Chronological trawl through three decades of singles spread over three discs
7/10
Scotland's archetypal stadium-rockers Simple Minds have had a chequered career to say the least. Formed in 1977 as Johnny and the Self-Abusers, the Glaswegians took a long hard look at that name and sensibly(!) renamed themselves as Simple Minds just as 1978 arrived.
Since then, the last 35 years of their existence has been the stuff of dreams and worthy of dramatizing as a movie, if nothing else. Sure, they've not exactly been snorting coke off a gerbil's back, jacking up in bars or insulting entire nations, but their transformation from eager Bowie-philes to contended dads is nonetheless interesting. The Manic Street Preachers went so far as to borrow a type-face for one of their more recent albums, as well as proclaim Jim Kerr's charges to be a major influence on their work. Fair play.
These three discs act as a perfect introduction, without the need for any script - Celebrate (3CD) is a chronological resume of just about every single they've released, plus a couple of extras and a trio of brand new songs to round it all off. The accompanying poster and minimal inserts only fill part of the jigsaw, but hey, they look nice.
Predictably, disc one is by far and away the best of the pile and is perhaps more in keeping with the album's title and sleeve, both of which borrow from the band's best work, Empires and Dance. The song Celebrate, from EAD, is one of the 16 present on the inaugural CD which begins with Life in a Day, then gathers up rare 7" edits of I Travel, Changeling and the title-track, venturing into glossier and funkier territory such as Love Song, Sweat in Bullet and first big hit Promised You a Miracle, before pummeling the eardrums with Steve Lilywhite's bombastically-produced Sparkle in the Rain-era hits such as Waterfront and the majestic Speed Your Love To Me. I remember Peter Powell playing the 12" of this song twice on the same programme, complete with the false fade-out bit at the end - that's when Radio 1 had personality.
As the huge drum-cracks of Up On The Catwalk come to a halt, it is at this point I am filled with dread at the prospect of enduring disc two. Simple Minds may well have turned into one of the highest-grossing bands of the '80s, but this came at the expense of the darker moods of previous albums. By the mid-'80s they truly were Alive and Kicking and had success in their sights.
Aside from the other choices taken from the dull Once Upon a Time set and the still-nifty #1 single Don't You (Forget About Me), disc two is a melange of flag-waving, earnestly conscious stadium-filling mulch. However, even the likes of the mawkish self-righteous Belfast Child, Mandela Day, Let There Be Love and Stand By Love cannot plumb the depths that Kick It In does, a song so awful that upon hearing it again for the first time in over twenty years, almost drove me to glue my own eyelids to a passing train. It reached the Top 20 in 1989 - I still don't know how to this day. Sorry, Jim - not your best moment.
And so to disc three which starts where two left off - big riff-laden rock with Jim Kerr going all Bono on us with a curious American accent on She's a River and Hypnotized. Out of touch with Brit-pop and '90s dance-culture, Simple Minds were creatively on the rocks - until the latter end of the century when the largely-reviled Neapolis album appeared. From it came the single War Babies, one of the highlights of this late period and a track that recalled their Sons and Fascination era with its sparkly production and wash of synths. In short, a vast if temporary improvement on previous releases.
It's around halfway through this third CD that things start to improve dramatically with some pretty decent songs scattered throughout - Cry, One Step Closer, Home, Rockets and Stars Will Lead The Way are adequate returns to form and, with the exception of the shocking covers album Neon Lights (yes, they really did murder the Kraftwerk classic), Simple Minds in the 21st-century is a far less terrifying prospect than was first feared. The new exclusive songs are actually up there with some of their better album-tracks of yore, if a little embedded in the '80s, with Blood Diamonds a highlight.
Nicely packaged, simply sequenced and exactly what you'd expect - the highs and lows of one of rock's most fulfilling and frustrating outfits from a time when jackets shone almost as brightly as Simple Minds future. Other formats include a 2-CD set for about a quid less - to be fair, you might as well get this nice box-set instead.
For info about upcoming Simple Minds shows, go to Allgigs here
7/10
Since then, the last 35 years of their existence has been the stuff of dreams and worthy of dramatizing as a movie, if nothing else. Sure, they've not exactly been snorting coke off a gerbil's back, jacking up in bars or insulting entire nations, but their transformation from eager Bowie-philes to contended dads is nonetheless interesting. The Manic Street Preachers went so far as to borrow a type-face for one of their more recent albums, as well as proclaim Jim Kerr's charges to be a major influence on their work. Fair play.
These three discs act as a perfect introduction, without the need for any script - Celebrate (3CD) is a chronological resume of just about every single they've released, plus a couple of extras and a trio of brand new songs to round it all off. The accompanying poster and minimal inserts only fill part of the jigsaw, but hey, they look nice.
Predictably, disc one is by far and away the best of the pile and is perhaps more in keeping with the album's title and sleeve, both of which borrow from the band's best work, Empires and Dance. The song Celebrate, from EAD, is one of the 16 present on the inaugural CD which begins with Life in a Day, then gathers up rare 7" edits of I Travel, Changeling and the title-track, venturing into glossier and funkier territory such as Love Song, Sweat in Bullet and first big hit Promised You a Miracle, before pummeling the eardrums with Steve Lilywhite's bombastically-produced Sparkle in the Rain-era hits such as Waterfront and the majestic Speed Your Love To Me. I remember Peter Powell playing the 12" of this song twice on the same programme, complete with the false fade-out bit at the end - that's when Radio 1 had personality.
As the huge drum-cracks of Up On The Catwalk come to a halt, it is at this point I am filled with dread at the prospect of enduring disc two. Simple Minds may well have turned into one of the highest-grossing bands of the '80s, but this came at the expense of the darker moods of previous albums. By the mid-'80s they truly were Alive and Kicking and had success in their sights.
Aside from the other choices taken from the dull Once Upon a Time set and the still-nifty #1 single Don't You (Forget About Me), disc two is a melange of flag-waving, earnestly conscious stadium-filling mulch. However, even the likes of the mawkish self-righteous Belfast Child, Mandela Day, Let There Be Love and Stand By Love cannot plumb the depths that Kick It In does, a song so awful that upon hearing it again for the first time in over twenty years, almost drove me to glue my own eyelids to a passing train. It reached the Top 20 in 1989 - I still don't know how to this day. Sorry, Jim - not your best moment.
And so to disc three which starts where two left off - big riff-laden rock with Jim Kerr going all Bono on us with a curious American accent on She's a River and Hypnotized. Out of touch with Brit-pop and '90s dance-culture, Simple Minds were creatively on the rocks - until the latter end of the century when the largely-reviled Neapolis album appeared. From it came the single War Babies, one of the highlights of this late period and a track that recalled their Sons and Fascination era with its sparkly production and wash of synths. In short, a vast if temporary improvement on previous releases.
It's around halfway through this third CD that things start to improve dramatically with some pretty decent songs scattered throughout - Cry, One Step Closer, Home, Rockets and Stars Will Lead The Way are adequate returns to form and, with the exception of the shocking covers album Neon Lights (yes, they really did murder the Kraftwerk classic), Simple Minds in the 21st-century is a far less terrifying prospect than was first feared. The new exclusive songs are actually up there with some of their better album-tracks of yore, if a little embedded in the '80s, with Blood Diamonds a highlight.
Nicely packaged, simply sequenced and exactly what you'd expect - the highs and lows of one of rock's most fulfilling and frustrating outfits from a time when jackets shone almost as brightly as Simple Minds future. Other formats include a 2-CD set for about a quid less - to be fair, you might as well get this nice box-set instead.
For info about upcoming Simple Minds shows, go to Allgigs here