.
Promised you a miracle.
Belief is a beauty thing.
Promises promises,
As golden days break wondering.
Only love she sees.
He controls on love.
Life mirrors a cure.
Everything is possible in the game of life.
Everything is possible.
Oh no.
Chance lost pearls of great price,
Take care of family,
Only aches for love,
Love waits for fame,
In chance, in chance, they'll see.
I promised you a miracle.
Belief is a beauty thing.
Promises promises,
As golden days break wondering.
Only love she sees.
He controls on love.
Life throws a cure.
Everything is possible in the game of life,
A burning dream.
You can be Queen.
Everything is possible
04 Big Sleep (05:00)
So where did you go?
Where do you go in the big sleep?
Going out in the deep sleep.
Is where you're wandering now?
So where did you go?
When you're in the big sleep?
Drifting in wildlife,
And still you're wandering now.
We were on the top and the world was spinning,
We were only young in the whirlpool of warning.
Communication lost in the thundering rain style,
A shelter from the storm in the early beginning,
Going out in the big sleep, out in the big sleep,
Could have been years, you know it could have been years,
Or only seconds ago.
Big Sleep, deep sleep.
Where are you now?
Now that you're up in big sleep.
Valuable friend,
They saw you leaving this way.
We were on the top and the world was spinning,
We were only young in the whirlpool of warning.
Communication lost in the thundering rain style,
A shelter from the storm in the early beginning.
Where did you go?
Immaculate friend.
For a lifetime I'm grateful,
And it's only seconds away.
Big Sleep, deep sleep.
For evermore.
If only you could see me,
If only you could see me,
If only you could see,
Forever.
Coming home in the big sleep,
Coming home.
05 Somebody Up There Likes You (05:00)
Instrumental
Words & Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
06 New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (05:39)
New Gold Dream
She is the one in front of me, the siren and the ecstasy
New Gold Dream
Crashing beats and fantasy, setting sun in front of me
New Gold Dream
And the world goes hot
And the cities take
And the beat goes crashing
All along the way
She is your friend until the ocean breaks
And when you dream, dream in the dream with me
And when you dream, dream in the dream with me
81 - 82 - 83 - 84
81 - 82 - 83 - 84
New Gold Dream
Sun is set in front of me, worldwide on the widest screen
New Gold Dream
Burning bridge and ecstasy, crashing beats and fantasy
Dream in the dream with
And the world goes hot
And the cities take
And the beat goes crashing
All along the way
She is your only friend until the ocean breaks
And when you dream, dream in the dream with me
And when we dream, dream in the dream with me
81 - 82 - 83 - 84
81 - 82 - 83 - 84
New Gold Dream
The siren and the ecstasy, she's the one in front of me
New Gold Dream
...
Words & Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
07 Glittering Prize (04:33)
Shine on, shine the light on me,
In all of my life so that much more I see
In the light of his ove
In the light of reflection
Oh what a world
Or sometimes oh so it seems
Eyes in the skies
In that silver gift friendship
A glittering prize
Is it the prize of lost loves
They can remember quiet sides of midnight
They can remember the attraction of fame
Like a glittering prize
I saw up on a clear day
First taking hearts
Then our last breath away
Always came a time - time was on our side
We were spending time - we were staring out
Catch me in a dream - captured all in heart
We were spending time - we were staring out
Could there ever be - ever more than one
It's called an act of love
Can you you never stop?
Shine on, shine the light on me,
In all of my life
So much more I see
Like a glittering prize
I saw you up on a clear day
First taking heart then our last breath away
Only on a clear day coming into our lives
See it in the eye - satellite skies
We were spending time - we were staring out
Take in, take in more - the endless breath away
We were spending time - we were staring out
Could there ever be - ever more than one
It's called an act of love
Can you you never stop?
Always on a clear day
Crashing into our lives
Is it the price of love
Like a glittering prize
Always on a clear day
Crashing into our lives
With your love
Only on a clear day
09 King Is White and in the Crowd (07:02)
Talking by the pool of light, language from America.
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
They are not a melting pot, say no, say no tapestry
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
She takes his hand and she says you'll stay
She's lost in the crowd
King
Wire them up, fire them up
The life and times, the art and talk
Wire them up, fire them up
The life and times, the art and talk
Lovers run camp Africa, Bars in town are civilised
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
Panorama, Citylife
Youth's dance proud from the waist down
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
Shot from where the action is, a rhapsody in black and blue
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
Love lies under western eyes, powerful yet transient
She puts on the film of him, King is white and in the crowd
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By AR (Anonima Recensori)
It is the magic of an era, the music of a generation that identifies with sounds and colors that New Gold Dream worthily represents as an expression.
Thank you Simple Minds, thank you for allowing us to continuously live this dream... the eternity of ideals and youth!
