Simple Minds - "Sparkle in the Rain" [1984] (New Wave)

****One of the finest reviews I've ever come across on this album was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, circa 1984. It appears below, and to follow is my own review of this stellar album:

Scotland's Simple Minds continue to dazzle and impress with their sixth (and best) album, Sparkle in the Rain. The record was produced by Steve Lillywhite (U2, et al.), and it's a perfect match-up: Simple Minds aspire to music of a trancelike otherworldliness, and Lillywhite has the knack to lead them up that proverbial stairway to heaven.

The sound is Roxy Music-gone-2001, and it works remarkably well (one exception: their unlikely choice of an outside song in Lou Reed's "Street Hassle," which doesn't bear covering by anyone). Initially, vocalist Jim Kerr might seem like just another Bryan Ferry clone, but as he stokes his inner fires with some private perception of the emerald beyond – reaching an absolutely feverish pitch on "The Kick inside of Me" – he emerges as an obsessive visionary in his own right. The band, meanwhile, weaves a complex web of sound from the unlikeliest parts: churchy, staccato keyboards; lacelike, arpeggiated guitar lines and soaring wisps of feedback; and metallic-sounding drums.

Sparkle in the Rain is filled with potent images that can be read as religious emblems: baptismal immersion or death ("Waterfront"), redemption on the Cross ("East at Easter"), the Word ("Book of Brilliant Things"). Simple Minds find religious illumination in the vertigo of their fertile imaginations, and it comes out as psychedelic testifying – all fast movement and kaleidoscopic repetition – that builds to a crescendo of ecstasy and release. When Kerr sings, "Someday, some of them say that our hearts will beat like the wheels of a fast train" (from "Book of Brilliant Things"), you know you're in for a wild ride. All aboard. (RS 419)

----Review by Parke Puterbaugh

And now, for the FlowerJewel spin:

He shouts and testifies like a Pentecostal preacher. He tells you how the world is according to him. He draws you into "his" world. This is the essence of Simple Minds' lead vocalist, Jim Kerr. This band from Glasgow, known in an earlier incarnation as Johnny and the Self Abusers, emerged during the post-punk movement, to later become what we now know as quintessential New Wave giants, Simple Minds.

In my opinion, however, the band more than transcended that very narrow genre description. A band ever-evolving and re-inventing themselves, yet never losing its artistic integrity, Simple Minds' earliest work evoked comparisons to Roxy Music (even dubbed "Roxy-Music-gone-2001" circa the release of this very album). I would also submit that their sound in some of their earlier works was quite similar to their Australian contemporaries, INXS. Kerr's voice and presence, to my ear, being quite similar in some ways to Michael Hutchence.

Sparkle In The Rain has some of Simple Minds' most polished and perfect pieces-to-date. Their earlier albums Real to Real Cacophony and Life in a Day had more of gritty and "punked-out" edge to them. This offering is a mere taste of what was to come, and arguably BETTER than some of their later albums. Those were a bit more "radio-ready", especially following the single, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", featured in the 80s classic film, The Breakfast Club.

As an aside note here, The Breakfast Club Soundtrack, (1986), brought the band worldwide success, and an as-yet-unknown new stature "across the pond". Despite the band's newfound popularity in the UK and Europe, Simple Minds remained essentially unknown in the US. The movie The Breakfast Club changed all that. Released in early 1985, this Brat Pack drama from writer/director John Hughes was a box-office smash and made household names of many of its young stars, including Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez. It also broke Simple Minds into the US market almost overnight, when the band achieved their only number-one US pop hit with the film's opening track, "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Ironically, the song wasn't even written by the band, but by Keith Forsey, who offered the song to Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry before Simple Minds agreed to record it. The song soon became a chart-topper in many other countries around the world.

Later tracks such as, "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself" (from Once Upon A Time) and "See The Lights" (from Real Life) would propel the Glaswegian guys to chart success, however were more "raadio-friendly" tracks. The music contained on Sparkle In The Rain was a bit more straightahead rock, with that characteristic Simple Minds' sound that has earned them the attention of critics, and the affection of fans the world over. Comparisons to Roxy Music and U2 certainly did not stem the tide of the tremendous acclaim this band would garner.

Sparkle In The Rain holds a special place for me among Simple Minds' catalogue of works. The track "Book of Brilliant Things" is by far the best track on this lushly produced album. Despite how crisp this album is, however, it is far from overkill in the production department. "Book of Brilliant Things" incidentally is one of Kerr's favorite songs from his band's repertoire, as he describes in this piece of an interview:

Interviewed during his current visit to Japan, Jim Kerr revealed that "Book of Brilliant Things" was among the Simple Minds' songs that he identified with most. Kerr was quoted as saying, "more than music, ever since my earliest childhood, books have meant so much to me. Books are revered all over the world and of course for many people certain books are sacrosant. Books allow people to think for themselves, allowing access to knowledge for gotten or out of favour with the times. Books, as with recorded music, travel over time and distance greater than the author could accomplish in person. Dictators have throughout time understood how important it was to control knowledge--to control a nation! Books were burned and banned as a result. My father's experience as a simple man who educated himself to the highest level, inspired me to write this song."

Produced by Steve Lillywhite, who also produced U2's first three records, Sparkle in the Rain is an aggressive, rock-oriented album in much the same vein as U2's War. Some long-time fans along with a number of music critics accused Simple Minds of brazenly stealing their new sound from the Irish foursome--a curious assertion, given that U2 frontman Bono was quoted in the official Simple Minds biography The Race is the Prize as saying the "glorious noise" sound and feeling achieved on the Simple Minds album was one to which his band aspired. It may be more accurate to characterize this period as one in which both bands were mutual admirers. The eventual result of this shift in musical direction gave rise to hugely successful singles like "Waterfront", which hit number one in a few European countries and remains one of the band's signature songs to this day, as well as "Speed Your Love to Me" and "Up on the Catwalk."

With a particular bent to spiritual themes, Simple Minds' music invites the listener to both celebrate life, and think about it more in-depth, and really ask themselves the deeper questions. The beauty of it is, an answer is not always needed....just having spent time looking inward and upward is a journey that is its own reward.


".....Some say our hearts will beat like the wheels of a fast train/all around the world....."

-- Review written by FlowerJewel

(information contained therein extrapolated from various sources)

Sources cited:

The Official Simple Minds Website, Wikipedia, Rolling Stone Magazine-Review by Parke Puterbaugh

Tracklisting:
1. Up On The Catwalk (4:47)
2. Book Of Brillant Things (4:22)
3. Speed Your Love To Me (4:25)
4. Waterfront (4:49)
5. East At Easter (3:33)
6. Street Hassle (5:16)
7. White Hot Day (4:33)
8. "C" Moon Cry Like A Baby (4:21)
9. The Kick Inside Of Me (4:49)
10. Shake Off The Ghosts (4:01)

Total Time: 44:56

Line-Up:
- Jim Kerr / lead vocals
- Charles Burchill / acoustic & electric guitars
- Derek Forbes / bass guitar & vocals
- Mel Gaynor / drums & vocals
- Michael MacNeil / keyboards
- Kirsty MacColl / female vocals on "Speed Your Love To Me" & "Street Hassle"

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