Under-rated or rightly dismissed: early Simple Minds

[fange]

I'm thinking specifically the band's output from 1979 to 1982, up to New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84). 









Discuss.

[Deleted]

Are they under-rated? I think their early years have always been held in pretty high regard.
They hit a real peak from 1980 to 1982, once they'd got over their slightly clunky beginnings. The muscular, but always musical, anthemic Euro dance sound was genuinely pioneering. This was a real favourite of mine and illustrates very well their strengths..

[Reactionary Rage]

I Travel, Theme For Great Cities...fuck yeah

New Gold Dream is one of those records where the 80s production is a significant part of its appeal. I think it sounds great.

["BING E BONG"]

Ah, there's a kind of hip consensus around this period. It's good but I do think the stuff that came afterwards is wrongly overlooked.

I was digging 'Alive and Kicking' on the walk to work today. It's a beast of a song. Glorious 80s nonsense turned up to fuck with slamming drums and groovy backing vox. Just the right side of naff. The sun came out as I turned the corner and the stunning'woooahh' final coda began. SIMPLE MINDS SIMPLE MINDS SIMPLE MINDS

[fange]

^^
Yeah, i do get where you're coming from; part of me still feels a nostalgic fondness for their stuff from the middle part of the '80s, the best stuff from Sparkle in the Rain and Once Upon a Time.

But i was a fan from the Empires and Dance and Sons and Fascination/SFC era, and to me the uniqueness of their sound and records up to NGD was lost when they hit it big and tried to become another band of arena rockers. I still enjoy it now when something like 'Waterfront' or 'All The Things She Said' come up on the radio or at a bar, but they aren't nearly as interesting as songs like 'Changeling', '30 Frames a Second' or 'Love Song'.

[Deleted]

For me, his voice has never been that interesting, so dismiss, I guess..

[Deleted]

Dec 11, 2019 16:47:38 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

Ah, there's a kind of hip consensus around this period. It's good but I do think the stuff that came afterwards is wrongly overlooked.

I was digging 'Alive and Kicking' on the walk to work today. It's a beast of a song. Glorious 80s nonsense turned up to fuck with slamming drums and groovy backing vox. Just the right side of naff. The sun came out as I turned the corner and the stunning'woooahh' final coda began.

I think the post NGD Minds is rightly derided myself, however I'd certainly make an exception for "Alive and Kicking" which is anthemic in all the right ways.

[fange]

Dec 12, 2019 9:16:53 GMT @dayodead said:

For me, his voice has never been that interesting, so dismiss, I guess..

Check out Empies and Dance, day; musically you might find it quite interesting.

[Deleted]

It all started going wrong when Derek Forbes was kicked out the band.

[fange]

Agreed. Part of Jim Kerr understands that too, as he has said so in some interviews.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/23/simple-minds-rock

thequietus.com/articles/08040-simple-minds-jim-kerr-interview-5x5

[rayge]

This is where I admit that, despite spending the late seventies and early eighties in a ferment of record buying, and loving a lot of Scottish bands of the time - J&MC, Ortange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera, Fire Engines, Scars, WIN, Nectarine number 9, the Rezillos (and indeed the Revillos), the Associates, APB, The Blue Nile, probably some others I forgot - I have no recall of ever listening to this lot. What I read in reviews and interviews didn't appeal. No point in trying to get into them now, of course, when music takes up so little of my life, but I'm a bit fed up of not being able to join in the music threads on here, so I thought I'd listen to the three that fange posted and give you the benefit of my hard-earned wisdom.
NGD - Jim Kerr says in that interview that SM have nothing in common stylistically with U2, but in this track I hear two things I associate with the latter: chiming and bombast. Not that either is necessarily a bad thing, but in this particular combination, and at this length, nah, I'll pass.
Love Song - nasty drum sound, but the sound is definitely more interesting than NGD. Kerr's voice seems to be in a slightly higher register here, too, and all the better for it, less like he's delivering some portentous windbaggery, more human. Not bad at all, although the relentless synth riff was starting to grate before the end.
Premonition - probably the best of the three, certainly the drum recording is better, and the whole sound is more organic.
So, one hit, one miss and one maybe, but on the whole I'll take all of the bands I listed at the beginning over them, although of course if I had been exposed to them in my late twenties and early thirties, as with the others, that might have been different.

[Deleted]

At the time they did sound different to other bands, less of a straightforward rock band and more moving into a proto-club music direction with an emphasis on propulsion and rhythm. Their records and NO tracks like "Everything's Gone Green" seemed to open up a whole different direction for music back then.

[rayge]

Dec 12, 2019 15:23:18 GMT @madcyril1 said:

At the time they did sound different to other bands, less of a straightforward rock band and more moving into a proto-club music direction with an emphasis on propulsion and rhythm. Their records and NO tracks like "Everything's Gone Green" seemed to open up a whole different direction for music back then.

I can see the comparison with New Order, but I was predisposed to listen to them because I was a fan of JD, while I'd never been exposed to Johnny and the Self-Abusers. And looking back, New Order had the better tunes, or riffs if you prefer - Everything's Gone Green being a a great exemplar of that.

[Deleted]

Sometimes I forget how much I like them. Something like "Somewhere..." is just so good, I love the way their best stuff is layered with the chiming guitars, washes of synth and the melodic bass. It all works together so seamlessly.

["BING E BONG"]

It's a great album. The title track and 'Glittering Prize' still thrill me to the bone.