This was the first Simple Minds album I bought, and, in terms of their career, the last one I've heard.
I ignored them during their glory years of '80-'81. At school, the 'wrong people' liked them! But in 1982 when Jeremy said he quite liked some of the stuff he'd heard of theirs, that was the first of a series of nudges that led me to take my blinkers off. Next I think was this Whistle Test performance (introduced by a 1982 Mark Ellen who looks almost identical to the 2009 Mark Ellen, except that his eyebrows are not so bushy).
A few months later, they happened to visit Munich when I was living there, and I went along for want of anything better to do with my evenings. I remember only that I stayed warily near the back throughout, and that Jim Kerr's dancing was, well, the kind of thing that stands out in your memory.
It was probably several more months before I bought this record, and let it grow on me, leading glacially to Sister Feelings Call, Sons and Fascination and, more than 20 years later, Empires and Dance.
There was a time when I liked just about all of the songs on this record (Promised You a Miracle was always an exception; that jangle-riff, da da durr da der, just annoys me), but now it feels like there are only two that really count: The Big Sleep and the title track. By this point only half of the original, uber-classic (ja!) rhythm section was left — the more remarkable half, I grant you — but there's no mistaking that the rot has begun to set in. Mostly it's only the basslines that hold it together.
Opinions differ on what counts as the last listenable Simple Minds album, before the rot was complete. I usually contend that it's this one, but that's just because it's the last one I've listened to. A couple of years ago, I got the one after this, very cheap, but I haven't put it on the turntable yet. When I do, you'll be the first to know what I think. Betcha can't wait.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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