Ah, Simple Minds, what a long, strange journey - for both the band and my own fandom. I imagine I heard some early tracks while hanging around WMUA in the fall of 1984, but I don't remember anything until, like the rest of America, I saw the video for "Don't You Forget About Me" on MTV. I thought it was a great song, and I still do. I picked up "New Gold Dream" and "Sparkle In The Rain" and loved them to pieces. But when "Once Upon A Time" came out, I was appalled - what happened here? I consigned them to the back of my mind, appreciating what I had (_New Gold Dream_ and _Sparkle In The Rain_) but didn't give them another thought. By 2007, enough chatter on my favorite music forum inspired me to sample those early albums - and what great slices of post-punk they turned out to be! I put together this compilation and figured I had the best bits. But a new box set, _X5_, has just been released which reissues their first 5 albums plus most of the b-sides, and it's less than $25 - an irresistible deal. Spinning it last night, it all sounds brilliant. That's one of the things I love about being a music obsessive - great music is always there, waiting for you, whenever you're ready for it.
Disc 1:
1. Someone (Life In A Day)
2. Life In A Day (Life In A Day)
3. No Cure (Life In A Day)
4. Chelsea Girl (Life In A Day)
5. Real To Real (Reel To Real)
6. Naked Eye (Reel To Real)
7. Citizen (Dance Of Youth (Reel To Real)
8. Carnival (Shelter In Suitcase) (Reel To Real)
9. Factory (Reel To Real)
10. Premonition (Reel To Real)
11. Changeling (Reel To Real)
12. Calling Your Name (Reel To Real)
13. I Travel (Empires And Dance)
14. Today I Died Again (Empires And Dance)
15. Celebrate (Empires And Dance)
16. This Fear Of Gods (Empires And Dance)
17. Twist/Run/Repulsion (Empires And Dance)
18. Thirty Frames A Second (Empires And Dance)
Disc 2:
1. Kaleidoscope (Celebration)
2. In Trance As Mission (Sons And Fascination)
3. Sweat In Bullet (Sons And Fascination)
4. 70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall (Sons And Fascination)
5. Love Song (Sons And Fascination)
6. Seeing Out The Angel (Sons And Fascination)
7. Theme For Great Cities (Sister Feelings Call)
8. The American (Sister Feelings Call)
9. 20th Century Promised Land (Sister Feelings Call)
10. Someone, Somewhere In Summertime (New Gold Dream)
11. Promised You A Miracle (New Gold Dream)
12. New Gold Dream (New Gold Dream)
13. Glittering Prize (New Gold Dream)
14. Up On The Catwalk (Sparkle In The Rain)
15. Speed Your Love To Me (Sparkle In The Rain)
16. Waterfront (Sparkle In The Rain)
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Pretty awesome collection! I wouold argue the whole New Gold Dream album makes the cut plus besides Don't You Forget About Me, I didn't mind a few cuts off of Once Upon A Time (All The Things She Said being my favourite there) but yes, 1978-1985 is prime Simple Minds (the hardcore fans would cut-off anything post-NGD though!)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I do love it all from this period but, you know, the less-is-more approach means that when I don't have time to listen to 5 albums, I can still get a solid dose of their best stuff!
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