Simple Minds have announced a new album, Direction of the Heart (out 21/10/22 and featuring Sparks’ Russell Mael) on the back of their incredibly successful effort Walk Between Worlds which was universally praised and went on to become the bands most successful album of the last twenty years. So, forgive us for our excitement at the prospect of more new material. Simple Minds are Jim Kerr (vocals), Charlie Burchill (guitars, keyboards), Gordy Goudie (acoustic guitar), Ged Grimes (bass), Cherisse Osei (drums), Berenice Scott (keyboards) and Sarah Brown (vocals). Over the past 10 years Simple Minds have rekindled the magic that made them a vital artistic force in their early days, found themselves referenced by younger artists and playing to tens of thousands of people every year, all across the world.
Last month the band released single Vision Thing and it maintains the bands’ high standard. Vision Thing is a euphoric song, brimming with pounding drums, synth washes, and the iconic guitar work of Charlie Burchill. The music, composed by Burchill, is paired with frontman Jim Kerr’s lyrics which are said to be a tribute to his late father who passed away in 2019.
The track opens the new album and is sure to set the pace and whet the appetite for what is to come. Direction of the Heart is a concise nine track album, that manages to get to the heart of the band, whose reascent over the last decade has been cause for the same type of critical praise they received during their, I hesitate to say this, pomp – perhaps early days is more fitting.
Most of Direction Of The Heart’s tracks were created and demoed in Sicily, where both Kerr and Burchill live. Unable to come to the UK because of quarantine rules, the album was recorded at Hamburg’s Chameleon Studios. Here they produced the album (later enlisting Andy Wright ((Massive Attack, Echo & The Bunnymen)) and Gavin Goldberg ((Simply Red, KT Tunstall)) for additional production). Band members, bassist Ged Grimes (who co-wrote two of the new songs, ‘First You Jump’ and ‘Solstice Kiss’), drummer Cherisse Osei and vocalist Sarah Brown joined them on some of the tracks, recording their parts separately in London. Album guests, Sparks’ frontman Russell Mael (‘Human Traffic’) and songwriter and former Grimes music partner from Danny Wilson, Gary Clark (‘Vision Thing’, ‘First You Jump’ and ‘Natural’), recorded their respective parts in home studios.
All of this disparate work is belied by an album which sounds like a cohesive record – one of the most exciting and invigorating of Simple Minds career to date.
Jim Kerr on Direction Of The Heart: “How to make a feel-good ‘electro-rock’ record, during the very worst of times? Direction Of The Heart is the result of that challenge. Who would have thought we’d have so much fun creating it?”
You can catch Simple Minds on tour this summer.
Image Credit: Dean Chalkley
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