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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Brian Covert
Format:Audio CD
I bought this Simple Minds CD in Japan (where I was then living) back when it was originally released in 1989-90, and I have not stopped listening to it since then. Simply put, "Street Fighting Years" features some of the best rock and roll that has been released in the past few decades.
Regardless of how you think about the Simple Minds releases that came before and after this CD, "Street Fighting Years" still stands as a gem in its own right. All the songs offer warmth, intelligence, and raw courage in dealing with the issues of our time, such as apartheid and Northern Ireland. This recording, for me, was a welcome relief from the apathetic cr*p that most rockers around the world were putting out in the 1980s.
Symbolically, this album stands out as a shining light for the closing of one decade and the start of another with the 1990s. Few pop/rock albums, if any, since that time have matched the intensity of this one. Thank you, Simple Minds, for giving us such a gift. "Street Fighting Years" remains a diamond in the new millenium, and I look forward to listening to it again and again in the years to come.
Regardless of how you think about the Simple Minds releases that came before and after this CD, "Street Fighting Years" still stands as a gem in its own right. All the songs offer warmth, intelligence, and raw courage in dealing with the issues of our time, such as apartheid and Northern Ireland. This recording, for me, was a welcome relief from the apathetic cr*p that most rockers around the world were putting out in the 1980s.
Symbolically, this album stands out as a shining light for the closing of one decade and the start of another with the 1990s. Few pop/rock albums, if any, since that time have matched the intensity of this one. Thank you, Simple Minds, for giving us such a gift. "Street Fighting Years" remains a diamond in the new millenium, and I look forward to listening to it again and again in the years to come.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By n3_biker
Format:Audio CD
Let me set the scene. I was 41 when this album came out in 1989. My heroes were from the 60s - the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Motown, Phil Spector. But I found something exceptional here, and listening to it again, 21 years on, has not dulled the impact. This is a superb record, full of wonderful things, and at its summit, Belfast Child. This is one of the rare pop songs which managed to be a popular success while being breathtaking in its scope, sound and interpretation. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Hey Jude come to mind as similar triumphs. Jim Kerr's impassioned vocals are utterly thrilling, Charlie Burchill's guitar work is absolutely stunning, and the band provide an awesome backdrop - the thundering drums as the song charges to its climax are spine tingling. And the return to calm to close the song after the shattering build up is the mark of a band fully in control of its material. The album is bursting with great songs. Buy it!!
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is a genuine masterpiece. This was the finest hour for Scotland's finest band. This is far removed the early art house days of Life in a Day and also so much more intimate than their later works. It is this albums intimacy that stands it apart from not only their other work, but also their contempories. Highlights of this album for me are the opening title track with it's beautiful opening bass line, Soul Crying Out, Kick it in, Belfast Child and for me the two gems of this album, This is your Land (listen out for the Lou Reed cameo vocal) and Let it all come down. At times Jim Kerr is almost whispering the lyrics to you over the top of some of the most subtly detailed production on any album I know, a very different approach to their previous studio release, Once Upon a Time. This album displays a fresh maturity and togetherness that none of their subsequent work ever achieved. It has the feel and sound of a group of musicians who really wanted to record this album their way, in their own back yard.
The trouble with Simple Minds is that by the time this album was released they had become branded an uncool 80's act (not helped by their blatantly stadium orientated previous release, and very public charity support) and as a result many people ignored this album, their loss. Even after all these years this is a reference album in my collection, one that I will return to and rediscover time and time again. I will never grow tired of the intimacy and subtlety of this album, so far removed from Once upon a time it could be different band. The clue to the albums direction lays in the depths of the sleeve notes where it proudly states - Made in Scotland, says it all really. Buy this and enjoy.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By "coloursfly"
Format:Audio CD
If you were to buy two Simple Minds albums, make it this one and New Gold Dream. Simple Minds were at their commercial peak when this was released in 1989, but they were still critically lampooned and licking their wounds from the debacle that was Once Upon a Time, their previous studio release. SFY saw the Minds look back at their roots (cliched, but true)and find a delicate balance between the art-house pop band their fans wanted them to be, and the world-conquering rock band sought by lead singer, Jim Kerr. It was a courageous album. Let's face it, Bon Jovi would be reluctant to record a song about a jailed South African militant (Nelson Mandela)...
Simple Minds tackled world issues on this record (the British Poll Tax, global warming, South Africa) without ever seeming overstated or pompous. The opening bass of the title song, Street Fighting Years, is gorgeous; this track proved beyond doubt that Simple Minds could still make uplifting, soulful music without having to resort to the predictable stadium antics of counterparts such as U2. Likewise, Soul Crying Out and This Is Your Land suggested there was still subtletly left in the Minds. These tracks clock in at over 6 minutes each, giving the listener enough time to savour the delicate layers built up by chief muso, keyboard player (and hero) - Micheal MacNeil. Later albums would lean on guitars and drums, this album has intelligence enough to allow delicate and subtle atmospheric meanderings that reveal themselves with each repeated listen. Don't be put off by sometimes clumsy and overpowering tracks like Biko, Mandela Day and Belfast Child. Within the context of the album, these make sense.
This was the pinnacle of Simple Minds. They never quite matched up to this album again.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Making Up For Lost (Street Fighting) Years....!
How on earth did this album pass me by(?)- I recently heard Belfast Child on the radio and checked the title for the name of the band on Amazon. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. J. White
3.0 out of 5 stars
80's pomp synth-rock classic
I loved this album when it was released in 1989; I was sixteen at the time. And, whilst aware that, by that time, Simple Minds weren't a very cool band, I did enjoy the lush,... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2010 by Scarfex 1
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of The Most Underrated Albums Ever
Simple Minds were never as popular as bands like U2 or Bon Jovi because of there musical direction, Street Fighting Years moves away from there Stadium Rock/New Wave roots and on... Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2009 by T.K
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest albums Ever made wiithout a doubt!
I was a massive fan of Simple Minds at the time of this albums release and even went to see them at Roundhay Park in Leeds and nicked my mums car to travel to see them! Read more
Published on 19 Jun 2008 by W. Crozier
5.0 out of 5 stars
not a duff track on the album
people say this is simple minds hidden gem how right they are there is not a duff track on the whole album this is truly magnificent from the brilliant opening bassline of street... Read more
Published on 20 May 2008 by bubba74
5.0 out of 5 stars
An album for a time when there was something to believe in
Listening to this album nearly 20 years later reminds me of a time, long ago, when there were issues to fight for and people to believe in, before apathy, cynicism and an... Read more
Published on 2 May 2007 by SP Sanderson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Political impact gone but the music stays
This is now quite an old CD it was written before Nelson Mandella's release from imprisonment and the end of Apartheid. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2007 by Jay
3.0 out of 5 stars
A partial and temporary return to form
This was a final, albeit partial, return to form for the once excellent band. Charlie Burchill and Michael McNeil appear to have rediscovered an interest in sound and music that... Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2002 by F. Pearson
4.0 out of 5 stars
The "left-wing scum" return with another hit album!
The band branded "left-wing scum" by a certain Conservative politician for their contribution to the Mandela concert returned with their most political recording, as if... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2000
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