Simple Minds - Sons Fascination Sister Feelings Call (15 tracks) +Album Reviews

The Last of the Great Simple Minds Albums

A. Hamilton | Alexandria, VA USA | 02/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"'Not Ready For Prime Time'? The taste of someone who prefers the leaden 'New Gold Dream' or the uneven 'Sparkle In the Rain' - or any of the later sad-in-various-degrees attempts at stadium fillers - to this (double) album can only be wondered at. 'Sons and Fascination / Sister Feelings Call' was the release of an influential and (among the post-punks of Britain) revered band at the height of their powers, and it has aged very well. The pretentious title was by far the worst thing about it. After the triumph of the 'Empires and Dance' album - a guitar-and-keyboards martial stomp through European music of all stripes from Kraftwerk to Georgio Morodor - Simple Minds kept the peddle to the metal and released this collection of otherworldly dance anthems that popular music has either not caught up with yet or branched off from, leaving it in its own little singular universe - but crucially, a universe we can all visit, and one we all should."

An early 80s UK classic

Gary Walsh | 12/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the band at the height of its powers--during its great run of albums from 1979's Real to Real Cacophony to 1982's New Gold Dream. At this point they had incredible mystique--propulsive rhythm coupled with an arty atmospheric sound and oblique lyrics. They also had Derek Forbes and Michael MacNeil, making this the classic lineup. This album may be a bit impenetrable initially, but it reveals its genius after repeated listenings. "Love Song" will probably always remain the quintessential track for me, but there are plenty of great tracks here."

Before the fall

R. Baker | 11/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of their great albums. They were so extraordinarily creative in late 70's and early 80's. Anything up through Sparkle in the Rain is well worth checking out. They were assimilating influences and ignoring them; making very innovative, non-categorizable music. Then, all of a sudden, something happened: they tried to be U2 or something. "Once Upon a Time" sounded like a different band, different people. What happened!? British post-punk's all-time greatest sellout. From so high to so low. But get this one and New Gold Dream. Wow."

Will the REAL Simple Minds Please Dance us into Trance!?!

Wendy T. | Charleston SC | 07/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, I am seriously on a MISSION. "Sister Feelings Call"[...] contains some of the best new wave/eurodisco sounds, songs, and performances of the early 80's. I have the vinyl LP for "SISTER" which originally contained these songs:

I Travel

In Trance as Mission

Sweat in Bullet

Love Song

Life in a day

30 Frames a second

(I think these are all of the tracks. Not sure on the track order, either - my LP is packed up at the moment. Either purchase the 2 compilation albums, or download the mp3's to reconstruct the tracks from "Sister" - Amazon gives you lots of options.)

When I lived in the Washington DC area in the early 80's, you could hear these songs played at clubs (One Step Down, and Cagney's - both gone now I'm pretty sure) and on the late great lamented WHFS radio station. I have been remiss; this has to appear on my "Best Albums You Have Never Heard" list. There is nothing like this. It is more brilliant than "Gold" or "Sparkles!"

All you have to do is play this album along with Gang of Four's "Brief History of the 20th Century" and every New Order pre-1986 dance single and you have got yourself one whiplash-inducing hellacious dance party.

Doing this would be the best weight-loss regime I could recommend. I dare you to play these albums and not vibrate every muscle from head to toe. Just have your heart checked before you start!

Now, in light of full disclosure, I must admit that I also have the vinyl LP's "New Gold Dream" & "Sparkle in the Rain" and I like them both. The "New Gold Dream" album is a fetish-inducing transparent gold vinyl with purple swirls (Oh My Precious, I must have the Prrrecciousss!) I was a rabid Simple Minds Fan - guilty as charged. But the only album that I absolutely had to have on a cassette until I wore it thin was "Sister."

What I do remember is how heartbroken I was when the very forgettably shallow "Don't You Forget About Me" single came out. I'm not saying that it's a bad song. It's quite pretty and Kerr could sing a cookbook and it would sound delicious. It is just that it lacks the physical and emotional intensity of their earlier work. It's pretty much what you have to do if you're going to go commercial, but I was not having it! I was running around in circles and tearing my hair out, yelling "This is NOT Simple Minds - You people have no idea!!!" It was so horrendously sappy that even Jim Kerr wanted to disown it!

I really can't think of many bands that went through such a radical stylistic change after their first few albums. I think a lot of people hearing the early stuff and then the mid-career albums would not recognize them as coming from the same band, except for the unique stamp of Jim Kerr's amazing voice. I beg to differ that all of their early songs were sung in the electronica-robot voice (although Kerr's version of this had more color, depth and complexity than you would typically expect. I just contrast his vocals with say, DEVO or Gary Numan). His passionate soulful yelping on "I Travel" is an amazing vocal performance. Just try to sing it! I know I have - too many times and way too loud. Kerr is like the Robert Plant of Scottish new-wave.

In 1985 I moved back to Charleston SC for a few years and got to see Simple Minds performing with the Bangles at the fairly small venue of Galliard Auditorium (2700 peeps). This was when each of them had their one big hit: "Walk like an Egyptian" for the Bangles and of course Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me." Both put on a great crowd-pleasing show. I had seen the Bangles at the 9:30 Club in DC on their first tour ('83-ish), wearing what appeared to be bad vintage-store apparel and sporting dirty, stringy coiffs but putting out a great sound nonetheless. The Bangles' new slicked-up Hollywood styling was as big of a 180 as the new slicked-up sound of the Simple Minds.

If the Simple Minds had not had this one really big hit they probably would not have gone on tour and I probably never would have seen them live, so I will stop kvetching now! Jim Kerr is a mesmerizing performer. He dances around the stage a lot like Chris Martin of Coldplay does - or the other way 'round. I would bet that Chris Martin and band are Simple Minds fans.

If you haven't heard the early stuff, you haven't really heard Simple Minds. The short mp3 samples will not do them justice. I would suggest you sample a song or two. "Love Song" or "I Travel" (or both) would really give you a taste. I can think of few albums as euphoria-inducing as these. Trance out and Dance!

"

Search - Simple Minds :: Sons & Fascination / Sister Feelings Call

CD Details

Synopsis

Similar CDs

CD Reviews