Simple Minds have undergone something of a critical rehabilitation in recent years. Once viewed as a symbol of 80’s excess, their music has been a clear influence on the sound of bands such as The Horrors.
Big Music is the group’s 16th studio album and their first collection of new material in five years. It comes off the back of a period of soul searching from the band, in which they revisited the music they wrote before their stadium pomp days.
“You can’t go back,” singer Jim Kerr told the Guardian in 2012, “but you can embrace the old spirit. We feel obliged to shine a light on that stuff because it’s good, but also because a perception of Simple Minds that’s been hidden or ignored might come to light.”
Have a listen to Big Music and let us know if you think it successfully embraces the old spirit of the band in the comments section below.
