Everything Is POLLable - Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) poll

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Best Simple Minds Single, 1979-1986
Simple Minds singles poll

Best Simple Minds Album

Poll Results

OptionVotes
6. "New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)" 5:39 14
3. "Promised You a Miracle" 4:28 7
1. "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" 4:36 5
4. "Big Sleep" 5:00 4
8. "Hunter and the Hunted" 5:55 4
5. "Somebody Up There Likes You" 5:02 3
7. "Glittering Prize" 4:33 2
2. "Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel" 3:49 1
9. "King is White and in the Crowd" 7:00 1


Bee OK, Thursday, 22 May 2025 02:30 (six months ago)

alive and kicking

mookieproof, Thursday, 22 May 2025 02:31 (six months ago)

...oooh this one is hard. (It doesn't help that much like Music for the Masses, boy does that album start off big.)

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 May 2025 02:31 (six months ago)

KROQ top 50 1982:
39. Promised You a Miracle

DNP in ILM's Songs or Albums 80s polls.

Acclaimed Music:
16. Album

77. Promised You a Miracle
120. Someone Somewhere in Summertime

Bee OK, Thursday, 22 May 2025 02:35 (six months ago)

so do we choose on the strength of the song or Derek Forbes' bass line?

Paul, Thursday, 22 May 2025 02:54 (six months ago)

Derek Forbes of course.

Bee OK, Thursday, 22 May 2025 03:16 (six months ago)

everything is possible

brimstead, Thursday, 22 May 2025 03:17 (six months ago)

This one was originally in the pole position but then I found out that Depeche album was not done and quickly changed the tune.

Bee OK, Thursday, 22 May 2025 03:41 (six months ago)

Voting the title track. I've never fully come around to this album despite some great highs -- I lose interest at "Glittering Prize" and the remaining tracks don't do enough to pull me back.

The instrumental here is better than "Theme for Great Cities".

visiting, Thursday, 22 May 2025 03:56 (six months ago)

I don't know about that, but I do love it and voted for it.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 22 May 2025 07:25 (six months ago)

Yes, it's the title track. "Glittering Prize" has the best bassline though.

Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Thursday, 22 May 2025 07:34 (six months ago)

Very much impossible to dissect - one of those albums where the sum is greater than its parts.
My default answer is probably Hunter and the Hunted - as deep in the dream as it gets, and the solo is otherwordly. Otherwise the opener or title track.

Naledi, Thursday, 22 May 2025 08:29 (six months ago)

Somebody Up There Likes You

pfutt, Thursday, 22 May 2025 08:44 (six months ago)

wow the last two tracks are stunning imo, def not a trail off imo

brimstead, Thursday, 22 May 2025 14:45 (six months ago)

A third of this album consists of overtones --- but what overtones. I've said for years that the title track is New Pop's most beautiful, triumphant moment: it sounds like the sun coming up on a beautiful mild day.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 May 2025 14:58 (six months ago)

Title track all the way

the_article_don (Iain Macdonald), Thursday, 22 May 2025 15:47 (six months ago)

Title track all the way

the_article_don (Iain Macdonald), Thursday, 22 May 2025 15:47 (six months ago)

Title track all the way

the_article_don (Iain Macdonald), Thursday, 22 May 2025 15:47 (six months ago)

yes title track,
love the utah saints and u.s.u.r.a. versions too

nxd, Thursday, 22 May 2025 15:53 (six months ago)

Utah Saints my intro.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 May 2025 15:55 (six months ago)

really good album. definitive new wave imo; if you like that scene or this band, you'll like this one! having a hard time picking a favorite. will need to revisit before committing, but on account of being made of cheese myself, i'm thinking either "promised you a miracle" or "someone somewhere in summertime."

(+the 12"/extended/showcase mix of that one is something every fan of this record needs to hear. we like that buildup a lot hbu?)

"Don't ask me, I just work here." (Austin), Thursday, 22 May 2025 17:54 (six months ago)

oh... my goodness! have just learned of the gargantuan super deluxe box set of the album. the alternate mixes are all there, but so are the radio sessions from the time. also there's a second take of herbie hancock's solo. neat!

"Don't ask me, I just work here." (Austin), Thursday, 22 May 2025 19:36 (six months ago)

how have I been listening to this album for 20 years without realizing Herbie Hancock has a solo on it?

c u (crüt), Thursday, 22 May 2025 19:47 (six months ago)

haha same

hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 May 2025 19:48 (six months ago)

lol herbie hancock doesn't know he has a solo on it.

visiting, Thursday, 22 May 2025 19:58 (six months ago)

(iirc the guy who wrote a book on SM took a copy of NGD to a Hancock signing and he didn't know what it was.)

visiting, Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:02 (six months ago)

well i mean, it is kind of a lore thing. i don't actually believe the solo exists myself, despite having the aural evidence.

"Don't ask me, I just work here." (Austin), Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:03 (six months ago)

Can't not vote for '...Miracle'

nashwan, Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:06 (six months ago)

Yeah. I love this album and all its singles, but "Miracle" is the one that most often pops unbidden into my head.

I bought this early in my record-buying days and was amazed when I got home to find it had gold vinyl with purple accents. I'd never seen anything like it. (I do not still have that copy, sadly.)

paper plans (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:30 (six months ago)

Promised You A Miracle feels like it's cut from the same cloth as the Associates 'Party Fears Two' which came out just two months before it

Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:38 (six months ago)

Totally. Or something by ABC.

visiting, Thursday, 22 May 2025 20:45 (six months ago)

I’m gonna contrastan for “King is White and in the Crowd”

Tim F, Thursday, 22 May 2025 21:39 (six months ago)

hmm, one of the best albums ever. those long notes in "Big Sleep" going off in my head right now, so that.

moral ziosk (geoffreyess), Thursday, 22 May 2025 21:51 (six months ago)

This album is phenomenal, but the 12"s* of my two favourite songs - Someone Somewhere and New Gold Dream - clearly top the album versions imo. a la The Perfect Kiss and Elegia.

*the German 12" in the case of NGD, opening right away with Forbes/fanfare

you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 22 May 2025 21:59 (six months ago)

The extended German version of the title track is an epic.

hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 May 2025 22:38 (six months ago)

Perfect album. That German 12" of NGD could last for hours and I wouldn't notice.

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 23 May 2025 04:41 (six months ago)

Simple Minds played here in Los Angeles last night and I had no idea. Devine intervention with the timing of this poll I say.

I don’t think I really appreciated them back in the day but did see them live around 1990 or so. They played at Universal Studios Hollywood at a place that was up a hill. I remember it rained that night and so when they played "come in come out of the rain" it was perfect and lit the place up. That Amphitheater is no longer there. KROQ used to host acoustic Christmas there all the time.

Bee OK, Friday, 23 May 2025 18:34 (six months ago)

Material Issue opened up that show IIRC.

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 23 May 2025 19:44 (six months ago)

That is correct, as I looked it up. Don't know the band, are they worth seeking out? Not sure we made it in time to see the opener.

Always thought that hill at Universal was ridiculous, where I'm remembering it now. Only saw a handful of shows there.

Bee OK, Saturday, 24 May 2025 03:04 (six months ago)

The title track is incredible, but "Big Sleep" reaches transcendence just by force of will, like Jim Kerr hypnotizing himself into a higher state of awareness out of nothing.

A review I read ages ago suggested that this is the record that the fans of the early era and the later era can both agree on.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 24 May 2025 03:28 (six months ago)

The instrumental here is better than "Theme for Great Cities".

Wouldn't go that far, but it's startling how much it achieves despite being basically static.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 24 May 2025 03:29 (six months ago)

I thought more about how "Big Sleep" works. The refrain is a six-bar pattern of IV - iii - V chords, which keeps the music from ever settling either harmonically or rhythmically - in the coda, it never resolves to the tonic major or relative minor, and you expect a four or eight-bar pattern instead of an asymmetrical six. So like the lyrics, it keeps spinning round "forevermore".

Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 25 May 2025 16:13 (six months ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 26 May 2025 00:01 (six months ago)

Derek Forbes slap bass on 'Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel" and "Somebody Up There Likes You" is outerworldly. Voting "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" again because of that bass.

the future is now, Monday, 26 May 2025 03:26 (six months ago)

S S S !!

completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 26 May 2025 05:35 (six months ago)

For what it's worth, and you could make a strong case for any of these tracks, I went for Hunter and the Hunted, which seemed to encapsulate what I loved about them at the time - the mystery, the weirdness in a pop music setting.

giraffe, Monday, 26 May 2025 09:41 (six months ago)

I love how the busy guitar figure in the verses is sort of buried in the mix, side effect of cruising at the speed of light

brimstead, Monday, 26 May 2025 15:24 (six months ago)

that, plus living in temptation. Heady times for guitar figures

giraffe, Monday, 26 May 2025 18:38 (six months ago)

Hard not to vote for either "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" or "Promised You a Miracle." The "Big Sleep" in the end got my vote. Loved spending time with this album and have new found respect for the bassist.

Bee OK, Monday, 26 May 2025 20:30 (six months ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 00:01 (six months ago)

And the beat goes CRASHING

brimstead, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 02:29 (six months ago)

Always a key indicator of greatness when every song on an album gets a vote!

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 03:02 (six months ago)

Love to see the title track take it, it's such a magnificent song. Thought one of the singles would win (though I see "New Gold Dream" was a single in Italy)

Vinnie, Wednesday, 28 May 2025 00:09 (six months ago)

My assumption as a very very casual fan was that NGD was the big single from this, since it’s such a clear standout.

Doctor Madame Frances Experimento, LLC", Wednesday, 28 May 2025 18:35 (six months ago)

Can't hear what others hear in NGD.
But I would gladly do a Street Fighting Years poll.

Max Florian, Wednesday, 28 May 2025 22:13 (six months ago)

Do it! Would love to keep listening to them.

Bee OK, Thursday, 29 May 2025 00:01 (six months ago)


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