SIMPLE MINDS

As the music became more expressive, so did Kerr's lyrics. The titles - '70 Cities as Love Brings the Fall,' 'In Trance as Mission,' 'Careful in Career' - indicated the way in which he was now working. Lyrics had lost any narrative function and, more than ever before, the accent was on conveying moods. 'One line can be the image of a song and the rest can be padding,' Jim explained to Sounds. 'If it came to a lyric sheet, I'd now rather take a line from each song. I think you'd get more of a focus. Of course the lyrics are very important but in terms of value and that, I wouldn't care if no one at all paid any attention. They're all pictures in themselves, every line's a different picture. It's the atmosphere of words. It could be for the sound, or it could be for the meaning, or for the image of the word. They deal with a lot of images and ambiguities.'

From the funk groove of 'Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel' to the yearningly anthemic 'Someone Somewhere in Summertime,' Simple Minds created an album that was little short of majestic. Yet the pomposity, which is usually so vital an ingredient if an album is to be labelled 'classic', was absent. Simple Minds' feet remained planted firmly on the ground. Their hopes may have been high, but their expectations were not. When Charlie described 'New Gold Dream' as being an album jammed full of classics; the immodesty in his words reflected a calm sense of genuine achievement.

The album's key was alienation. In 'Calling Your Name,' Jim sang of the frustration of trying to get out of Glasgow, while 'Veldt' was swamped in the sounds of the jungle, conjuring up pictures of darkness and primitivism. There was a tune, barely, but it wasn't one you'd want to whistle.