New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

I came to New Gold Dream quite late in the day. Just after Simple Minds had released Once Upon A Time in fact. It could not be more different, however. NGD has an amazing quality that even Jim Kerr admits could not be repeated now. This album has had such a profound effect on my life it's difficult to know where to begin. From the opening chiming bars of Someone Somewhere, to the closing refrain of King Is White, every track is a classic. There are very few albums released nowadays that do not have the occasional duff track, NGD has none. The album is about as complete a record as you are likely to find. Okay, so Simple Minds nowadays might be as hip as fluorescent socks, but in 1982 they were lauded by the likes of NME and Melody Maker as the coolest band in the world, the saviours of art-house rock. Kerr ponced around in frilly white shirts and heavy eye make-up, band photos were moody; atmosphere was the key and this brought pop music as close to Mahler as it's possible to get. Big Sleep, easily the stand out track, is a liquid hum, a golden treasure with resounding bass and spine-chllling vocals to match. The instrumental, Somebody Up There Likes You is, quite possibly, one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever committed to tape. Simple Minds never reached these dizzying heights again. Let this album reach for your soul - this is an essential addition to your collection!

Despite my fondness for this album's successor, I'd say this is the last 'must have' Simple Minds album. Certainly it is the one that garnered the greatest critical acclaim, scoring highly in all of the critics' end of year polls, but it should sit behind Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call and Empires And Dance on your shopping list.
Its release, presaged by the very popular - although I thought rather lumpen -Promised You A Miracle, was accompanied by some odd interviews given by Jim Kerr, who described it as a "coffee table album". His uncertainty is understandable, since the album's polished surfaces and largely amicable material was well removed from the challenging - but, ultimately, more satisfying - fare to be found on its predecessors.
Perhaps this is due in part to the band's ongoing development as musicians, signalled by some almost jazzy leanings in places, but it must also be a by-product of Brian McGee's departure, hobbling the dynamic rhythm section that served as the engine room to the previous three albums. For the first time since their debut, Derek Forbes' bass is conventionally placed in the mix, almost concealing some of his best work, notably on Someone, Somewhere in Summertime. (In fact, he was invited back to overdub this part on the band's later live album, since John Gibling - an accomplished session player - couldn't play it properly.)
The album's high points are the title track and ever evolving King Is White And In The Crowd, caught here in its slowest form, but Simple Minds' high standards of quality are sustained, even if they themselves rapidly grew tired of Glittering Prize.
Once again, the band brought their songs to life on stage, exercising their established ability to take even the most precious moments of their carefully crafted songs and revamp them into hardy rock performances. On the tremendous bootleg, All Kings Are White, Jim Kerr announces that the concert is being recorded for official release and it's a shame that it never was, since the gig is excellent and superior in every way to the later live album, In The City of Lights, not least in terms of the songs the band play.
As a matter of interest, the band seem to have become close to U2 on the European festival circuit following this album's release, with Bono and Jim Kerr each joining the other's band on stage. It's tempting to think that this may have influenced the genesis of Simple Minds' next album, Sparkle in the Rain.

Rating: 10/10

Best tracks: "Big Sleep", "Glittering Prize", "Somebody Up There Likes You", "Hunter and the Hunted", "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel"...the whole album!

New Gold Dream is my favourite ever album and the culmination of everything Simple Minds (and post-punk pop music in general) was heading towards, probably without realising it at the time. After all, this is an album that is lyrically built around the idea of the looking to the future, of possibilities, of dreams, of anticipation, of being on the cusp of greatness, the idea of "belief as a beauty thing". It's an album that was about seeing the peak in the distance and not the experience of actually reaching the summit, yet with hindsight, it really was the band's zenith, precisely because sometimes the journey's more satisfying and enriching than the final destination. In theory, Simple Minds should have got bigger and better.....well, they certainly got bigger, huge even, but better? Okay, Sparkle in the Rain is a gem (albeit a flawed one), and I'll always have a soft spot for "Don't You (Forget About Me)", but come on, they never were as good again as they were on New Gold Dream, were they?

For starters, the production on this album is truly, truly amazing- the keyboards, the bass, the guitars, the drums....they all weave, glide, swim, fly and glisten together to create some kind of new pop paradise; the band leave mere rock music behind and enter a whole new sphere of fluidity, while Jim Kerr's playful, evocative and occasionally expressionist lyrics are infinitely preferable to the lumpen sermonising of his later work. The opening "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime" makes for a truly beautiful scene-setter; never before had the band been this romantic, warm, subtle and becalming - it's a song of anticipation and future glories not too far in the distance. The exquisite "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel" follows next and is one of tha band's least orthodox, most bouncy, delightful and lovely songs ever - the snaky, twisting rhythms barely occupy Earth's gravity, skipping, diving and dancing through space with slinky, sleek grace. "Promised You a Miracle" was the first Simple Minds song to be intentionally designed as a single release - and thanks to its killer keyboard hook, not to mention the glorious "everything is possible" section (extended to wonderful effect at the end) which is one of many truly glorious moments on this album, it was a big hit for the band. The most underrated song the band ever created is next, and that's "Big Sleep" - it could have, and should have been a single, what with its dizzying, vertiginous sense of scale, its grand, towering chorus and its truly beautiful finale (arguably this the band's single finest moment)....this is the kind of huge music that's big without being bloated. The shimmering vistas and airborne bliss of "Somebody up There Likes You" is a wonder to behold - it truly glides through spectacular skies of sound with a sense of bliss. The "Big Sleep/Somebody Up There Likes You" section is my favourite part of New Gold Dream, though what follows next more than gives those two songs a run for their money. Let's flip over to side two....

The title track is the last time the band would embrace a dance-influence for quite a while- from the next album onwards it would be rock, lighters-in-the-air anthems and balladry- and it's an element of their sound that's been missed ever since. Think of earlier gems like "I Travel", "Love Song" and "Theme for Great Cities" and then take it up a notch, that's how damn good this song is. A relentless, escalating, joyous and driving powerhouse of a beat blessed with a glorious, sun-kissed atmosphere...it's the sound of a band closer with tantalising, ecstatic reach of the glittering prize, which leads me very nicely to the song of the same name, which is arguably Simple Minds' most accomplished song and their most triumphant moment- how come singles are rarely this magisterial, this dreamy, this elegant, this damn fine? "Glittering Prize" blends a great tune to an enchanting, lovely atmosphere with dazzling results. After this, the album makes way for a slightly darker feel with the autumnal "Hunter and the Hunted" - the fluttering synthesisers that sweep across the wonderful chorus, the cute and lovely Herbie Hancock guest spot near the end, the mysterious, wistful lyrics...at this stage I have to mention that this might be the best, most perfectly judged album I have ever heard in regards to sequencing and structure - it flows from start to finish with such with such skill that none of the songs would have nearly as much impact if they were shuffled around. The closing "King is White and in the Crowd" is quite a surprise in that it's pretty eerie and strange sounding - it's almost as if the new gold dream of the title has suddenly vanished from sight, replaced with a chilly breeze and a sense of doubt and uncertainty...it makes for a powerful, unsettling finale.

After this, Simple Minds turned up the volume and cranked up the adrenaline for Sparkle in the Rain, which boasted some amazing thrill-rides such as "Up on the Catwalk", "Speed Your Love to Me" and "The Kick Inside of Me", not to mention the glittering likes of "Waterfront" and "Shake Off the Ghosts".....still, as good as it was, it wasn't New Gold Dream, and nothing they'd deliver from then on in would be....not much in popular music is, to be honest! Get this album right now and experience wonder what on Earth happened to this band who were, at this peak of theirs, truly, truly wonderful.

PS: It's a shame that the 2003 re-release didn't include the 12" mixes and rare tracks of the time, especially the rather good B-side "Soundtrack for Every Heaven", which is only available on digital format in a vocalised form (entitled "In Every Heaven") on the DVD-Audio version of this album (which incidentally is well worth purchasing as it offers some different, interesting mixes of most of the album tracks), but then again, it's nice to have the album simply as it was originally released back in 1982!