CD: Simple Minds - Big Music

These days, it's not just those of a certain age who remember Simple Minds early days. Fans and critics alike have been reappraising the group's New Wave phase. The band too. Jim Kerr recently said to one theartsdesk writer "maybe we shouldn't have cashed in". Which sounds like an appealing sentiment until you realise it would have entailed denying the world "Alive and Kicking" and "Waterfront".

More pertinently, where you stand on the relative stages of the bands career will dictate what you make of Big Music. Like 2005's Black and White 050505, the album plugs straight into the New Gold Dream sound. And, even for diehard fans of The Breakfast Club soundtrack this is not entirely a bad thing. The title track may be full of electronic noises but it's also comprised of big beats, synths and anthemic vocals. “Let the Day Begin” also moves along at quite a groovy pace. Then there are other bits of songs that successfully burrow themselves into your ears: the beginning of “Midnight Walking” is lovely and sad in a Bowie's Low way. The chorus to “Broken Glass Park” is nicely thunderous.

Often, though, the songs feel like they are trying too hard to be cool. As such some seem more like convincing replicas of the band's erstwhile serious side rather than the real thing. “Concrete and Cherry Blossom”, for instance, contains so many Eighties motifs it ends up a jumbled mess. And the minor chords of “Blood Diamonds” don't sound haunting, they just sound like musical indigestion. At least, that is, if you are secretly hankering for some stadium pop. Still, you can only admire the band for moving forward. Even if it is by looking back at 1982.

Overleaf: Watch the video for "Honest Town"