Simple Minds were literally the pinnacle of the 80's for me. You would be hard pressed to show me many better albums than New Gold Dream or Sparkle In The Rain during that period. A great exemplification of this sound is found on this track 'Promised You A Miracle'. It's not just the sound and this era that sets the tone for this single, it's the other tracks as well. 'Theme For Great Cities' is oddly enough one of my favorite Simple Minds tracks. It's perhaps strange to find myself touting about an instrumental B-side, but this is one of those tracks that showcases the bands talent. It literally is what it is, a song that should have been used in soundtracks throughout the 80's. I often imagined this track would have done nicely for the opening sequences of The Lost Boys. This single still pales in comparison to the Simple Minds offering found earlier in this blog, but when you have to set your standards so high, it's hard to compare one great track to the next. It's a shame that Simple Minds matured so fast, it seems that 'Don't You Forget About Me' spelled disaster to the sound we had enjoyed so much earlier on, as their later works had matured a little too much for my tastes. Not to say that Once Upon A Time or Street Fighting Years were bad albums, but to me they were just a little too commercial. These later albums don't have close to the sparkle that Simple Minds earlier albums had. Despite me being somewhat of an old bastard, I still feel young every time I throw on New Gold Dream, and that had the opposite effect with Street Fighting Years. I tend to feel I'm aging along with Jim Kerr, and that's perhaps the reality I don't want to face anytime soon. All in all, these few time capsules from the early 80's will forever point to the happiest moments musically in my life.
Track 1, Promised You A Miracle
Track 2, Theme For Great Cities
Track 3, Seeing Out The Angel
Grab the tracks here!
Canadian Virgin Records 1981, VSX 1147
Personal rating 5/5
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8 comments:
Great post for a great blog
thanks
I could have written almost the exact same comments you have written here. I have New Gold Dream as a 5.1 DTS recording and it's incredible. I still have a hard time understanding why these guys have been so boring since the late 80's. Oh well, at least there are plenty of good ones from early times.
wow, where did you get that 5.1 recording? I'd love to get my hands on a copy.
About the 5.1, there is an official SACD or DVD-A version of that recording (can't remember which). I actually got the 5.1 from Usenet awhile back. It was a scaled down DTS intead of the larger SACD. Pretty cool stuff.
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I have the same problem, previous button doesn't work in IE for me. Suppose it's the system.
My favourite from them is Someone Somewhere in Summertime, have original 12", but still not literate enough to transfer to digital, sorry. But Someday Someone etc.
Your blog is brilliant, thanks for this one.
famvd
Theme For Great cities came from their wonderful "Sounds & Fascination/Sister Feelings Call" period (the very best of Simple Minds in my opinion)
Clearly, thanks for an explanation.
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