Simple Minds - Best album?

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Simple Minds best album

Poll ended at 26 Apr 2017, 19:04

Life in a Day 1979
1
4%
Real to Real Cacophony 1979
3
11%
Empires and Dance 1980
3
11%
Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call 1981
6
22%
New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) 1982
13
48%
Sparkle in the Rain 1984
1
4%
I'm not sane and choose another one
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 27

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ConnyOlivetti
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Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 12 Apr 2017, 19:04

I only added the first six ones, the rest is crap ;)
No sane person would go for an album
after Sparkle In The Rain (included although I dont rate it at all)
So, is NGD (81/82/83/84) really the best one?

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Moleskin » 12 Apr 2017, 19:07

I like everything between Reel to Real and NGD, but there can only be one choice.
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Canis lupus
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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Canis lupus » 12 Apr 2017, 19:45

New Gold Dream runs rings round the others, but fond memories of Sparkle and Once Upon a Time.

...they'd completely lost it by that City of Light LP (how atrocious is Promised You a Miracle live?). They should've spilt when Derek Forbes left.

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Ranking Ted
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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Ranking Ted » 12 Apr 2017, 21:38

Easily NGD but props for the 2 preceding which are full of that moody European propulsive thing they did so well and mystifyingly decided they'd had enough of. I've also got time for Sparkle and even OUAT even if the latter is more to do with a time and a place rather than anything more objective.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Canis lupus » 12 Apr 2017, 21:50

Ranking Ted wrote: even OUAT even if the latter is more to do with a time and a place rather than anything more objective.


...and even if they left the big hit single off the LP too :evil: tightwads

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Jimbly » 12 Apr 2017, 21:54

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Hugh » 12 Apr 2017, 22:30

I like NGD best and I've absolutely no time for anything that came after that. I like the earlier stuff too but I pretty much ignored it at the time.
Last edited by Hugh on 12 Apr 2017, 22:47, edited 1 time in total.

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the masked man
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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby the masked man » 12 Apr 2017, 22:39

NGD is great. but Empires & Dance is the first album of theirs I ever listened to, and, really, it was a revelation. Like Joy Division, it reflected how my confused teenage self really felt. What a great influence. Very European, which today seems like a real political statement.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Matt Wilson » 13 Apr 2017, 00:48

I don't know that the four best songs on New Gold Dream are any better than the four best from Sparkle in the Rain.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby fange » 13 Apr 2017, 01:41

Matt Wilson wrote:I don't know that the four best songs on New Gold Dream are any better than the four best from Sparkle in the Rain.

Songwise, I think i kind of agree with, because in terms of the actual tunes SITR is pretty good.

But for me the latter LP is basically ruined by the production and arrangements. Lillywhite has the band sounding like U2 in almost every way - a terrific result if their new plan was to break into the charts and crack America, but terrible because NGD 81/84 was one of the most BEAUTIFUL sounding albums of the period, with Peter Walsh' sound being both intimate and widescreen at the same time.

I find it hard to separate S&F/SFC and NGD these days - the first has some of my favourite SM songs like 'Lovesong', 'Theme For Great Cities', 'Sweat In Bullet', 'The American', '20th Century Promised Land'- fantastic stuff. The lesser songs have also kept me interested and coming back all these years later, because they sound great and Hillage's production is deep and rewards repeat listens.

Objectively though, NGD as a set of songs is as tight as a fish's arse.
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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Graham Murakami » 13 Apr 2017, 09:03

ConnyOlivetti wrote:I only added the first six ones, the rest is crap ;)
No sane person would go for an album
after Sparkle In The Rain (included although I dont rate it at all)
So, is NGD (81/82/83/84) really the best one?


I don't think anybody has ever said anything less controversial.

I went for Reel to Reel Cacophony, because I like the textured cover and the songs were the best of the first three albums.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Canis lupus » 13 Apr 2017, 09:24

Matt Wilson wrote:I don't know that the four best songs on New Gold Dream are any better than the four best from Sparkle in the Rain.


What's your four best from Sparkle in the Rain, Matt? Is Street Hassle is on your list?

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Hugh » 13 Apr 2017, 12:36

Who knew that Hillage would be such an empathetic producer? It's seems like a very unlikely collaboration.

Jim, we've found a producer for the new album - Steve Hillage.

Get tae fuck.

No really. He's very keen to do it.

We're all windswept and European an' that. We're no' electrick fuckin' gypsies.

Well, we asked Conny Plank and Brian Eno but they both said you were a wank.

Aye, fair enough. Get Stevie boy in.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby fange » 13 Apr 2017, 12:46

Hugh wrote:Who knew that Hillage would be such an empathetic producer? It's seems like a very unlikely collaboration.

Jim, we've found a producer for the new album - Steve Hillage.

Get tae fuck.

No really. He's very keen to do it.

We're all windswept and European an' that. We're no' electrick fuckin' gypsies.

Well, we asked Conny Plank and Brian Eno but they both said you were a wank.

Aye, fair enough. Get Stevie boy in.


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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby mantochanga » 13 Apr 2017, 12:48

I went for Reel to Real Cacophony because it's the most packed with ideas, and I played it a lot at the time.

I really rate them highly, as musicians they may have been the best new wave era band - lots of colour and a dynamite rhythm section. I guess Jim's job was just not to fuck it all up, and as long as he managed to do that properly all was well.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Matt Wilson » 13 Apr 2017, 16:28

:{ wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:I don't know that the four best songs on New Gold Dream are any better than the four best from Sparkle in the Rain.


What's your four best from Sparkle in the Rain, Matt? Is Street Hassle is on your list?


No, I'd go for "Up on the Catwalk," "Book of Brilliant Things," "Speed Your Love to Me," and "Waterfront."

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby fange » 13 Apr 2017, 17:17

mantochanga wrote:I guess Jim's job was just not to fuck it all up, and as long as he managed to do that properly all was well.

I've always had the same problem with Kerr as i have with Michael Stipe - i don't like it much when they actua lly try and sing, like intelligible sentences and stuff. Much better to push them back in the mix.
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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Jimbly » 13 Apr 2017, 19:00

Matt Wilson wrote:
:{ wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:I don't know that the four best songs on New Gold Dream are any better than the four best from Sparkle in the Rain.


What's your four best from Sparkle in the Rain, Matt? Is Street Hassle is on your list?


No, I'd go for "Up on the Catwalk," "Book of Brilliant Things," "Speed Your Love to Me," and "Waterfront."


Sparkle was when I gave up. Some good songs but awful production. The Waterfront video was partly filmed on a ferry two miles from my house. The hype over Waterfront was relentless and the song was every where you went. Never want to hear it again.
The ferry is now a gig venue and it's a great place to see a band.

None of that four are close to Hunter and the Hunted, Big Sleep, NGD and Colours Fly and the Catherine Wheel.

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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby Jimbly » 13 Apr 2017, 19:02

mantochanga wrote:I went for Reel to Real Cacophony because it's the most packed with ideas, and I played it a lot at the time.

I really rate them highly, as musicians they may have been the best new wave era band - lots of colour and a dynamite rhythm section. I guess Jim's job was just not to fuck it all up, and as long as he managed to do that properly all was well.


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Re: Simple Minds - Best album?

Postby dgs » 13 Apr 2017, 19:31

I love the minds, been to see them twice in the last few years. Jim and Charlie have a certain appeal in that big arena space, huge anthems that certainly get the crowd moving and really engaged. They are the stadium version of the silencers and the waterways whom also have a very scottish following that adores them.

I think the cut off here in terms of albums os correct but there are still some "simplemindesque" tracks from the following albums and I have to admit the recent acoustic album was one that I really liked.

I went for the sons and sisters double. I came to the minds via Chelsea girl and Life in a Day, great tunes each but these two albums are chocked full of pushing it tracks, in my opinion.

I also have great love for the Live in the City of Light double live album, the extended, Alive in Ahoy, Rotterdam Waterfront and the slowed down NGD are classic examples of a band at the top of their game in the live environment. Love then and they still carry the appeal to this day for me, along with the silencers and the waterboys.
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