Review: Simple Minds – Sparkle In The Rain Reissue
By Paul Kirkley | February 27, 2025
Review: Simple Minds – Sparkle In The Rain Reissue ★★★★
A transitional bridge between the ambient art-rock of New Gold Dream and stadium pomp of Once Upon A Time, you can see why, for some purists, Sparkle In The Rain signalled the beginning of the end for Simple Minds’ imperial phase.
Fresh from his work on U2’s War, producer Steve Lillywhite leaned into the extra muscle that new drummer Mel Gaynor had brought to the band, while Derek Forbes’ bass is so powerful – most famously on the concrete-loosening throb of Waterfront – it’s no surprise he burst his thumb open in the studio.
Bombastic? A little, perhaps. But come on: is there a more thrilling opening trilogy in rock than Up On The Catwalk – with its impossibly glamorous, free-associating nonsense about Nastassja Kinski, friends of Kim Philby and 1,000 postcards from Montevideo – Book Of Brilliant Things and Speed Your Love To Me? And Side Two runs out of steam slightly, but a misconceived cover of Lou Reed’s Street Hassle is the only out-and-out dud.
Band In Transition
This 4CD 40th anniversary set (a no-frills unexpanded vinyl version is also available) is basically a repackage of the album’s previous birthday release from 10 years ago, now embellished with new Dolby Atmos mixes from Bob Clearmountain. Along with the remastered album (overseen by Charlie Burchill), there’s a disc of B-sides and extended mixes, a recording of the band’s 1984 homecoming show at Glasgow’s Barrowlands and a BBC Radio One session.
All of which is fine, as far as it goes, but it feels like a missed opportunity not to include the album’s early instrumental demos, which captured the band mid-transformation, minus the crash-wallop. Not that the crash-wallop isn’t magnificent in its own way, you understand.
To order the 40th anniversary of Sparkle In The Rain click here
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