Neon Lights

Despite representing the nadir of overblown ’80s stadium rock, Simple Minds have always cited a number of top-drawer acts as influences. Classic songs by David Bowie, The Velvet Underground and Kraftwerk feature on this album of cover versions, which the group claim is an attempt to show that first and foremost they remain ‘fans at heart.’

Which is exactly the sort of clichéd comment that arouses one’s suspicion about this record. From the sleeve – a mock-up of a car front-seat with a hand-written C90 cassette cover nestled in among the discarded chewing gum wrappers – to the production (all the songs are suffocated beneath bland electro embellishments), it reeks of contrivance. In addition, the band’s choice of songs isn’t especially innovative. Van Morrison’s ‘Gloria’ makes approximately its one millionth appearance on such an album, while the decision to include Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ is baffling, since it has come to be almost as powerfully identified with Nirvana as it has with its original author.

The only time the band succeed in throwing an interesting slant on things is on ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’, where Kerr’s burlesque of Neil Young unfolds over an ethereal soundscape that eventually gives way to some uncharacteristically abrasive guitar.

The distinctive, piercing riff of the aforementioned Bowie track manages to distinguish itself from the guff the band have poured on top of it, while the burnt-out melancholy of The Velvets’ ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ withstands Jim Kerr’s typically bombastic vocal delivery. In fact Neon Lights has achieved what it set out to do by a completely opposite route to the one intended. It has proven the durability of these great songs alright, but only by demonstrating the strength of the tunes to emerge unscathed from even the most brutal treatments.