I’ll be honest here and say that these days I don’t really listen to too much music at all. I’m lucky if I play maybe two whole songs in a day. That’s just how it’s been for the past….18 months or so? I think the pandemic and lockdown had the completely reverse affect on me in terms of delving into artistic escape – certainly when it comes to music.
Study has been the biggest change with this. A case in point is trying to find the time to do this post as I now have a week to submit my first assignment of my new module, so…I better get on with it!
Right…so those first two paragraphs were in aid to prefix that I have only actually listened to Direction Of The Heart in its entirety THREE TIMES. I KNOW! It genuinely isn’t because I am not feeling the vibe from the album. It really isn’t. It’s just this combination of things that, for me, is impinging upon my time to listen to it. That said, a number of songs from the album are pretty constant earworms. Today, for example – Natural and Human Traffic are jostling for position in my head as chief earworm today. Solstice Kiss is trailing.
The earworm rotation that’s been happening has revolved around these tracks from the album: Vision Thing, First You Jump, Human Traffic, Who Killed Truth?, Solstice Kiss, Natural, Planet Zero and Wondertimes. Sadly there isn’t much of a look in for the album title track and sadly not any real earworm action for Act Of Love or The Walls Came Down – possibly because they are the “oldest” tracks in terms of my exposure to them this year – AOL having been released back in January and ‘Walls’ being played at the soundchecks on the tour.
I’ve not changed my opinion on some album tracks. For example: Vision Thing and First You Jump – my feelings on them are largely the same two weeks on. I’ve had longer to assess these two track as well.
Human Traffic has really grown on me over the past few weeks and it is a solid earworm – esp. the chorus, which I can appreciate is an annoying bugbear for some – but for me that’s where the Sparks influence is strongest and hearing Russell’s fabulously high almost falsetto strains blended with Jim’s baritone notes is pretty fucking fabulous! My only genuinely and incredibly pedantic bugbear about the song is Jim feeling the need to make a rhyming couplet involving saying the last letter of the alphabet as “Zee”. I honestly don’t know why it does but ALL MY LIFE saying the final letter of the English alphabet with the “ee” ending absolutely GRATES ON ME! The “Human Traffic” could have easily been moving from A to B as we use that in travel terms. “I bought this car because it’s the easiest way for me to get from A to B,” we’ll say, for example. I looooove the repetitions of the “only, only, only, only.” It’s what makes the song for me. Others can’t stand it – *cough* Birdy *cough* – but I think those people are not into Sparks in a big way and don’t really get why it’s there. Their loss!
I’ve had a complete turn around with my feelings on Who Killed Truth? The chorus is one catchy mofo! I was right in my initial assessment that it would just take longer to make its way to me. A few more listens to it – as in literally THREE – was all it took. I’m still unsure I fully understand what the song is about. Jim is probably thinking, “Geez, woman, I couldn’t have written more OBVIOUS lyrics if I tried! There is NOTHING cryptic going on here!” Most likely…but I don’t quite get the correlation between the rest of the chorus to the “so who killed truth now anyway?” line. Are we meant to interpret the “people coming together” as anti-vaxers, or conspiracy theorists? Dunno. I guess Jim is not always (hardly ever, in fact) going to be explicit in his lyrics and leave it up to individual interpretation – which is why I bloody love him as a songwriter!
Nothing changed with Solstice Kiss. Still fucking magic! Gets more glorious with every listen! Even just little bits of like…how he delivers the line of “Did I dream or did I dream that my whole WOOORLD would turn to bliss” – just that intonation of the word “world” is fucking GLORIOUS! And those BVs of strange slow, low voiced “solstice kiss” is weirdly erogenous! The drums too! OMG, the drums! And how it just comes to a dead stop.
Natural is just so fucking funky! Because I haven’t had time to devour it all properly, I still don’t know all the lyrics to this (I know! And there I am bitching at Jim about him not knowing all the words to his songs. Lol) – but I don’t write the fuckers, do I? I get the … criticism? – I see that it doesn’t sound like a Simple Minds song. But I am just reminded of what Jim said when they were writing Promised You A Miracle and….there you have it! Natural is Promised You A Miracle for the 21st Century Minds! Just with a first person narrative rather than a third person one.
Act Of Love – nothing about my initial review of it has changed. Still love it. Think I may have even softened my stance on the BVs. Lol
Planet Zero I have had a MASSIVE turn around with! I love that “whole world on fiiiiire!” thing. Sarah’s amazing vocal strains on it, and then when Jim sings it as well – there is something dead sexy about it! And those “mysteries – all those other mysteries” line. OMG! It is sssoooooo sexy! That does something to me. Yeah. Absolute turn around with Planet Zero. First couple of listens I just didn’t get it. It “wisnae happening” – but then, EUREKA!
I’ve said all I needed to say about The Walls Came Down.
Can I just add here also that when Jim was interviewed for France 24 the other day (shades on – and Sheila Rock said to me he’s not a poser – and puts those shots of him flashing his titties in her book. Pfft! Lol) and he was asked YET AGAIN about Don’t You (Forget About Me) – like it’s the ONLY fucking song they’ve EVER done – he said they’d never recorded a song that wasn’t one of their own before that…. ERM…STREET HASSLE! You recorded Street Hassle for Sparkle In The Rain. Pretty sure Lou Reed wrote that one, matey boy! Lol
Wondertimes, still fabulous!
The only one I am still left feeling unsure about IS the album title track. I still just don’t know what to make of it. I loooove the way the re-recorded Tao version starts. I REALLY like that. So, I do think the re-record was justified. And I still find it odd that the album was named after it but it then isn’t on the standard issue CD and vinyl and only on the deluxe CD. That is just weird! Does anyone out there reading this know of any other incidences of an album having a title with the title track then being a B-Side or “bonus” track? I really do find that a very odd move. Between that and The Walls Came Down only being deemed suitable enough to be a “bonus” in the live set by being played at soundchecks but featuring on the standard copies of the album just…fucks with my brain.
Anyway….after two weeks of the dust settling and me metaphorically wearing the DOTH jacket and dealing with the cut and fit of it…I do believe that I would give it a higher mark than I initially did and bring it up a whole point to an 8.5 out of 10. The constant rotation of earworms in my head with the songs, despite the lack of play is testament to how strong the album is. I’m trying to recall if a similar thing happened with Walk Between Worlds and I don’t think it happened on this scale, but I played WBW a whole lot more than this album anyway.
Right, I am off to start writing my first assignment for this module of study! Ta ta. This may be the last post I make on the blog for a week as I now REALLY need to knuckle down.
I found your blog searching for an explanation to “Planet Zero” lyrics.
I have read that “Vision Thing” is for Jim’s father who died in 2019.
I was thinking “Act of Love” was a return to the roots when I found out it was a song written in 1978 🙂
Yes, that is right about Vision Thing. And, yes – Act Of Love was the first song they performed at their very first concert as Simple Minds on 17 January 1978.
Thank you for visiting the blog. I that hope you enjoyed looking around and that you continue to find it informative and enjoyable.
“Who Killed Truth” is clearly a criticism of the media in the age of a pandemic. The media and journalists should only be in charge of the truth, and Jim is clearly dissatisfied with the media’s coverage of the vaccine and the pandemic and clearly believes that the media and journalists have killed the truth. This is obvious, so it basically just highlights what actually happened in some countries, which is that people came together to the streets to protest against the media and their coverage of the vaccine and the pandemic (line in song “People coming Together” ). For me personally, the best song on the album, musically and in words. I even believe that he is against vaccines and measures during pandemic, which would not be strange considering that during the pandemic, musicians were prevented from touring and performing. Even some musicians spoke strongly against the vaccine and its side effects (Eric Clapton) and even wrote songs about pandemic (for example Eric Clapton & Van Morrison protest song “Stand & Deliver”).
Interesting take on it. I saw someone else say they took the lyrics to be a criticism of the Trump administration and the political rallies around him. I guess that?s the beauty of ambiguous lyrics. People are open to their own interpretations of what they mean.
I don’t believe that’s true. Don’t forget that the pandemic directly affected all of us and especially musicians. They had to stop the tour in the middle of the pandemic. Trump and his administration, however, does not affect the lives of all humanity, unlike a pandemic that encompasses us all. Don’t forget that Simple Minds are special musicians who love to play live more than anything and Jim must have been furious that they stopped his tour and didn’t let him perform for two years.