Simple Minds – The Best of Simple Minds CD

The Best of Simple Minds is a soundtrack, punk and gothic compilation by Simple Minds on Virgin Records Us. This is the CD edition, a 2-disc set. This edition was released on November 6, 2001.

Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the Gold se lling soundtrack & hit film the Breakfast Club. Includes 5 top 40 singles a total of 32 songs on two CD's covering the band's A&M and Virgin Record's careers. The title of this compilation tells the truth--almost. Although one is moved to question the validity of including the Raven Maize club hit "Real Life"--selected on account of it sampling the tonal poetry of "Theme From Great Cities"(a prime slice of the early Minds' funked-up Eurosynth futurism) and slapped on the end as if to convince a jaded public that Simple Minds really are "contemporary" and have a profound relevance to today's dance scene--this really contains the best of Simple Minds. Which is a very good thing indeed--but where's "Changeling"? These trifling grievances aside, this compilation does Simple Minds' chart-history justice. Sometimes unduly castigated for blustery over-expression and much ado about nothing, re-familiarisation with much of the post-Sparkle In The Rain material reveals a band at ease with an astute musical economy--the grand gesturing of "Mandela Day", for example, may well sound monumentally sincere and overwrought but it consists of a measly three chords, while the trotting-horse bass-line to "Waterfront" is one note repeated for over four minutes (and that note was "D" if you're interested). Some great pop singles aside--"She's A River", "Alive And Kicking", "Up On The Catwalk" and "Promised You A Miracle", a song cut from the same tartan cloth as early Spandau Ballet--the most interesting thing about Simple Mind's evolution is how they started to get more successful once they'd stopped impersonating Roxy Music only to hit pay dirt with a song which Bryan Ferry didn't have enough time to record, namely Keith Forsey's "Don't You Forget About Me". --Kevin Maidment