For their fourth album in three years, Simple Minds signed on with Virgin and enlisted Gong's Steve Hillage as producer. The sessions continued the group's impressive run of high-quality output, but there are instances where ambition gets the best of them. Though their work with Hillage hardly spawned anything on a plane with the two albums that preceded it and the one that followed it, it's still a substantial piece of the Simple Minds puzzle. Bridging the art disco of Empires and Dance with the pop masterpiece New Gold Dream, the album falters when the band seems to be reaching a bit too far for their own good. The other stumbling block is Hillage's production: Where the basslines of Empires and Dance snapped and tugged and where the drums hit with brisk smacks and thick thumps, the echo-gauze of the production work diminishes the impact of the band's greatest asset and makes everything sound bigger and busier than necessary. The record isn't without moments of brilliance, like the exquisitely detailed "70 Cities As Love Brings the Fall" (a great balance between grand melodies and bizarre noise), the insistently snaking "In Trance As Mission," and "Sweat in Bullet," which has sparkling keyboard parts and crafty guitar interplay. Aside from these moments, the mind tends to wander and wonder if the band was trying to do too much.
1. In Trance As Mission
2. Sweat In Bullet
3. 70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall
4. Boys From Brazil
5. Love Song
6. This Earth That You Walk Upon
7. Sons And Fascination
8. Seeing Out The Angel
9. Sweat In Bullet (Extended Remix)
10. In Trance As Mission (Live)
11. This Earth That You Walk Upon (Instrumental)
Love both these albums - some of the best pop music to come from the pen of Jim and the Minds. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThanks ximeremix
DeleteWhile I agree there is a significant difference in the production of this album compared to Empires and Dance, I disagree completely with your assessment of the progression involved. This is a brilliant album (there were maybe four really strong songs on Empires and Dance, six or seven on this one) and yes, it lacked some of their earlier fire, but it was made up for in a maturity of composition.
ReplyDeleteBut to even intimate that New Gold Dream is a better album than this one is, to my mind sacrilege...
This was the pinnacle of the Minds. There was some good stuff on the following two albums, in declining measure...but this was the album where their song writing chops really shone brightly!
Hey, just my opinion, for what it's worth. :D
At the time of Sons and Sister's being released the two albums were inseparable, brilliant and bloody on the dance floor. Their sheer bloody mindedness outshone Empires during that original moment of hearing the tracks. New Gold Dream however moved T'Minds onto a new platform with radio friendly pop. Tamed or tied down to present an album for the American market.
DeleteI know what you mean konrad, but T'Minds career path was always going to wobble at some point
Yup...bought these as the double pack when the came out, and was privileged enough to see them on their tour for these disks...still one of my top ten concerts ever!
DeleteMost bands at one point or another abandon their strong suit in a bid for commercial success...it's at that point I generally lose interest in them.
Any possibility of the Empires and Dance release from this set?
From the X5 box set? Yeah I can do that
DeleteI've added the FLAC of Empires And Dance here > https://tfgc1.blogspot.com/2019/01/empires-and-dance.html
DeleteI had these together on a single cassette, and it was played to death at the time.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah dc the cassettes were great, mine however was a TDK90
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