Disco de Simple Minds: “Black and White 050505”

The sticker on the front of Simple Minds' "Black & White" reads "An Astounding Return To Form"--FIVE STARS by Record Collection, and "Spectacular" by Sunday Mail. Who are these people? What are their credentials? I've never heard of them. With all the internet hype surrounding this cd, I purchased my copy from Amazon.uk.

Well, the results seemed more like a cross between "Good News From The Next World" and "Neapolis" with a sprinkle of "Cry". Simple Minds have not released a good album since 1991's "Real Life", and not a great album since 1989's "Street Fighting Years". Everything up to now has had moments, but not an entire album's worth of great songs. "Black & White" offers the same.

There seem to be five standout tracks: "Stay Visible", "Home" (the first single released), "Stranger", "Underneath The Ice" and "Dolphins". The other four tracks are solid, but nothing substantially exciting. "Home", in particular, is probably the best song on the disc, and a good idea to release it as the first single.

The band consists of Kerr & Burchill, and this time they brought back long time, on again, off again, drummer, Mel Gaynor. The found a new bass player by the name of Eddy Duffy. He is a sound-alike Derek Forbes, and does a great imitation of the spiralling bass playing that Forbes excelled at on "Stay Visible". Overall, the music and musicianship is solid, but lacking in creativity. They bring energy to the songs, but the lyrics and melodies seem rather uninspired. This is no "New Gold Dream", "Sparkle In The Rain", "Once Upon A Time", or "Street Fighting Years". Nor is it anyting prior to "New Gold Dream".

Some of the individual parts of the album had their merits such as Charlie's guitar playing, which just seems to get more textured and richer as the years pass. Of course, Mel Gaynor is a great drummer, and he does his bit. Eddy Duffy seems to be a suitable bass player and get the job done. Jim's vocals are a bit different here, and I'm not sure I liked his approach this time around, and his lyrics didn't seem to inspire me that much either. As a whole, the music just didn't hang together as well as I was hoping for, but Simple Minds fans can decide for themselves.

As a bonus, they included a video for "Home" which is average. Just the band, in shadows, in what looks to be some kind of soundstage or hangar, just playing. They were never inventive marketers of their music, and I think they've paid the price for that.

So, if you are a Simple Minds' fan like myself, this should be adequate until their next release. It just seems at this stage of their career they ought to be stretching and doing something more experimental and edgy. After all, what have they got to lose?

Finally, the album for which Simple Minds fans have been waiting two decades. I realize that sounds like the hyperbole of a PR hack, but I'm actually an old Minds fan who only reticently even picked up this cd. To my surprise, this is their most focused, passionate, inspiring album in two decades. The past few albums have had moments of greatness, such as See the Lights and Killing Andy Warhol, but this entire album just drips of Simple Minds' essence - that head in the clouds, eyes on the stars earnest hopefulness, "the Big Music". The first single, Hope, is a brilliant Charlie Burchill tour de force. Mel Gaynor pounds the skins like he's performing for heaven, he remains an incredible drummer. Jim Kerr's vocals slip from elegant to overbearing with typical frequency, but you have to admit he gives his all. If this album had been released in 1988, it would have gone platinum.

And that's the one problem with this album. It oozes Simple Minds' signature sound, so does sometimes seem a little dated. Blame Bob Clearmountain perhaps, but the keyboards sound darn late 80's, and subtlety can't be found anywhere in sight. Maybe they took a page from U2 (again) in going back to this basics a little too fervently, for the album lacks a new twist. New Gold Dream sounds more timeless to these ears. Still, the performances are top-notch (Mr. Burchill please take a well deserved, long overdue bow). A truly fine, occasionally awesome album, their best in 20 years. Enjoy.

Simple Mind's Black and White is an amazing comeback. I say comeback because their last effort wasn't even close to this calibur. This album really is more in line with their albums from the 80's. There are no filler songs, even though there is only 9 tracks, each track has something special to offer. I bought this album on Ebay and got a great deal.

a real true simple minds come back with true simple minds music.A miracle has happened.

Per Jim Kerr in a recent interview, Simple Minds singer and lyricist, the wording of publicity materials is invariably 'awkward.' Their record label, Sanctuary, has found it expedient to exploit their stadium heyday as way to garner sales, and the band is more or less mute on their work during the past eight years. But there is much good work in those eight years, and Black and White 050505 is certainly not a backward glance at Halcyon days.

That being said, this album IS atmospheric and haunting, two traits that have been consistent for a band accused of inconsistency, which simply means one album has seldom sounded like the next, (a marketing problem, perhaps, but not a creative one). Thematically, the songs continue to explore the complexity and uncertainty of human connection, and the ambiguity of place, (Home, the first single, does this quite well). Kerr's voice has aged nicely, and though he is in a couple instances seeming a bit overdramatic, what vocal flaws exist are overshadowed by rich arrangements, and Burchill's talent for leading his guitar beyond its expected capabilities. This is an album, like Cry (2002) or Our Secrets are the Same (2000, but only available on the Silver Box set), that is replete with reflections of lives lived, disappointments and disillusionments endured, and the hope that keeps scratching to the surface. Some of us still sink, (as in Dolphins,) but overall the songs reflect an understanding that, amazingly enough, most of us keep going, searching, and hoping.

Highlighting a few of the songs, Stranger, for me is just a great pop song, and demonstrates how expert Kerr and Burchill are with that form, (and the song hearkens to that need for connection); Underneath the Ice has a beautiful guitar solo, passionate and longing to complement a lovely lyric and vocals; Kiss the Ground has a snaking dark humor at its edges, (a characteristic often missed when discussing Simple Minds' music). My least favourite is Jeweller Part 2 (which appears in a much rougher, but more visceral form, on Our Secrets are the Same as Jeweller to the Stars), good, but feeling a bit out of place.

Hopefully Simple Minds can learn to trust what they create, and silence those awkward and unnecessary cries for a past that could not have created the (uneven, perhaps, but tangibly present) beauty that distinguishes Black and White 050505. This is an album worth giving a chance and listening to, as it develops its own life, and carries the listener along with it.