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"Reel To Real... Fact To Fact..."
Dedicated to those who believe that Simple Minds gave their best only as (magnificent) pioneers of crystal-clear electro-pop in the New Gold Dream / Sparkle In The Rain era. Or as epic promoters of ethereal stadium rock and protest songs during the Once Upon A Time / Street Fighting Years period.
In the ten years that separate "Changeling" from "Belfast Child" there is one of the most fascinating chasms in the history of modern pop music. That is, the live construction of a band, a big brother of evolution or for others the documentary of a de-evolution. Surely few bands have shifted from a musical environment comparable to Devo to another akin to U2. Delicious mysteries of one of the most atypical bands of recent decades. Like a mystery is the incredible willpower and experimentation that can lead a band to release, just over six months after their debut work, Life In A Day, an appreciable LP yet catalogable in modest art-rock seen in a Glasgow pub, imitating Bowie, Roxy Music and similar, to this Reel To Real Cacophony. The "blue album" of Simple Minds, in that 1979 brimming with cataclysms. A 1979 in which it is difficult to conceive an album without being intimidated by a thousand innovations, the greatest bands alternating as the charioteers of the year. Better, to name two, Wire, Clash or P.I.L.? Joy Division or Pop Group? No one needed Simple Minds, no one needed a dark work from a dark band. And yet this is exactly what will come, a cacophonic circus of sensations, post-adolescent poems, monumental soundscapes and little electronic jokes. Jim Kerr and company still do not know which direction to take, and so it will be for all the first four years of the group's activity, during which an incredible five albums were released, each a different step from the next, each a different face and shade (and almost always interesting). And it's from Reel To Real that comes the necessity to put their chromosomes on record, the choice to wave all possible genetic mutations of the band, awaiting to then choose their personal path with greater ease. So, it must be clarified, here Simple Minds have not yet found their own trademark sound, they are still searching for it. And to do so, they bring us an album of photos, sounds heard from other bands and absorbed in their own way, of desires, showing us what they want to be when they grow up. Reel To Real is the DNA of Simple Minds.
No piece benefits from the immaculate production that "Promise You A Miracle" or "Alive & Kicking" will have, in fact everything seems like a cutout, a sketch, an idea jotted down in a notebook. What's surprising is how excellent, even ingenious, these intuitions are. Punk is overturned, art-progressive inherited from Eno & company, the hypnotic keyboards of the Los Angeles sixties, but a form of three-minute pop gem is also given to pieces borrowed heavily from John Lydon or from the grooves of Unknown Pleasures. New-wave in child-size format, that's what Reel To Real is. It's unfair to come to it -as happened to me- after listening to 154 or Seventeen Seconds, it would have been fun to stumble upon this toy for a real neophyte. Because here you can find a real sound manufacturing, an accidental Kid A, that is unafraid of making mistakes because it has nothing to lose, no fans to respect, obey, indulge. For this reason, the blue album is the most enjoyable dark-pop I have ever heard, a carefree version of In The Flat Field with shouts, enthusiasm, games with recorders, synthesizers used in such a naive way that they are irresistible. We are immersed in a positive but ominous atmosphere, where we fall in love with doubts, electrified by the power of team music, where there is not yet a leader, a main, predominant instrument. Someone might say for lack of clarity or sound definition. I would rather say for great solidarity among the members, made a fluid, cohesive, and attractive whole as only the latest Japan and few other lights of the period would be able to succeed in the same field. And after these concise forty minutes, even divided coherently into two parts, where instrumental pieces (among which the restless "Veldt", led by a versatile bass, and the delightful "Theme For A Film", the perfect encounter between Second Edition and il Tempo delle Mele) blend effortlessly with triumphant imaginary singles ("Premonition", "Calling Your Name" the most striking examples) and a continuous succession of surprises and flaws, you might find yourself wanting more.
But the beauty lies precisely in this, Reel To Real is just a calling card, nothing more, almost a demo presentation. But at a very high level. Other albums are better or at least more representative of Simple Minds, but the "blue album", which for someone else could be the culmination of a career, remains my favorite.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
04 Carnival (Shelter in a Suitcase) (02:51)
Low club light
Lips sealed tight
Expose fade away
Observer write it all down
For Me
No soundtrack
No fightback
Noise annoys
Dark Subject
All the underworld
Making plans for us
We are open wide
Need someone to stand up
Up up
Lovers
Shelter in their suitcase
Waiters
Shelter in their suitcase
Stangers
Shelter in their suitcase
Sailor talk to soldier
Sailor
Low club light
Lips sealed tight
Expose fade away
Observer write it all down
For me
I'll try
I'll spy
I would not buy
A car from you
They make uniforms
Something to call style
We need to stand up
We are open wide-ide-ide
Lovers
Shelter in their suitcase
Waiters
Shelter in their suitcase
Strangers
Shelter in their suitcase
Soldier talk to sailer
Soldier
All the underworld
Making plans for us
We are open wide
Need someone to stand up
Up up
Lovers
Shelter in their suitcase
Waiters
Shelter in their suitcase
Strangers
Shelter in their suitcase
Soldier talk to sailer
Soldier
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
05 Factory (04:14)
In passage of time
To a cigarette burn
In the book that I read
To the sentence I learn
Up and down
Going round
Going round 'till we drown again
I'm gonna set myself up
I'm gonna up to the top
Up to the top
To the top
I'm going down to the ground
Going round
Till we drown
Going round till we drown again
Factory
Imitation of life
Factory
We all go out to lunch
A certain raion we know
Has left us unaware
Someone else has taken leave
Someone who did care
Elevators just don't crash
The answer lies within
Elevators Elevators
Answer lies within
To the glittering prize
To the fool in the sky
I've got a jewel in my eye
I'm going up
Coming down
Going round
Till we drown
Going round till we drown again
To the centre of the man
Because he had a plan
He had a plan to escape
But now we've got it on tape
Going up
Coming down
Going around
Going round till we drown again
Factory
Imitation of life
Factory
We all go out to lunch
A certain raion we know
Has left us unaware
Someone else has taken leave
Someone who did care
Elevators just don't crash
The answer lies within
Elevators Elevators
Answer lies within
Factory
Going out to lunch
Factory
Going out to lunch
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
08 Premonition (05:28)
Real to real
Fact to fact
Nothing moving happening
Artifact
The waiting room
Waits
Limbo can burn
But the original sin
The incentive to learn
Fly over land
Where no hearts can beat
The metal rain pouring
Raining
Raining
Raining down on me
Hole in my head
Where the creature has crawled
And It's burning and turning
Out of control
Real to real
Fact to fact
Nothing moving happening
Artifact
I in this land
Sand in the eye
So here we go
The happy man dies
Brave little world
Well you cry once again
Remodel life
Remake and remodel
Remoel men
Protection Protection
The sound of machines
Image is burning
As they grind to a halt
Crying and crying
The sound of the shells
Tears turn to salt
Cry and I cry
Just one more illusion
I cry just for you
There's a hole in my head
Where the voices came through
Fly over land
Waiting and waiting
Where no hears can beat
Machinery's burning
The metal rains pour
Pour
Raining
Raining down on me
Premonition
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
09 Changeling (04:11)
Overground
Underground
Pulsating through
Street Parade
Day arcade
No cloning you
Uniform
Won't conform
Hero who dies
Find a boy
Kill a toy
Get no reply
Changeling
Well changeling for you
They're coming out of you
Vision
Lost
Out of control
Lost
Down in the club
Beau bells can ring
Look good in blue
Help me to sing
Expose
Fade away
Contact erased
Call a friend
Tailor made
Do as I say
Changeling
Well changeling for you
They're coming out of you
Vision
Lost
Out of control
Lost
Overground
Underground
Overground
Underground
Down in the club
Down in the club
Down in the club
Club
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
11 Calling Your Name (05:06)
Private world
Moving fast
I see your face in the distant past
Time passes slowly
Time passes slowly
Time passes slowly
Echoes of an empty room
Assassin at the window below
The concrete jungle sleeps at night
Story ends
Leave him alone
Calling
Calling your name
All that you say goes in vain
I would like to find you
On a voyage
That could find itself true
Centre of a scene
Where a man lies dying in the sun
The concrete jungle sleeps at night
Story ends
Can't leave him alone
Calling
Calling your name
All that you say goes in vain
I would like to find you
On a voyage
That could find itself true
Private world
Moving fast
I see your face in the distant past
Time passes slowly
Time passes slowly
Time passes slowly
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
12 Scar (03:33)
Travelling through
Flashback to you
Fire
I see fire
Sun in my eyes
People in love
Talk far too much
Cities have lights
Cities have lights
Sun in my eyes
Car passenger
Fate at the wheel
Quick kiss of death
Car passenger
Fate at the wheel
Quick kiss of death
Travelling through
Cities have lights
Cities have lights
Car passenger
Fire
I see fire
Lyrics : J Kerr Music : Simple Minds (C) EMI Publishing Ltd Reproduced without permission
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