Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simple Minds at their best...., February 1, 2006
I've been a Simple Minds fan since high school (OK, 1985!), and have always enjoyed their music. Ironically, I got into their "back" catalog as I grew older. My high school days were filled with "Don't You Forget About Me" and "Alive and Kicking", along with all the other great tunes from "Once Upon A Time".
Then, while in college, Simple Minds release "Street Fighting Years" and simply blow me away. To this day, this album remains one of my all time favorites from any band. Next comes "The Real Life", and the band continues to amaze. I can't get enough.
Unfortunately, from that point, their popularity in the states starts to fade, and many one time "fans" write them off as "one of those 80's bands". Sure, there were flashes of Simple Minds brilliance in the 90's - songs from "Good News.." and "Neapolis" come to mind - but an album like "Street Fighting Years" didn't seem to be in the cards anymore for the band.
Until now. When I first popped in "Black and White" and heard the first notes of "Stay Visible", I knew instantly I was hearing the soaring, atmospheric, passionate Simple Minds that I knew still existed. Followed closely by the first single "Home" and new single (well, new everywhere except in the U.S., but don't get me started on that) "Stranger", Simple Minds are simply back on top of their game.
To me, I know an album has grabbed my attention if I continuously play it, and ignore the rest of my 2,000 cds for a while. That's what "Black and White" has done to me since I first played it. If you are, were, or aren't even a Simple Minds fan, pick up this new release and you will believe all the folklore "hype" that has been said and written about this group once standing toe to toe with U2 for international rock stardom. U2 may have reached the summit of world domination (and rightly so), but this record proves that Simple Minds belong right up there with them.
|
|
|
25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seen The Lights., September 29, 2005
The sticker on the front of Simple Minds' "Black & White" reads "An Astounding Return To Form"--FIVE STARS by Record Collection, and "Spectacular" by Sunday Mail. Who are these people? What are their credentials? I've never heard of them. With all the internet hype surrounding this cd, I purchased my copy from Amazon.uk.
Well, the results seemed more like a cross between "Good News From The Next World" and "Neapolis" with a sprinkle of "Cry". Simple Minds have not released a good album since 1991's "Real Life", and not a great album since 1989's "Street Fighting Years". Everything up to now has had moments, but not an entire album's worth of great songs. "Black & White" offers the same.
There seem to be five standout tracks: "Stay Visible", "Home" (the first single released), "Stranger", "Underneath The Ice" and "Dolphins". The other four tracks are solid, but nothing substantially exciting. "Home", in particular, is probably the best song on the disc, and a good idea to release it as the first single.
The band consists of Kerr & Burchill, and this time they brought back long time, on again, off again, drummer, Mel Gaynor. The found a new bass player by the name of Eddy Duffy. He is a sound-alike Derek Forbes, and does a great imitation of the spiralling bass playing that Forbes excelled at on "Stay Visible". Overall, the music and musicianship is solid, but lacking in creativity. They bring energy to the songs, but the lyrics and melodies seem rather uninspired. This is no "New Gold Dream", "Sparkle In The Rain", "Once Upon A Time", or "Street Fighting Years". Nor is it anyting prior to "New Gold Dream".
Some of the individual parts of the album had their merits such as Charlie's guitar playing, which just seems to get more textured and richer as the years pass. Of course, Mel Gaynor is a great drummer, and he does his bit. Eddy Duffy seems to be a suitable bass player and get the job done. Jim's vocals are a bit different here, and I'm not sure I liked his approach this time around, and his lyrics didn't seem to inspire me that much either. As a whole, the music just didn't hang together as well as I was hoping for, but Simple Minds fans can decide for themselves.
As a bonus, they included a video for "Home" which is average. Just the band, in shadows, in what looks to be some kind of soundstage or hangar, just playing. They were never inventive marketers of their music, and I think they've paid the price for that.
So, if you are a Simple Minds' fan like myself, this should be adequate until their next release. It just seems at this stage of their career they ought to be stretching and doing something more experimental and edgy. After all, what have they got to lose?
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ageing like a fine red..., September 13, 2005
There are moments on this album that are as good as anything the Minds have put together over the last few years and a couple of tracks that are at least deserving of a place beside the best of their music from the 80s. `Stay Visible' would have to be their best track in a long time, rhythmic and pulsating, dark and enlightening with roots back to the early 80s where it was first sketched out. The second track, `Home', is impressively moody and driven and, to use a phrase I deplore, infectiously scored. With their dark energy neither track would necessarily be out of place in the classic `Sparkle in the Rain' album of 1983.
'Jeweller' works, I guess, as does `Different world'. They don't quite smack you in the face but seem rather to work on you while you're not watching. The latter is perhaps the more moodily hypnotic and the vocals are ultimately more rewarding. From there album plunges into a pool of mediocrity that seems inevitable in the days of modern music. `Underneath the ice' and `Kiss the ground' are as pointless as any of their weaker moments. Both songs suffer from a witless repetition of a fairly uninspired chorus line and lack the opening tracks' driving vigour. `Stranger' is much the same- not as bad perhaps, but not a great deal better.
The title track, `Black and White' and the closing `Dolphin', however, bring no small amount of redemption. The title song is a cracking track; quieter but more personal. What it lacks in pulsating rhythm and driving energy it more than makes up for in expression. Jimmy is in a raw mood here. The soaring vocals of his more successful anthems blend with an impressive intimacy that is close to making this the albums best track. `Dolphins' brings the album to a grand close; reflective and atmospheric, with a wonderfully haunting guitar refrain.
There are weak moments to be sure, but the 4 better tracks are possibly `great tracks' and, at least in my book, worth the CD price alone. What is a couple of dollars anyway for a bit of Simple Minds music that is as good as anything they have done, and better (barring perhaps the wonderful `War babies' from Neapolis) than what they have managed to put together for a long, long time.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Simple Minds 
