This week's RTÉ Radio 1 Album Of The Week is Walk Between Worlds by Simple Minds.
What We Say: Their stadium-filling days may be behind them, but Jim Kerr's Scots rockers have enjoyed somewhat of a critical resurgence in recent years, and their 18th (!) album just scored them their highest chart slot in decades. Harking back to the 'big sound' of their glory days, before everything went a bit Belfast Child, Kerr and longtime cohort Charlie Burchill still know their way round a first-pumping anthem. Don't you forget about them!
What The Critics Say:
'The best one can do is hope that longtime Simple Minds acolytes and new curiosity seekers will give this new record a chance. There’s every reason to believe then that they’ll fall quickly under the spell of these finely wrought tunes and Kerr’s clarity of lyrical vision.' (Paste Magazine)
Long-time ‘Minds fanciers always have that moment of dread when there’s a new release. Will they shoot for the genius of New Gold Dream or peddle material a bit harder to love along the lines of their stadium crimes of old? The answer this time is a bit of both: perhaps that’s what the title refers to. (Hot Press)
'They borrow sounds from their 1980s heyday and push them forward with dramatic cinematic soundscapes. Jacked up and big, it’s new-romantic pop on steroids.' (Irish Times)
What They Say:
"All the songs were kind of about abstract religious content, about faith or your faith or the maintenance of faith. It's something I think we've looked at before and it definitely resonates now, albeit from a much more experienced point of view. I would like to think it's just positive music, not in a kind of naive way, but I just think there's something about our music that tries to be optimistic." Jim Kerr
Listen to Walk Between Worlds below:
Find out more about the RTÉ Radio 1 playlist here.
