The albums are “middling”. Not my immediate “go to” albums but there are tracks on them that I absolutely adore. All For You was one of the earliest songs -chronologically speaking – to sway me into full diehard SM fandom. Pleasantly Disturbed blew my mind when I first heard it. It’s such an epic! Akin to Simple Minds’ answer to Riders On The Storm or something.
Cry is like my own personal Marmite album. There are songs on it I absolutely LOVE, like Spaceface. I also really like Sleeping Girl (she was a grower, that one) and Disconnected, but there are songs that I just … nope. Lazy Lately is a song I have just never been able to warm to and the title song leaves me feeling indifferent. It doesn’t make me cry, or smile, or trigger any other kind of emotional response, which is a sad state of affairs. A Simple Minds song should make me feel SOMETHING – even if it is more dislike or even disdain but Cry does nothing for me except conjure up feelings of disinterest. The acoustic version (Cry Again) produces a stronger reaction. Unfortunately, it breeds a more resolute dislike in me. As I look through the tracklist marking out the songs I’d happily listen to on the album, it’s an absolute 50/50 split. The ones I don’t like though, I either REALLY dislike or I am just so indifferent to them as to not even bother.
Upon further reflection, I am actually being quite unfair to Life In A Day because there is really only one song on the album that I’m not keen on and that’s Sad Affair. I have previously spoken about the impact All For You had on me when first listening to it. I have also talked about the curious beast that is No Cure – how it was a song I initially used to skip because I really didn’t like it. Back in the early days of my diehard fandom, when I went out to Oz to spend (what would be) my last time with mum, I listened to an SM mix of music all night so I would be soothed enough and relaxed enough to get some sleep. I’d have their music playing in my ears all night. Too much in a sleepy state whenever No Cure came on to skip it, I’d let it play. Then one day it clicked. I couldn’t shake it and it became an obsession! Literally overnight it went from hate to love. I listened to it over and over and over again. I went from despising it to absolutely adoring it. There is more to LIAD I love than I am indifferent to or detest. I can’t really lump it in with Cry as “middling”.
In a list of SM albums – rated for favouritism and playability; where Sons And Fascination will ALWAYS be top and Live In The City Of Light will ALWAYS be bottom – let’s see exactly how the albums fair and where they’d be placed.
In ascending order:
Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call
Empires And Dance
New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84
Real To Real Cacophony
Sparkle In The Rain
Good News From The Next World
Life In A Day
Big Music
Walk Between Worlds
Once Upon A Time
Our Secrets Are The Same
Graffiti Soul
Street Fighting Years
Neapolis
Black And White 050505
Real Life
Cry
Neon Lights
Live In The City Of Light
Well, there is actually quite a gap between Life In A Day and Cry!
At the moment, it’s quite hard for me to place Direction Of The Heart in the list. I’ve listened to the album just ONCE in the past five months and from (and including) Neapolis onwards down the list – the albums listed tend not to be played in their entirety. In fact, Cry is much further down the list than I had anticipated – mostly due to the number of tracks that would be played on the albums above it having a higher ratio of playability (in terms of total tracks listened to over the number of tracks on the album). If my hand was forced and I HAD to place DOTH in the list – I’d stick it directly below Graffiti Soul.
Anyway, I digress and have wandered off the beaten track.
It has been a whopping 44 years since the release of Life In A Day on April 1st, 1979. Scarily, Cry is now a fully fledged adult having celebrated its 21st birthday – also on April 1st. Yikes!
The final anniversary release to highlight is the anniversary of Promised You A Miracle, which happened 41 years ago yesterday (April 2nd). Any excuse to watch the fantastically feline shapes of Mr Kerr in his all white kitted glory – “jodhpurs”, jaiket and black riding boots, with matching shade of dyed hair. Peely wally but 100% tasty AF! I could watch this clip ALL DAY! I remember the excitement I had for this being re-aired during the weekly BBC Four Top Of The Pops repeats. I’m sure I probably needed to have a tea towel or perhaps even a bath towel to hand to mop up the drool that escaped my mouth watching him. Some things really never do change!
As for faves to link to from both album anniversaries? Well, the Tomcraft Mix of Spaceface has given me so much joy and happiness over the years, it had to be done! As for Life In A Day? Another of my biggest early favourites was Murder Story. I still love it so much all these years later. It’s been a while since I heard it, so let’s enjoy it now.
Happy Anniversary to all three Minds music milestones.
I bloody love LITCOL ? How dare you. I?ve no idea what the consensus is with other fans regarding it ( nor do I care) but at the very least it gave us the iconic logo. You have to like that ? ?
Lol. Sorry, Scobes! Trust me, I am in the minority with this feeling. I?ve gone into the reasons why once or twice. I tend not to highlight my dislikes too much but I?m not going to be a sycophant and pretend I love absolutely EVERYTHING they?ve ever done. In fairness, there is very little I dislike or avoid listening to at all costs but LITCOL is one of them. As for the logo? It?s tattooed on my skin so we can safely say I do like the logo at least. ???