By Macaroon 10th May 2020.
An influential album of ours. Personally at a push the best album of all, it certainly has a dream to it. One of those albums you can lose yourself in.
I’ve heard it said to be the last decent Simple Minds album. New Gold Dream (or New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84 if you’re being pedantic) if so, that is interesting, because while you can already see the traits that soon made the band unbearable – overblown melodies, a yearning for pop success, the essential absurdity of Jim Kerr – on this occasion the result is transcendent beauty.
The equal best on the album with Someone, Somewhere in Summertime. As well as deeply cryptic lyrics, both songs are underpinned by the band’s then-trademark metronomic-yet-fluid rhythm.
The tracks, New Gold Dream; Someone Somewhere in Summertime; Big Sleep and Hunter and the Hunted are anthems to a generation.
For myself it also means Celtic in the eighties, I’ve always found that hard to explain. We know where the groups allegiances lie and I take references to Glasgow’s east end in a lot of the tracks. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind us saying it’s an ‘80s Celtic theme tune album. Celtic, music and threads all tie in together for us.
Holywell Street 