New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83. 84) was Simple Minds' sixth studio album, released on 13 September 1982. It is my favourite album of theirs. It is also my favourite album of all time.
Here, I will take a look at the recording of the album, a few reviews of the album, before I go through track by track in my own homage to the record.
Recording took place between February and August 1982 at Townhouse Studio and then Richard Branson's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, with a very young Peter Walsh at the helm.
Walsh had been briefed by Virgin Records ahead of entering the studio: "We want the magic and the atmosphere of Simple Minds live to come across on the album." he recounted them telling him.
Adam Sweeting noted the album combined an "uncluttered power with instrumentation refinements a step on from Sons and Fascination."
A tale of three drummers
Kenny Hyslop was behind the kit for the recording of Promised You A Miracle. Previously in bands like Slik and The Skids, he had been drafted in for the Sons and Fascination tour, replacing original drummer Brian McGee. He also featured in promo videos for Love Song and Sweat In Bullet from the previous record.
After Hyslop came Mike Ogletree. He had played with bands like Fiction Factory and Cafe Jacques, but after laying down tracks for three songs he was moved on, as the feeling was he was a bit "too jazz." Mel Gaynor, who was the last to come onboard (and who stayed on and off for another three decades), knew Ogletree and felt that he had lost some confidence. Gaynor himself, definitely brought much more power to the band - he had played with a diverse range of acts, from the Nolan's to Samson (featuring a pre-Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson).
New Gold Dreamers:
Sweeting assessed the album - "It was rock music on the face of it, with pounding beats and big bass riffs, but over and above the music was shot through with rare melodic grace and delicate nuance."
Jim Kerr's own take on the making of the record (in a 2012 interview): "Everything we tried worked..... There were no arguments. We were in love with what we were doing, playing it, listening to it."
On its release, Paul Morley, never shy of a word or two, wrote in the NME: "My loyalty to Simple Minds is known to be considerable, yet even I am jarred by the constant beauty of this music. New Gold Dream robs me of my breath."
Mark Cooper was also pretty enthusiastic about it when he wrote in the Record Mirror, "They have stunned and impressed me, but they have rarely move me. Suddenly, in New Gold Dream, they've conquered their fear of feeling and come out shining."
Another thing to note about this album, is its undoubted influence on a band that they were often compared to at the time, but who would go on to be about the biggest of them all. Without New Gold Dream there might not have been an Unforgettable Fire. Bono himself, in his 2020 thank-you notes, said, "Without the album [NGD], I don't believe that there would have been an Unforgettable Fire or a Joshua Tree." New Gold Dream (the title track) was U2's walk on music on their 1983 tour. The Irish Times noted, "The Unforgettable Fire would explicitly reference the dreamy, ambient heat haze of New Gold Dream."
Track by Track:
I don't know that I can come close to expressing my feelings for the album anywhere near as well as a Morley or Cooper did, but nonetheless, I'm going to do it anyway. For a few of the tracks, I have noted the working titles (where known), as I think that helps with understanding the sounds.
Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)
The delicate guitar notes and echoing keyboard conjure up the haze of summer. The bass rolls along, propelling the song on towards the chorus, where it bursts into funky guitar and big chunky chords. Meanwhile, the vocals are laid down with a haunting ethereal quality to them.
"See me burning slow, walking in the soft rain."
Colours Fly And Catherine Wheel (working title - Skyscraper Guitar)
I can hear little bits, rhythmically and tonally from Empires and Dance in here and once again, the bass riff propels things along. The gentle swirls of keyboard make way for the chorus, which erupts and then fades away just as quickly.
Promised You A Miracle
A bona-fide pop classic, that finally saw Simple Minds properly break the charts, as it reached number 13 in the UK. It has that distinctive wash of guitar, with a bass that is funked to the max. Again, there is great use of differing tone and pace - the song slows down post-chorus, before a roll and a crash and the song is back to a peak.
Big Sleep
This is a masterful and mesmeric tune. The bass somehow sounds like water rippling along, the chimes of guitar like a far-off siren, all while an incessant keyboard motif riffs underneath. The song is glorious and gorgeous and a bunch of other superlatives.....
Somebody Up There Likes You (working title - Mahler Chords)
Pete Walsh said that it was "like Kraftwerk, motorway music." I am not always a fan of instrumentals, but this has a slight tropical feel (the guitar effects almost sound like the chatter of jungle animals) and a very relaxed way to draw side one to a close.
New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84) - (working title - Festival Riff)
Side two gets off to a cracking start. The song has propulsion like a freight train, thanks in part to two drum parts (Ogletree and Gaynor were both used to lay down percussion on this one track). This remains a popular live track forty years on.
Glittering Prize
Described by Sweeting as the 'runt of the litter', it followed Promised's chart success, also reaching number 16. The runt label is extremely unfair. Even though you could argue that it is the weakest track on the album, it is an extremely high bar that is set. There is a great ebb and flow to the song and it has a little of the pomp about it that would further emerge on follow-up Sparkle In The Rain (and take them towards arenas and stadia).
Hunter And The Hunted (working title - The Low Song)
My favourite song on my favourite album. It's as if the whole song is building towards the sublime Herbie Hancock organ solo that lifts an already great song to another level. It has these little staccato drum bursts, shimmery guitar and a bass counterpoint, and Kerr's voice is often down to barely more than a whisper.
"When you hear me screaming I'll be seeing through the eyes of love."
King Is White (And In The Crowd)
A suitably mysterious ending to the album. Built around the imagery of Anwar Sadat's assassination (in late 1981), the song is properly brooding; whirls and squalls of bass, sporadic and discordant guitar licks; Jim Kerr is almost spitting out the words as he builds to a chorus that is shouted out. An epic way to end an epic album.
***
This album sees the band find the perfect transition from the art post-punk and dance infused work of Empires, Sister Feelings and Sons and Fascination, towards their future selves, pumping out big stadium sounds. Derek Forbes bass playing was never less than sublime, but on here he gets sounds out of his bass that are truly incredible. Mick MacNeil's keyboards and Charlie Burchill's guitar are often fused together in a perfect symmetry of sound. In Mel Gaynor, they had unearthed a true beast of a drummer, who added huge propulsion to their sound, yet could still work his way around the subtler stuff. Jim Kerr was at his enigmatic best; the imagery of his lyrics was varied and full of tone and hue, his vocal delivery ranging from near silence up towards deafening roars. Truly a masterpiece.
Notes:
Produced by Pete Walsh at Townhouse and Manor
Released by Virgin Records on 13 September 1982
Featuring: Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mick MacNeil, Derek Forbes, Mel Gaynor, Mike Ogletree, Kenny Hyslop, Herbie Hancock
Score:
On a totally different level - 9.9 / 10
From:
Wikipedia
Adam Sweeting - Simple Minds (1988)
Irish Times (25 Jan 2022)