Simple Minds this week announced plans to release a new album called Walk Between Worlds in February — the band’s first collection of new songs since 2014’s Big Music — and premiere the material at special three-part concerts in the U.K. and Europe following the record’s release.
The eight-song album (a deluxe edition adds two more songs and a live cut) is due out Feb. 2 via BMG, and is produced by Simple Minds with Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg, both of whom worked on Big Music.
According to the band’s announcement of the album, it has two distinct sides, with one featuring songs that “revisit the glassy guitars and new wave dance grooves of the post-punk era” and the other exploring “more cinematic sounds.” The album’s closing track, “Sense of Discovery,” features a refrain that “alludes to 1985’s ‘Alive and Kicking,'” according to the band.
Simple Minds will debut the new material with six special concerts in February. The band — led by Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill — will perform the full album, then sit for a live on-stage interview, before closing it out with a “classic Simple Minds set” that will find the band “further re-imagining and exploring” its catalog.
The band has not announced any North American dates, and it’s not know if it will. Though still a fairly active touring act, Simple Minds have only toured stateside twice since 2002.
Below, check out the album’s tracklist and cover art (and a short trailer), plus current tour dates.
Tracklist: Simple Minds, Walk Between Worlds
1. “Magic”
2. “Summer”
3. “Utopia”
4. “The Signal and The Noise”
5. “In Dreams”
6. “Barrowland Star”
7. “Walk Between Worlds”
8. “Sense Of Discovery”
Deluxe Edition bonus tracks:
1. “Silent Kiss”
2. “Angel Underneath My Skin”
3. “Dirty Old Town” (Live)
Simple Minds tour dates:
Feb. 13: Barrowland; Glasgow, UK
Feb. 14: Albert Hall; Manchester, UK
Feb. 15: Roundhouse; London, UK
Feb. 17: Salle Pleyel, Paris, France
Feb. 18: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
Feb. 19: Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Feb. 20: Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Simple Minds’ ‘Sparkle in the Rain’ to be reissued as hugely expanded 5-disc box set
- Simple Minds to release new album ‘Big Music’ in November, announce big European tour
- Simple Minds complete first new album in 5 years, debut new track ‘Blindfolded’
- Jim Kerr: Simple Minds eyeing return to North America ‘for more shows next summer’
- Jim Kerr to Simple Minds fans: ‘We still need to have a lot more people’ at New York show
- Jim Kerr to Simple Minds’ U.S. fans: Come see us this fall if you ever want us to come back
- Simple Minds announce rare, 7-date North American tour — first in 11 years
Where is Mel Gaynor?
Hi V – as far as I can tell Mel Gaynor (drums) and Andy Gillespie (keys) are, er, “out”, presumably. This is Jim, Charlie, Ged Grimes (bass), Sarah Brown (vox), Catherine Davies (vox/keys), Cherisse Orsei (drums) and Gordy Goudie (guit/keys). The majority of the line-up is from the 2016 “Acoustic” tour. I know, I felt weird about there being no Mel or Andy as well. Mel’s been with them on and off for 30 years. Andy for 15. Just seems odd.
It does although the band has been morphing these past 25 – 30 years.
I read the concert format and that really seems odd. An interview in the middle???? Just seems like such a pretentious momentum killer.
Pretentious momentum killer is a great summary of what I was thinking this was but just lack the wordsmithery at times. Kudos V. I just don’t get it, Big Music seemed to me the culmination of at least a decade of trying to get their groove back after the lean years. B&W, Graffiti Soul…..while good, missed something that they seemed to catch. Big Music seemed more a collection of tracks that were being cooked over a wide period as opposed to how most albums are made with a very detectable mood or feeling throughout but it’s a great collection and an enjoyable “album”. To toss it aside, go acoustic and then just detach from it with this odd “Sly and Family Stone” dynamic doesn’t feel right. I hope they prove me wrong but it feels like another odd and potentially damaging move.
Chris – You took the words out of my mouth. The acoustic period was where I broke with Simple Minds. After nearly 40 years of fandom where the highs were stratospheric and the lows were cataclysmic, I could not see or hear any worth in their acoustic pandering. “Busking” I call it, and it’s fraudulent in the extreme when art rock bands like Simple Minds pursue it since I feel they think it’s “easy money.” I’ve followed them through a decade of what I felt was dire music and eventually got copies of the ’86-’90 albums and keep them to better understand their career, though I actively hate those albums. But I could not extend such charity to their acoustic album. Not when their own marketing contained loaded phrases like “more soulful.” Words which actively make me gag! The fact that this pivot towards banality occurred following their clearly best album in 30+ years was maddening in the extreme. I had watched them gradually release better and better albums for nearly 20 years. The progress was slow, but measurable. “Big Music” sold well, was critically popular, and followed logically on the triumph of their “5×5” period, which was the band’s best move in decades, and to see them chuck it out of the window for seemingly no reason was depressing. So now that I will never have a full Simple Minds collection, the thought occurs to me; why not divest my collection of drivel like “Once Upon A Time,” “Live In The City Of Light,” and “Street Fighting Years?” I only have gains to make by doing so.