SIMPLE MINDS - Black & White

Sometimes they come back.

Perhaps roused by the proliferation of their imitators and by the revival wind now blowing everywhere, the brontosaurs of British wave-pop lift their heads again, putting a few recent missteps behind them and trying to land the right blow to get back in the game.

Duran Duran, New Order, Tears For Fears, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode: some with a grand show of resources, some almost in secret, all of them, with varying fortunes, chasing the glory that once was.

So, sensing that perhaps their moment had come too, the old Simple Minds went back to dreaming "golden dreams," unleashing a single ("Home") that after decades managed to put them back on the charts, and an album that even prompted some critics to cry miracle resurrection.

It's a shame, though, to snuff out the enthusiasm so soon: the new "Black & White," recorded in Holland and Italy and mixed in Los Angeles, is an album well past its sell-by date. Feet sunk in nostalgia, eyes unable to read the present, let alone the future.

Granted, Jim Kerr is no fool, and after the stumbles of recent albums, he decided to do things properly.

So he brought back to the mixing desk Bob Clearmountain, who had already worked with the band back in the days of the bestseller "Once Upon A Time" and was behind some of the biggest hits by Nile Rodgers, David Bowie and Bryan Ferry. With tangible results: a sound polished to a shine and (all too) powerful, lending the tracks an undeniable veneer of appeal.

But then you dig a little deeper and... there's nothing underneath.

Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, the only survivors of the original lineup, which charted a whole era with the shimmering sounds of their electro-wave (culminating in the 1982 masterpiece "New Gold Dream"), have in truth been in deep crisis since the last decade, ever since (essential) keyboardist Michael MacNeil decided to abandon them to their pompous adult-oriented rock, now light years away from the decadent arty elegance of their early days.

A string of repeated flops ensued, prompting Kerr himself into some harsh self-criticism.

So one has to believe in the old leader's good faith when he claims he wants to prove that "the great heart of Simple Minds is still alive and beating as hard as ever". A shame, then, that such sincere ambitions aren't backed up by the facts.

We mentioned the single "Home", which did go down well with audiences, especially in Italy: fairly banal riffs, glossy electronic trimmings and Kerr's booming voice now softened by age (not unlike a reassuring version of Wayne Hussey) assemble a smug electro-rock, fine for standard FM playlists, less so for striking at the heart.

Cut from the same cloth is the overture of "Stay Visible", which opens with the cadences of an atmospheric ballad and a few promising melodic openings, before bogging down in that overloaded guitar sound that has polluted the band's output ever since "Once Upon A Time".

And if Burchill has by now lost his guitar's magic touch, Kerr hasn't lost the habit of aping Bono's emphatic baritone: "Stranger" is here to remind us of it, with its anthemic pretensions, drowned in a stale chorus and a simply appalling final "sha-la-la-la" sing-along.

The sound wants to come across as energetic, but mostly turns out bloated, as in the inconclusive ballad of the title track (about the Holocaust) or in "Different World (Taormina.Me)", a tribute to their Sicilian "adopted homeland", held together more by the interplay of bass and drums than by the overflowing synth layers.

Better, if anything, are the more ethereal, rarefied moments, where the band's old melodic talent flashes through now and again: above all "Underneath The Ice", with a sharper Kerr declaiming over an evocative keyboard arabesque and a biting central solo from Burchill, and the closing "Dolphins", lost amid electronic flutterings and soft tones.

But it's just a flicker in the desert.

Nor does the new version of "The Jeweller" help matters, a track originally included on "Our Secret Are The Same", the ghost album never officially released and only resurfacing in 2004 as part of the retrospective box set "Silver Box".

"White & Black" may well boost the Scottish band's commercial standing, but it leaves the bitter taste of a great opportunity missed.

Hats off to the history of Simple Minds, which began twenty-six years ago in Glasgow to the sound of "Life In A Day", but Kerr and co. have by now become the "Jurassic Park" of new wave.

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26/10/2009