Sparkle in the Rain [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Simple Minds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 20, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1984
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B0000793ZA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,068 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Up On The Catwalk

2. Book Of Brilliant Things

3. Speed Your Love To Me

4. Waterfront

5. East At Easter

6. Street Hassle

7. White Hot Day

8. 'C' Moon Cry Like A Baby

9. The Kick Inside Of Me

10. Shake Off The Ghosts

Editorial Reviews

Re-issue of the simple minds album from 1983 that featured the classic singles 'waterfront' and 'the kick inside of me'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great place to start with this underrated 80s treasure, January 24, 2001

By 

Doug Hernan (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sparkle in the Rain (Audio CD)

Americans don't have any clue as to how good -- and how huge -- Simple Minds were. I was a GI in Germany when this brilliant album came out and I first saw Simple Minds in concert. They were big in Europe then -- a full year before "Don't You Forget About Me" -- the show was great, and singer Jim Kerr was everything you could want in a front man. (No wonder the Pretenders' Chrissy Hynde snapped him up!) Like U2, Simple Minds at their peak had an original, atmospheric sound...a keen taste for effective bombast...a deep, sincere spiritual mooring...and songs that mattered and made you want to sing along. This album is packed full of them -- from the urgent, pounding cadences of "Up on the Catwalk" to the seductive pulse of "Waterfront" to the full-throttle abandon of "Kick Inside of Me." Both "New Gold Dream" and "Sparkle in the Rain" have held up exceedingly well over the last 15+ years, and I strongly recommend starting with either of these albums rather than the Glittering Prize best-of collections. Both CDs hang together well and contain wonderful cuts you can't get anywhere else. To listen to Sparkle in the Rain makes me feel 19 and idealistic again (I'm 36 and semi-idealistic). It also captures so much of what made rock so exciting in the early 80s. It wasn't just about haircuts, attitudes and raincoats. It was about still believing that music matters and can move mountains. No matter how jaded you think you are, one listen to "Sparkle" will give you a jolt to the soul you won't soon forget.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heaven's north of Scotland., September 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sparkle in the Rain (Audio CD)

Released two years after 1982's beautiful and synth-slick New Gold Dream, Sparkle in the Rain continues that earlier record's spiritual overtones while capturing Scotland's Simple Minds at a turn in their evolution and the height of their creativity. The next few years would see the band reap the rewards of their years of hard work through the release of such enjoyable and more straightforward commercial hits as "Don't You Forget About Me," "Alive and Kicking," and others, and who could blame them. But it was Sparkle in the Rain that caught the essence of the band. Like a newly fashioned diamond, it is utterly unique and intense, and it could only have come from Messrs. Kerr, Burchill, Forbes, McNeil, and Gaynor, -- Scottish sons all with a taste for the epic and the North in their veins. Even 14 years after its release, the album is charged with a pure and fresh urgency fueled by McNeil's soaring keyboard tapestry, Burchill's ethereal and razor sharp guitar, Gaynor's crashing, Godzilla-has-come drumming, and Forbe's pounding heartbeat bass. Enmeshed in all this is Kerr singing lyrics more powerful for their imagery than for their meaning, but all delivered persuasively and, again, urgently, emotionally, truthfully. This is a record with its manifold ripped off, with its pistons pounding at dizzying speeds and heights. One can almost feel the heat and light, the expansive blue warmth of Scottish skies and a ride through Heaven. And it is glorious!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical! One Of Their Best Albums!, May 28, 2006

By 

Rich Latta (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sparkle in the Rain (Audio CD)

Simple Minds came closer than ever before to all-out rocking on this album. They do rock here, but they still exhibit skillfully played musical shadings. Highly inventive, underrated guitarist Charlie Burchill steps forward and rocks, but not without his rhythmic subtlety. At the time, this album was criticized for being poorly mixed and sounding muddy, but I quite like that thick din of sound. I haven't heard the remaster, so I hope they haven't botched it.

"Up on the Catwalk" kicks things off with rumbling thunder and haunting keyboards. One of SPARKLE's best songs despite borrowing the already overdone U2 theme "I'll be there tonight." Singer Jim Kerr delivers a fantastically wordy vocal that moves into improvisation towards the end of the song.

"Book of Brilliant Things" is good but not my favorite, although it grows on you with that catchy guitar hook.

"Speed Your Love To Me" and "Waterfront" are the album's glorious centerpieces. Simply brilliant and uplifting (and totally rockin'!)

"East at Easter" is a slow burner that builds with subtle intensity.

"Street Hassle" is one of Lou Reed's best songs and SM actually improve on the original, giving it a smoother, more organic quality. Fantastic orchestration. And, let's face it, Kerr has a much better voice than Reed. Lou must've approved because he sings (or, rather, speaks) on SM's "This Is Your Land" from STREET FIGHTING YEARS a few years later.

"White Hot Day" - not the best, but still a good song with musings about "time."

"'C' Moon Cry Like A Baby" is another favorite. This one has an infectious swing.

"The Kick Inside Me" is the hardest rocking song on the album.

"Shake Off The Ghosts" is floating serenity. Keyboardist Michael McNeil, so integral to the whole album, really takes this instrumental to a place of wonderment. A beautiful way to finish.

It's wonderful to hear an album that rocks without banging you over the head with feedback, distortion and the like as so many bands do today. People who call this the start of their U2-style bombastic phase are really missing the point.