Send "Simple Minds " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 “Don’t judge this album on the first single ‘Rockets’, as it’s far better then (sic) that.” So reads the message on the homepage of one Simple Minds fan site. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s a pretty accurate reflection of where Simple Minds are at these days. It has spent the last 15 years stumbling around with the lack of purpose and focus that befalls a band who was once immensely popular, isn’t any more and doesn’t know how to handle it. So we’ve seen the covers album, the “return to our New Wave roots” album and the vault-emptying “lost” album. Now comes the comeback album. At least, that’s how Graffiti Soul is designed. Featuring original guitarist Charlie Burchill and old-hand drummer Mel Gaynor alongside frontman Jim Kerr, it’s an attempt to return to the big, glossy art-rock of the band’s mid-1980s heyday. All together, it’s not as horrible as you might expect. In fact, it’s the best thing Simple Minds has done in a long, long time. If that’s not saying much, a couple of the songs are quite good by any standard. If you’d forgotten about Simple Minds, Graffiti Soul will remind you of what you once liked about them. Unfortunately, it’ll also remind you of why you eventually got sick of them and then forgot about them, too. You could say “Graffiti Soul” is produced to within an inch of its life, except the production is what actually “gives” the album its life. Handled by the band along with regular collaborator Jez Coads, it’s smooth as glass, covering everything in a thick layer of shiny vinyl. The longing for a return to the charts is practically audible, in the cracking drums, sharp guitar lines and occasional “soulful” backing vocals It’s calculated, yes, but listenable as well—at least most of the time....full text |
| Nme |
| No band in the last 30 years has done more to inflict grievous harm on its own body of work by refusing to call it a fucking day than Simple Minds. Despite initially turning in a wheelbarrow full of astounding albums they’ve been air-brushed from critical history because of two decades of fly-blown dung such as ‘Mandela Day’. To be fair, this is easily the best thing they’ve done since the mid-’80s and ‘Rockets’ and ‘Moscow Underground’ have some of that epic post-punk/new-wave disco spirit of yore, but it’s still not enough. If Simple Minds had stopped the second ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ was released then they’d still be remembered as a truly great band. As it is, this is not enough on its own to restore their tarnished reputation. ...full text |
| Music |
| The Simple Minds story is a long an eventful one, too long to recount in an album review, but a quick peek into their history does tell us a few things. Firstly, Simple Minds are a band that despite line-up changes are still a powerful and passionate song writing unit, and second, that this passion often runs alongside experimentation, which hasn’t always been well received, even by loyal Simple Minds fans. So the question is, how will everyone react to the 15th Simple Minds album Graffiti Soul when it’s released? Well only time will tell, but for now here’s my insight into the new release. I was first attracted by the title and definition of Graffiti in the album artwork. It reads “Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted, or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted”. I repeat this as having listened to the album, and read up a little on the band, it seems to be a well thought out and very apt title. I’d describe Simple Minds as an art form, albeit one that will appeal to certain types of music fans....full text |
Simple Minds lyrics
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