Simple Minds - Life in a Day

Title: Life in a Day Artist: Simple Minds Release Date: 4/1979 Re-Released On: 5/20/2003 Label: Atlantic, Virgin Records, EMI Music Distribution, Disky Duration: 43:20 UPCs: 724356464322, 724381300725, 724381300824, 0077778603054, 0724381300756, 0724381300855, 075679085849, 077778603023, 0724356464322 Genre: Rock Styles: New Wave, Post-Punk, Alternative/Indie Rock, Punk/New Wave, Dance-Rock Moods: Earnest, Melancholy, Sophisticated, Theatrical, Bittersweet, Cathartic, Clinical, Detached, Intimate, Literate, Refined/Mannered, Slick, Stylish, Tense/Anxious, Confident, Earthy, Eerie, Ethereal, Organic, Passionate, Plaintive, Poignant, Reflective, Self-Conscious, Sentimental, Somber, Wistful Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 5 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Someone
2. Life in a Day
3. Sad Affair
4. All for You
5. Pleasantly Disturbed
6. No Cure
7. Chelsea Girl
8. Wasteland
9. Destiny
10. Murder Story

Year Type Label Catalog # 2003 CD Virgin Records 13008 2002 CD EMI Music Distribution 813007 2001 CD Disky 564643 1990 CD Atlantic 90858

No other editions were found for this album.

Simple Minds' astonishingly rapid ascent from humble and derivative post-punk to platinum and transcendent art pop is just as remarkable as the descent that followed it. More remarkable is the fact that a fair portion of the band's fans have such a strict discographical line in the sand drawn -- right at the chart-crashing masterpiece that is New Gold Dream -- where both sides overlap but don't dare cross. While fans of the band's earlier work essentially drop off with that record (and choose to live in blissful denial that the band existed after that), those on the other end are more or less oblivious to what's on the other side. So what's on that other, earlier side? Five studio albums released within the span of three years. Five studio albums that range from safe to bold, from impenetrable to accessible, from strange to puzzling, and from good to pee-your-pants phenomenal. Life in a Day, the first of the five records released during this fascinating pre-fame period of Simple Minds' career, is easily the least of the first five. On their debut, they seem to run with a template based on the jittery bounce of Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" and the keyboard-accentuated lunatic punch of Magazine, a band that had released their own debut a year prior to Life in a Day. (Simple Minds would later release an album with the same title, Real Life. Coincidence?) Despite the growing pains, this is a skilled and assured assemblage of guitar-heavy post-punk, with Jim Kerr's over-caffeinated yelp taking the lead role. The arrangements are full, direct, and sharply executed. The high points: the teeter-tottering title track and the J. Geils Band-like swagger (honestly!) of "Someone." The low point: "Pleasantly Disturbed," an epic Velvet Underground-inspired limp that lasts eight very long minutes. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Name Credits Brian McGee Drums, Percussion, Vocals Charlie Burchill Guitar, Violin, Vocals Derek Forbes Vocals, Bass George Chabers Tape Operator George Chambers Tape Operator Jim Kerr Vocals John Leckie Producer, Engineer, Arranger Mick MacNeil Keyboards, Vocals Simon Heyworth Mastering Simple Minds Arranger