Product Description

Simple Minds began their career indebted to Roxy Music, David Bowie and Magazine, but over successive releases emerged as a distinctive act. On New Gold Dream the group's ambitions came to full fruition, the awkward dissonance of early recordings replaced by a warm, textured sound. The content ranged from brash stadium rock to melodic ballad, but a singleness of purpose ensured such contrasts enhanced the set's overall cohesion. The quintet had never sounded so confident or assured and the resultant lush textures launched them into the international arena, fulfilling their undoubted promise. On "Promised You A Miracle", did Kerr really sing "guinea pigs are guinea pigs?"

Track Listing

1. Someone Somewhere In Summertime
2. Colours Fly And Catherine Wheel
3. Promised You A Miracle
4. Big Sleep
5. Somebody Up There Likes You
6. New Gold Dream (81 82 83 84)
7. Glittering Prize
8. Hunter And The Hunted
9. King Is White And In The Crowd

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2554 in Music
• Released on: 2003-01-06
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

My favourite album and post-punk/-pop's most beautiful peak!
Best tracks: "Big Sleep", "Glittering Prize", "Somebody Up There Likes You", "Hunter and the Hunted", "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel"...the whole album!

New Gold Dream is my favourite ever album and the culmination of everything Simple Minds (and post-punk pop music in general) was heading towards, probably without realising it at the time. After all, this is an album that is lyrically built around the idea of the looking to the future, of possibilities, of dreams, of anticipation, of being on the cusp of greatness, the idea of "belief as a beauty thing". It's an album that was about seeing the peak in the distance and not the experience of actually reaching the summit, yet with hindsight, it really was the band's zenith, precisely because sometimes the journey's more satisfying and enriching than the final destination. In theory, Simple Minds should have got bigger and better.....well, they certainly got bigger, huge even, but better? Okay, Sparkle in the Rain is a gem (albeit a flawed one), and I'll always have a soft spot for "Don't You (Forget About Me)", but come on, they never were as good again as they were on New Gold Dream, were they?

For starters, the production on this album is truly, truly amazing- the keyboards, the bass, the guitars, the drums....they all weave, glide, swim, fly and glisten together to create some kind of new pop paradise; the band leave mere rock music behind and enter a whole new sphere of fluidity, while Jim Kerr's playful, evocative and occasionally expressionist lyrics are infinitely preferable to the lumpen sermonising of his later work. The opening "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime" makes for a truly beautiful scene-setter; never before had the band been this romantic, warm, subtle and becalming - it's a song of anticipation and future glories not too far in the distance. The exquisite "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel" follows next and is one of tha band's least orthodox, most bouncy, delightful and lovely songs ever - the snaky, twisting rhythms barely occupy Earth's gravity, skipping, diving and dancing through space with slinky, sleek grace. "Promised You a Miracle" was the first Simple Minds song to be intentionally designed as a single release - and thanks to its killer keyboard hook, not to mention the glorious "everything is possible" section (extended to wonderful effect at the end) which is one of many truly glorious moments on this album, it was a big hit for the band. The most underrated song the band ever created is next, and that's "Big Sleep" - it could have, and should have been a single, what with its dizzying, vertiginous sense of scale, its grand, towering chorus and its truly beautiful finale (arguably this the band's single finest moment)....this is the kind of huge music that's big without being bloated. The shimmering vistas and airborne bliss of "Somebody up There Likes You" is a wonder to behold - it truly glides through spectacular skies of sound with a sense of bliss. The "Big Sleep/Somebody Up There Likes You" section is my favourite part of New Gold Dream, though what follows next more than gives those two songs a run for their money. Let's flip over to side two....

The title track is the last time the band would embrace a dance-influence for quite a while- from the next album onwards it would be rock, lighters-in-the-air anthems and balladry- and it's an element of their sound that's been missed ever since. Think of earlier gems like "I Travel", "Love Song" and "Theme for Great Cities" and then take it up a notch, that's how damn good this song is. A relentless, escalating, joyous and driving powerhouse of a beat blessed with a glorious, sun-kissed atmosphere...it's the sound of a band closer with tantalising, ecstatic reach of the glittering prize, which leads me very nicely to the song of the same name, which is arguably Simple Minds' most accomplished song and their most triumphant moment- how come singles are rarely this magisterial, this dreamy, this elegant, this damn fine? "Glittering Prize" blends a great tune to an enchanting, lovely atmosphere with dazzling results. After this, the album makes way for a slightly darker feel with the autumnal "Hunter and the Hunted" - the fluttering synthesisers that sweep across the wonderful chorus, the cute and lovely Herbie Hancock guest spot near the end, the mysterious, wistful lyrics...at this stage I have to mention that this might be the best, most perfectly judged album I have ever heard in regards to sequencing and structure - it flows from start to finish with such with such skill that none of the songs would have nearly as much impact if they were shuffled around. The closing "King is White and in the Crowd" is quite a surprise in that it's pretty eerie and strange sounding - it's almost as if the new gold dream of the title has suddenly vanished from sight, replaced with a chilly breeze and a sense of doubt and uncertainty...it makes for a powerful, unsettling finale.

After this, Simple Minds turned up the volume and cranked up the adrenaline for Sparkle in the Rain, which boasted some amazing thrill-rides such as "Up on the Catwalk", "Speed Your Love to Me" and "The Kick Inside of Me", not to mention the glittering likes of "Waterfront" and "Shake Off the Ghosts".....still, as good as it was, it wasn't New Gold Dream, and nothing they'd deliver from then on in would be....not much in popular music is, to be honest! Get this album right now and experience wonder what on Earth happened to this band who were, at this peak of theirs, truly, truly wonderful.

PS: It's a shame that the 2003 re-release didn't include the 12" mixes and rare tracks of the time, especially the rather good B-side "Soundtrack for Every Heaven", which is only available on digital format in a vocalised form (entitled "In Every Heaven") on the DVD-Audio version of this album (which incidentally is well worth purchasing as it offers some different, interesting mixes of most of the album tracks), but then again, it's nice to have the album simply as it was originally released back in 1982!

Kerr in the community...
Dazzled by the iridescence of `Glittering Prize', this startled reviewer could easily be duped into thinking that the rest of `New Gold Dream' would come hurtling apologetically in on it's shirt-tails.
It is SUCH a good song, all glammed up and sinewy, with a killer ethereal chorus, Jim Kerr's deep echoey vocal sending a chill down even the most resistant spine.
But, one swallow doesn't make a summer, and it's a big ask of anyone, to come up with a whole album which can stand eye-to-eye with it's wistful, beautiful offspring.
Fortunately, `New Gold Dream' does.
It's superb. Nine exceptional songs, cosseted in a thick, viscous production that allows them complete freedom to move into your consciousness and lurk there, long after you've finished listening.
On the first few hearings it sounds like our sad ole friend `Stad-Rock' is rearing it's artless and pointless head again, but patience is giver of lasting reward here. Perseverance reveals all kinds of depth and nuance in the music, certainly above and beyond the highly polished veneer.
`Prize' itself is tucked away in a corner, but this of course only goes to heighten it's glory. The non-trumpeting of this neo-classic, in a way, sums up the recklessly brilliant core of `NGD'
It sounds so effortless, you get the feeling they just knocked it together in a few hours. That the ideas came thick and fast one rainy Scottish afternoon (there is no other kind). The deep, fluid melodies broke through, bathed in some kind of artistic Borealis half-light, as the Simples lounged around a trendy café, smoking ciggies and quaffing expensive lager.
It even has, right at it's heart (shock! horror!), that contradiction in terms, that elusive rock leper- the (gasp!) interesting instrumental! Honest!, right in the middle!
As if the shock of that wasn't enough, the following title track, cranks the excellence quota up to another level again. It's one of a series of songs here, blessed with some kind of innate grace, a tight, whirling elan. They expand, draw you in rather than push you away.
The more you listen to `NGD`, the more you realise the little grain of good taste you thought it was, has become a mountain of good sense, and you'll know in your heart of hearts, it's what you (we!?) NEED.
Good songs, intelligently presented, is always a winning proposition, and coming after TWO previous storming albums, `Reel to Real Cacophany' and `Sons and Fascination' this is a peak of peaks in SM's ascendancy. Unfortunately the next album `Sparkle in the Rain' was the beginning of the sad (but utterly unavoidable) decline.
Enjoy this one, a stunning album by a group at the absolute apex of it's powers. Full of confidence and verve, delivering top notch soulful, atmospheric, sensuous anthems, almost nonchalantly.
Literally, a glittering prize.

No, this really is Simple Minds at their best
I know you'll find other reviewers recommending other Simple Minds albums as the band "at their best", but for me this is where it's at and here's why. On this album you'll notice that the bass guitar (played so inventively by Derek Forbes) is responsible for a lot of the melody, but far from overshadowing the guitar and keyboards, it integrates so well, giving the band a truly unique sound that I feel is mostly absent from any of the later albums. Unfortunately, the bass was put relatively low in the mix on the next album; "Sparkle in the Rain" and Derek Forbes left the band soon after (I'm not sure if that was one of his reasons, though as a bass player myself, I wouldn't blame him!)

Simple Minds really hit the big time after their '85 Live Aid appearance and the release of "Once upon a Time". The bad news was that they became such a massive phenomenon (suffering unwarranted accusations of being U2 wannabes) that seeing them live and getting close enough to the stage to know it was really them, was next to impossible. Whilst I'm still a Simple Minds fan and own most of their albums, I don't feel they have ever quite managed to re-capture the magic of "New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84)". There really isn't a bad track on this album.