Of all the bands in which I take a serious interest, Simple Minds went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a short time span.  Does success really alter one’s style that much? Apparently it does.  The ironic thing is that U2 was quoted in the press as saying that New Gold Dream was an inspiration for The Unforgettable Fire.  Apparently it worked both ways, as Simple Minds became a Scottish analogue to U2, ostensibly selling out stadia whenever U2 was otherwise engaged elsewhere.

Their success does not mimic U2′s at all – U2 was a press darling within a few years of their first releases.  1980′s Boy had a top 20 single in the US and went platinum in Canada.  1983′s War was a top 20 album hit in the US, a really tough feat for anything from the British Isles at the time, even if it was the era of Kajagoogoo and Duran Duran.  So that’s about 4 years from obscure to widespread.   While U2′s public image really grates on me, I concede that Boy and War especially are two fantastic albums.

Simple Minds, on the other hand, wavered stylistically.  They started out with a bright, new wave sound – “Chelsea Girl” sounds eerily like Sparks.  This propelled their first album, Life In A Day, to #30 on the UK charts.   Not bad for a band that was comprised of members still in their teens.  But instead of going more poppy, they went far, far less poppy, and stuck with a very experimental sound for several years.  Real to Real Cacophony, their second album, didn’t even chart.   But it does contain a brilliant, perversely pop-oriented track, “Factory”:

Simple Minds – Factory (1979)

1980′s Empires and Dance, one of their best, hit #41 on the charts but their (fantastic, futuristic, prototypical) single “I Travel” did not. “I Travel” was almost their “Hand in Glove” or “Life in Tokyo” – i.e. the single that was released three different times and never met expectations.  (“Life in Tokyo” is by Japan, and “Hand in Glove” is from the Smiths and Sandie Shaw). “I Travel” is, as one writer put it, a mix of Roxy Music and Giorgio Moroder.

Simple Minds – I Travel (1981)

They were dropped from their Arista after “I Travel” and given a second chance at Virgin.  But instead of returning to a more accessible sound, they descended into experimental depths that placed it almost in Cabaret Voltaire territory, i.e. critically claimed but rather inaccessible.

It’s a surprise these albums were released in the form that they were – two albums for a band that was so far, only a tepid success.  They were released at the exact same time - Sister Feelings Call was usually packaged as a special bonus to the main Sons and Fascination.

To die hard fans of a ‘certain sound’ – like myself, these two albums are their crowning master achievement.    They are hard-rocking, they are set in odd time signatures, they feature brittle, heaving synthesizers – they have instrumentals, short pop songs and long krautrock imitations.  They reach a depth that very, very few million-record-selling bands ever would dare to go.  That is why and that is where they earn my respect.

Sister Feelings Call/Sons and Fascination together is what I would call the “Low” of the 80′s.  “Theme For Great Cities” is a thoughtful continuation of “A New Career In A New Town” – “20th Century Promised Land” speaks of far more political concepts than anything on “Low” did, but stylistically speaking, “20th Century” could be a lost second 2nd half to “Be My Wife”.  Nearly every song on these two albums are fantastic.  They speak of very dark concepts, containing wan hope for the future.  The lyrics often leave you with an impressionist blur at best, kind of like the Associates’ lyrics – you can figure out the words, but you stumble on the meaning.

Simple Minds – 20th Century Promised Land (1981)

This was the time that the somewhat catchy  “Love Song” and “The American” were released – the two singles that got them back in the public consciousness.  They were almost (but not quite) smash hits in Canada and Australia.

Then, in 1982,  they released their mainstream breakthrough (it hit #3 in the UK charts) – the album “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)”.  I could never figure out what the hell 81-82-83-84 was supposed to represent – the album was released in September 1982.  Were they midway in a 4-year-old ‘dream’ of making the very big bucks (i.e. ‘gold”)?  In a sad way, the words new, gold and dream were exactly what this album was about – a dream of their new sound making them lots of gold.

Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (1982)

That being said, it is one of their very best albums.  Many say it’s their career best – and if I weren’t such a slave to post-punk difficulties, it would probably be mine.  Except for the album cover, which is GHASTLY.  They went from this to that in 3 years! ACK!

GOD (no pun intended) is that album cover gaudy!  But it was a success beyond expectations.  Among its tracks, “New Gold Dream”, “Promised You A Miracle”, “Glittering Prize”, “Someone Somewhere in the Summer Time”, and “Hunter and the Hunted” were profound pieces of work.  (The rest, I could take or leave.)  The one alarming thing about the album is that it’s way Christian…not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But it seems to be the death knell for many – Cliff Richard spent 10 years being a Billy Graham yes-man, and it probably cost him several million singles in lost fans.  At least U2 was up front about their Christian beliefs – their first single, “I Will Follow”, puts it right out there.  But Simple Minds must have been born again sometime between 1981 and 1982, and baptized in 1984.  They have never been the same.

After that, it’s all downhill in critical terms – Sparkle In The Rain features more hideous album design (some kind of pre-Medieval England motif that is so out of place).  “East at Easter” is the only standout track. From there, it was all about huge smash hits like “Alive and Kicking” – not a bad song, mind you, but it was buffered by increasingly shabby album tracks.   Jim Kerr’s voice, unique and brooding, now sounds like Michael Hutchence of INXS.   All of the formerly-alternative arena rock bands of the Commonwealth – INXS, U2, and Simple Minds – sound like little imitations of one another.

It gets worse, sadly – Simple Minds’ work after “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” is often ghastly at time.  Their “big message” songs couldn’t hold a candle to U2.  Their “jukebox dance” songs were a pale imitation – INXS’ “Suicide Blonde” will do nicely instead, thanks. At least it was hip.  At least it was sexy.  At least we all wanted to do Michael Hutchence.

Instead, we got regurgitated “concern for the world’s people” stuff.  I can’t even write about the stuff that came after 1991′s “Real Life”.  It’s worse than Duran Duran’s “Electric Barbarella”!

I almost cringe at how patronizing this song seems:

Simple Minds – African Skies (1991)

I know I have thoroughly savaged Simple Minds post-1982, but what you should take from that is not to avoid this band.  Instead, it is a call for you to thoroughly explore their first 6 albums and love them as I do.

Ed’s note: I am not anti-Christian as far as music goes.  One of my favorite songs of all time in the history of man is “On the Wings of A Dove” by Ferlin Husky.