There is a strange quirk to the Simple Minds fandom. Perhaps it might apply to other fanbases? I don’t know. I have no personal experience of any other fanbase.
Alas, this quirk is one where the majority of fans feel that to be critical of the band’s work is somehow tantamount to ‘dissing’ them or equates to you being a ‘lesser’ fan. For me personally, the opposite is true. To insist upon the notion that you absolutely LOVE everything that they do places you in a state of ‘yes man’ sycophancy. You have no more objectivity than a person who says the band is shit and has never produced anything good.
There is a happy medium, but for the sycophantic fans this happy medium just does not exist. You must not have any scrutiny over the whole Simple Minds output. You aren’t allowed to dislike anything. You aren’t allowed to think – despite what others may suggest – that Jim Kerr’s voice is not strong and powerful. You are not allowed to think that the band are just quite good live, rather than ‘the best live touring band in the world, currently’, even if you have steadfastly experienced the truth that there are many other great live bands (as I have).
I understand dedication and passion, but it needs to be tempered with some modicum of realism.
I’d like to think I can still be objective about the band. I try to put my personal grievances aside. I want to put my personal grievances aside. I still would like to enjoy the music. I am slowly getting back to that. And it is with this slow rekindling of the enjoyment of the music that I have taken several listens of the new single, ‘Beginner Boys’.
I listened to the ‘single version’ first. I enjoyed the musicality. Charlie’s guitar work is sounding as good as ever. I like the riff. Lyrically, I like the first line. The use of the word ‘girl’ feels a bit cringe to me. But, I get the reason for its use. It just doesn’t quite sit well with me for some reason. I really like the chorus. That part of the song has become an earworm. The vocals are good, in parts. In other places I can hear Kerr’s weaknesses too much. He really shouldn’t do falsetto these days. That’s ick! It’s a real shame because I really like that line in the song. It’s very Sisyphus.
To my ear the album version has a different vocal take on it, which sounds a touch better than the single version vocal. I’m talking half a point – but enough to make me prefer it over the single version. I prefer the single version’s beginning, but the version overall is too short. But then it wouldn’t be a ‘single’ version then, would it?
The one real curiosity that I am finding hard to grapple with is the use of session musicians on the recording. Why has Cherisse Osei not been used for the drums? What are we meant to deduce from that? That she’s only good for being in the touring band? To be ‘visually appealing’? To provide ‘gurrrrrl power’ (as Kerr condescendingly refers to it)? And why has Ged Grimes not been used for the bass? When he helped compose what is arguably the best song on the previous album, ‘Solstice Kiss’? This just seems so inexplicably odd. Especially when we talk about loyalty and all that. It all feels very ‘do as I say not as I do’ with this kind of thing.
But I am letting my grievances get in the way again, I guess.
Going purely on rating the track itself, with a mark out of 10, I would give ‘Beginner Boys’ a 6 … perhaps a 6.5. I couldn’t go to 7. There are too many sticking points that wouldn’t justify it getting a mark like that. So, let’s say … 6.5. It’s better than ‘meh’ but not quite ‘good’. For me 7 = good, 8 = very good, 9 = excellent, 10 = outstanding. Six would be satisfactory. So, it’s straddling those two markers between satisfactory and good.
Other things I want to briefly note about the forthcoming Sacrosanct album: The title for track six ‘Songs’. Hmmm, really? You couldn’t have come up with something better? It just sounds a bit lazy. This man (assuming all the titles were coined by Kerr) has given us so many great song titles in the past and he’s given us ‘Songs’?! Then, ‘Our Secrets are the Same’ as another track. Yet another re-record? Why do they do this so much? This happens ssoo often with Simple Minds. Especially since the 21st Century. I don’t get it. The deluxe versions with the ‘single version’ fillers. Nope. Finally, as a Star Trek fan I cannot overlook that track nine on the deluxe CD is titled ‘Seven’. (For those not nerdy enough, there is a character in Star Trek called ‘Seven of Nine’.)
Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now.
