The clock ticked past midnight. I was feeling quite tired. I forced myself to stay awake as I really didn’t want to miss the opportunity to give Direction Of The Heart a listen upon its release. I had waited long enough and through not being privy to being allowed to review it prior to release, I had to bide my time and be patient like the majority of other fans. Earlier in the day I had resolved to stay awake until midnight to give the album the full, uninterrupted listen it deserved. What follows is my track by track breakdown review.
VISION THING:
The fact that I had gone to the trouble of making Priptona Art for it should give some indication of my thoughts on this track. The wash of synths at the start of it, I love. The pace of it. It has a good tempo. I’m still not completely sold on how Jim delivers the first verse, particularly the first two lines. Something about his voice sounds too falsified and “cutesy”. I dunno. It’s a pedantic niggle. The chorus is frigging awesome and I love the use of the line “I wakened up” – it has always made me smile the way he uses that phrase. The song gets better and better as the time ticks by. And the harmonious ending is lovely.
FIRST YOU JUMP:
Charlie’s guitar on this is wonderful. I find it reminiscent of This Earth That You Walk Upon – a kind of melancholic wail, but faster paced than what is on This Earth. The lyrics on this go straight to my heart. I absolutely adore the sentiment of this song. That if you can be brave, if you can work past your fears and overcome your setbacks, you can achieve great things. A little bit of self-belief can go a long, long way. Try as she might, my Other Half implanted the misheard lyric of “you once gave up, now Soreen” in my head – but all she managed to do as a result of that is make me think of dear Robert Gray. It’s a beautiful, inspiring rock anthem. I adore it!
HUMAN TRAFFIC:
Charlie is right. He mentioned in a recent interview with Mark Millar of XS Noize that it’s an unusual lyric for Jim to mention the days of the week. I must admit to being surprised by that myself and I can’t think of a time before this that Jim has mentioned days of the week like this in lyrics he’s written. I first listened to this last Saturday night, having come back from the White Hot Day fan convention. I was just listening to it coming out of my phone speaker. I didn’t really know what to make of it then. The jury was out. On Sunday I gave it a few more listens and after a few tries it is now quite the earworm. I think I just found it a curveball as it really does have Russell Mael’s influence on it for its sound. There is quite the Sparks overtone to it, which I find fabulous. And despite the tone of some of the lyrics, it is crazily uplifting. But all the best Simple Minds songs employ the “black light”, as I like to refer to it.
WHO KILLED TRUTH?:
It has some catchy lines. Not sure I am so sold on the verses or Jim’s vocal on this one. For me it is one of the weaker tracks on the album. It may take more listens for it to make its way into my head and heart. I’ve only heard it three times. For now, I’m unsure.
SOLSTICE KISS:
Starting with a tune that sounds like it came by way of Ged’s Bard’s Tale soundtrack which sounds more autumnal and conjures up images of a rustic woodland until around one minute in when the drums come in and the vocal harmonies start and rays of sun and light spread through the image that has been conjured up. It’s now late spring and the scene is bathed in bright light. The rays glint off Charlie’s shimmering guitar. Then all falls quiet while Jim serenades with seductive lyrics. Then the rays stream in again…”you woke me up”, sun drenched in love. Those lyrics! You had me at “did I dream”, Jim! Charlie’s riff, Sarah’s vocal, the pace of it. The sentiment. It’s glorious! My whole world is turned to bliss in just under five and a half minutes of pure brilliance. Sumptuous. Glorious. Shimmering. It’s a feast for the senses.
ACT OF LOVE:
Seems a little odd choice to be next in the track list order but…I guess after the, quite frankly, drug haze of Solstice Kiss, we probably do need a rock out. I’m still not sure whether I like those backing vocals. The guitar riff is the thing on this. Love the synths too. The chorus is fab. I still have “faith is my weapon, love is my shield” emblazoned on my FB profile pic. It does exactly as it set out to do, this track – look back to the past whilst heading full tilt into the future. I was a “born believer” of this track from the get go.
NATURAL:
There’s a fabulous groove to Natural. Don’t I wish I could be natural! Lol. “Normal”….is more that I wish to be. I don’t have my physical copies of the album yet and I am not 100% on the lyrics I’m hearing but the gist of the song that I’m getting is of…wanting to be sure of yourself. Comfortable in your skin. Has that ever really been a problem for Jim? Maybe in the distant past. And even then, many varying factors would have altered things. Can’t imagine it being a problem at all now. I really like the groove of the song. It could have nestled in quite nicely with Bittersweet and Liaison at the end of the deluxe edition of Big Music. It has those kinds of sounds to it.
PLANET ZERO:
Only listened to it once. Haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to it again. I really didn’t like it on that first listen. I can’t even tell you why now as I have listened to the others over a few times. I will give it a listen again. My feelings on it may change – but if this is the only song that I’m feeling this way about, then SM have a pretty good bloody hit rate with this album! From memory of listening to it last night…I don’t think I was taken with the lyrics and the vocal. I think. Something just didn’t chime with me. But I will give it another go later.
THE WALLS CAME DOWN:
The tempo has been speeded up on this version. I was expecting it to be more akin to how it was sounding on the tour but it’s had a synth wash and a tempo change. Jim’s vocal delivery is still coming through passionately and I am so glad the “yanks and tanks” verse made it in. Yay! I know Jim likes to push the covers and that’s all good, but I have to say that I am with the other fans on this. We’re all scratching our heads as to why this made the tracklisting for the standard issue of the album. Yes, I know it was done in the past – Street Hassle being on Sparkle In The Rain and it can’t even be argued through lack of material then. But…then, they were struggling …. not struggling! …. But working through having to bring out a follow up to the phenomenon that was New Gold Dream. A cover could be let slide, I guess, under those circumstances. This time, moving down the line nearly 40 years and having ostensibly re-recorded one song from the back catalogue (Act Of Love) and declaring in interviews that his two favourite songs didn’t make the cut – it really is quite the headf*ck. And, I do love The Walls Came Down – but not at the expence of hearing a song that Simple Minds have written. Have it as a bonus track by all means. Have it on the tour setlist! I wonder if this is what “Emperor Jim” and “Charlie Bubble” had their disagreement about? Who knows. It seems like Jim will always win. Not a man for backing down.
DIRECTION OF THE HEART (TAORMINA 2022):
Really love the start of it. Very obviously had a revamp from when it appeared on the flip side of the Magic 7” bonus vinyl that came out with Walk Between Worlds. I was never too sure about the 2018 version, either. I thought Jim’s vocal on that was dead sexy, lowered down to a bass range – and the vocals were clearer on the 2018 version…just. I liked the synths and the tempo of the 2018 version. I like the dual vocal on the 2022 version but the tempo has slowed a bit. I’m not sure the slightly slower tempo works as well. A strange choice also that considering the track title has been used as the album’s title it has been relegated to the deluxe edition of the CD. The lyrics can be a little hard to decipher on this 2022 version as well. Really hard to make out the “passion” line in the first verse. I had to remind myself what it is he was saying by replaying the 2018 version in my head. Overall, I still have mixed feelings about this song, in either 2018 or 2022 versions.
WONDERTIMES:
THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE STANDARD ISSUE CD INSTEAD OF THE WALLS CAME DOWN! Sorry, but it just should have! This is a really strong track for me. Right up there with Solstice Kiss as one of my favourite tracks on the album. They did this last time to me with Silent Kiss. At least Solstice Kiss takes centre stage this time. But why, oh why, oh why did “Walls” take the place of Wondertimes?! That start is like a kind of modern day King Is White mixed with a bit of One Step Closer. More fantastic guitar hooks from Charlie. Lovely! The sentiment of this song. I really like this. The “nostalgia” hook. Like it’s a look back to Wonderful In Young Life – that’s what I hear…hence the title. I sense the link back. Well, there’s a link for me.
After one entire listen from start to finish and a few selected track repeats, I feel largely pleased with what I hear. It is very upbeat and positive but Simple Minds have not done “moody and dour” for a long, long time.
Will I warm to Planet Zero and DOTH as a song? I’ve had four years to warm to DOTH so…hmmm…but I will give the revamped version a few more listens, and will listen to Planet Zero again.
For me, the strong songs are Vision Thing, First You Jump, Human Traffic, Solstice Kiss and Wondertimes. Then, Act Of Love, Natural, and Who Killed Truth follow. The Walls Came Down I love but I’m really not happy with its placement on the album. Finally, Direction Of The Heart and Planet Zero are languishing for me.
FINAL RATING:
At this stage my rating on a scale from one to ten would be 7.5/10. I feel like a hard bitch scoring that! Lol. OMG! He’s gonna give me his cold bitch stare tomorrow! ???