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From the debut of "Life In A Day" (1979) through to the mid-Eighties, Simple Minds were one of the most creative and experimental outposts of British new wave. From the worldwide success of "Don't You" onward, they opted instead for a more arena-ready, mainstream brand of pop-rock, though they still landed a few good shots here and there, through a prolific career that continues to this day. We had some fun picking our 20 favourite songs by the band led by Jim Kerr. Here they are.

20. Don’t You (Forget About Me)

Yes, some will read it the wrong way round, but for this writer the biggest hit by Jim Kerr and co. sits at the bottom, not the top, of this ideal top 20. It certainly works, with its arena-ready refrain and driving rhythm, but the bestselling single recorded for the "Breakfast Club" soundtrack also marks the first — and definitive — surrender of Simple Minds to chart-friendly anthem rock, at the expense of the murky, sinuous new wave that had won us over up to that point. And as if in some Faustian pact with the devil, from that hit onward the band would lose their identity, gradually getting crushed in the machinery of stardom. The paradox is that "Don't You" wasn't even written by Simple Minds themselves, but by the duo Steve Schiff and Keith Forsey...

19. I Wish You Were Here

Speaking of bestsellers, even the album behind their massive worldwide success, "Once Upon A Time" — which alone would outsell all its (magnificent) predecessors combined — doesn't make our list of the high points in the Minds' discography. The sound grows more bombastic and pompous, the keyboards lose their edge in a glossy, markedly mainstream (over)production. And just as with U2 from "Rattle & Hum" onward, the process of "Americanization" does Kerr & co. no favours, as they abandon their electro-wave roots to chase a less innovative, more conventional sound. But there are a few welcome exceptions, especially among the lesser-known and less flashy tracks, like this melancholy electro-rock ballad that distills the best of Simple Minds' spleen within a polished but never tacky sonic frame.

18. Midnight Walking

Tucked away in the back half of our playlist, this track represents the most recent (and declining) phase of the Scottish band's arc, taken from the more-than-respectable “Big Music” (2014). After a string of misfires, Kerr and co. manage to stitch together a synthesis of the feverish sound of their early days and the more bombastic one of “Once Upon A Time”. A dense, layered blend, spiced here and there with a renewed spark of songwriting, as on this mighty synth-driven charge that follows in the groove-tracks of the Golden Dream.

17. Speed Your Love To Me

Sitting almost halfway between the raw youthful energy of the early days and the rounder, sturdier sound of maturity, here's one of the flashes of lightning amid the downpour of “Sparkle In The Rain”. The album doesn't quite match the astonishing consistency of its predecessor, “New Gold Dream“, but Kerr's desperate invocation seals one of the most gripping choruses in the Scottish band's whole saga, propped up by a whirl of percussion and shimmering keyboards. Its sweeping energy would also turn it into a live staple.

16. Love Song

And here, instead, is the pulsing, irresistible electronics of Simple Minds at their best, the band of that fateful first run of five albums (recently celebrated on tour too). On this second single lifted from the album “Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call”, Kerr manages to plant a sticky chorus inside a whirlwind of guitars, keyboards and possessed rhythms, marrying the art-rock streak of their early years with the more accessible funky-dance grooves already sketched out on “Empires And Dance”. The love in the title isn't dedicated to a girl, but to the bond between Europe and America: “A relationship that has lasted through the centuries, through good times and bad”, as Kerr put it. It would also become the first Simple Minds single to crack the UK Top 50 (albeit only at No. 47).

15. Reel To Real

Dark, chilling. This is the manifesto track of the sophomore effort “Reel To Real Cacophony” (1979), the album branded with a stark monochrome black cover, veering toward a thornier, more menacing sound à-la Wire, earning itself the reputation of “the least commercial album Arista ever released”. With one foot planted in 70s art rock and an eye on some hypothetical techno future, Simple Minds forge a relentless “cacophony” driven by ceaseless gusts of synth and an unforgiving rhythm section, hinting at the path they would follow in the years to come.

14. Glittering Prize

The first jewel from the 24-carat golden coffer of “New Gold Dream” is the second single lifted from the album, which would also prove a solid hit (No. 16 on the UK chart) and lend its title to a Simple Minds greatest-hits collection released in 1992, confirming just how “representative” it is. Alongside the ever-present Kerr, the spotlight falls on Derek Forbes, with the gorgeous bass riff that carries the entire song, and an ever-bouncy Mick MacNeil, whose keyboards make room in the chorus for Charlie Burchill's guitar embroidery. A true team effort.

13. This Earth That You Walk Upon

One of the true gems from the 1981 "Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call" pairing. Almost entirely instrumental, the track has a solemn stride, shaped by glittering keyboard riffs and a deeply murky bass line underpinning the chant-like delivery of an almost prophetic Kerr, who menacingly asks himself: “What’s your name/ What’s your nation/ Sense of order/ Sense of speed”. Also precious are the scrapes of Burchill's metallic guitar, which slash through the track's electronic haze with striking wave-inflected flourishes.

12. Destiny

And here instead is the overwhelming sound of the 1979 debut "Life In A Day", still oddly underrated even by the Scottish band's own fans. An opening riff that's already a triumph. Languid, futuristic atmospheres of an almost Ultravox-like stripe. Jim Kerr's despondent vocal declaiming "I don't want this destiny", punctuated by McNeill's keyboard flourishes. Placed tenth in the tracklist, this sinuous synth-wave chant gives us one of the most intense moments of the whole record, revealing the most delicate and melancholy side of the Scottish band. Admittedly not the side that would be developed much further down the line. But that's fine as it is.

11. Celebrate

"Hypnotic" is instead one of the adjectives that best fits Jim Kerr and co.'s magical early run of five albums. And this single, taken from 1980's "Empires And Dance", is an eloquent demonstration of that, with its pulsing rhythm, its powerful bass tones and Kerr's gloomy voice up front. It has a more linear structure than other tracks on the record, but it fully captures the decadent, paranoid mood that runs through its grooves. Almost the other face - the more alienating, decadent one - of the Mitteleuropa celebrated that same year by Ultravox on "Vienna".

10. Life In A Day

The debut, yes, that one again, represented by the track that gives the album its title and its musical starting point. In other words, a shadow of the glorious (post-)punk that once was, buried under massive layers of synths of Teutonic descent (Kraftwerk, Neu!) but filtered through the lesson of the inevitable Berlin-era Bowie Bowie. From the former, Simple Minds mainly borrow the pulsing, obsessive sonorities; from the latter, the decadent spleen and extraordinary melodic gift, which here Kerr's aching vocal seals with simplicity, amid McNeill's evocative keyboard flourishes and the taut lines of Burchill's razor-sharp guitar.

9. Theme For Great Cities

Son(g)s and fascination. Simple Minds know their way around an instrumental. Proof of that is what remains one of their best-known and most celebrated: the theme dedicated to all the great cities of the world. Nearly six minutes of shimmering electronics, unspooling in a convulsive, frenetic way over enveloping layers of keyboards, along a path traced by a deeply murky bass line, right up to that radiant burst of the synth riff that serves as its chorus. So beautiful it recalls the finest moments of the man who perhaps, more than anyone, knew how to shape electronics into spectacular pop melodies: Jean-Michel Jarre.

8. Factory

Speaking of melodies, who says they can't coexist with cacophony? Simple Minds built an entire album to dismantle that cliché and named it, fittingly, "Reel To Real Cacophony". Even on what's been called "the least commercial album Arista ever released," a melodic gem like this one manages to shine, with Kerr's anguished, evocative vocals hitting their most poignant notes to tell of oppressive factories and alienating "imitation of life" to flee at full speed. Trivia: the lyrics actually include the phrase "glittering prize," which would go on to title their famous 1982 single of the same name.

7. New Gold Dream

And here we are at the eternal 1982 masterpiece. With Mel Gaynor replacing Brian McGee behind the drums (though various session players would rotate through the recordings), the band unleashes an even more powerful, majestic sound, in which the dialogue between the drums and Forbes' bass counts for almost as much as McNeil's magnificent keyboard arabesques, Burchill's exquisite effects-laden guitar work, and Kerr's epic vocals. The title track is the album's manifesto song. It opens with the tightly coiled pulse of the bass over the keyboard riff, and from there it's a glorious gallop, with an epic Kerr hailing the golden dream of those early '80s.

6. Big Sleep

But even more evocative is this other track from the dream-album, built on the interplay of a simple keyboard riff and a fine slapped-bass line, over which the guitar's rain of notes settles like magic dust, while the drums hammer relentlessly on the quarter notes: one of the finest examples of hypnotic songcraft produced by new wave. An adjective that, once again, fits the Scottish band's sound perfectly, at the peak of their inspiration and chemistry.

5. This Fear Of Gods

Perhaps Simple Minds' darkest abyss of all. Seven minutes to live through holding your breath, an unsettling ritual played out amid tinkling bells, martial keyboards, stormy rhythms, acidic guitars and a synthetic sax, with Kerr's vocals almost drowned in reverb as he chants slogans like "Lust lust lust", "Violence and vivisection", "Hero see no hero see no". Shards of terror for a menacing, oppressive religiosity ("I hear a voice and hear no angel") that condenses the whole climate of paranoid alienation typical of '80s new wave. It's the masterpiece of "Empires And Dance", the album with which the Scots won over Peter Gabriel, who would take them along on his European tour.

4. I Travel

"Empires And Dance" is undoubtedly the darkest Simple Minds album. But that doesn't stop it from indulging the almost dance-like pulse that ran through all the Scottish band's early work. The perfect synthesis of this daring combination is the exhilarating single "I Travel", which, behind its disco cadences, conceals meticulous rhythmic craftsmanship, all obsessive percussion, reiterated synth pulses and electronic whirls with a kraut-rock lineage (Neu!, Faust). Kerr adds yet another of his impassioned performances, once again backed by an irresistible chorus that knocks the listener out on first contact.

3. Someone, Somewhere In Summertime

For once, popularity and quality marry perfectly, in one of the Minds' most beloved songs of all. The opening anthem of "New Gold Dream", it rests on a tight rhythmic bed pulsing on the quarter notes, while the guitar riff introduces the verse, which opens onto the characteristic keyboard textures of the era. The song builds, enveloping, all the way to the chorus, with Kerr belting out the slogan that gives the song its title. Dreamy, poignant, irresistible. The endless summer of anyone who will never manage to tear themselves away from the beauty of an entire decade's sound.

2. Up On The Catwalk

The spark under the rain. The flash of creativity that crowns "Sparkle In The Rain" with eternal glory. An unleashed Mick MacNeil chisels out a whirlwind of wonderful riffs on his keyboard, building the backbone of a simply unforgettable track, which is also propped up by Gaynor's stormy drumming and by yet another thoroughbred performance from a histrionic Kerr, who wraps the cryptic, surreal lyrics (“Up on the catwalk/ A big wheel is spinning/ And dollars to Deutchmarks/ And pennies from heaven”) in his mesmerizing vocals. A track that stands majestic - and is often unfairly overlooked, even by compilations - in the Simple Minds discography.

1. Hunter And The Hunted

The masterpiece within the masterpiece. With the cherry on top courtesy of Herbie Hancock, special guest on keyboards. A pulsating, solemn track, steeped in a feeling of nerve-wracking anticipation, which reaches its peak in the astonishing, magical intro to Hancock's keyboard solo. It's in that exact instant that all the golden dreams fueled by the Simple Minds' sound - and perhaps by new wave as a whole - crystallize into notes. The definitive seal on the greatness of "New Gold Dream", as well as the perfect synthesis of that heavily electronic sound with dance temptations that goes by the name of "British Invasion".

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28/12/2025