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Simple Minds released three singles from New Gold Dream: “Promised You a Miracle” (#13 UK, their first single to chart, it went to #65 on the US dance chart), “Glittering Prize” (#16 UK), and the album opener “Someone Somewhere in Summertime” (#36 UK). I also really like the glistening, danceable title track “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)” the dreamy pop of “Big Sleep,” and “Hunter and the Hunted” which is notable for having Herbie Hancock on synths.

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The soundtrack, though…not that great. John Hughes’ film Pretty in Pink from 1986 had an amazing soundtrack – one of the best, actually – but with the exception of the hit single by Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me” (released on Feb. 20th, 1985) and, to a much lesser degree, Wang Chung’s “Fire In the Twilight,” the rest of the album is totally forgettable. (I do kinda like Karla DeVito’s “We Are Not Alone” mainly because of the sequence that it plays over during the film). “Don’t You Forget About Me” plays during one of the most iconic moments in 80′s film history at the end of the film (Bender fist-pumping the air) and almost 35 years later the track still gives me all the feels. The song was offered by writers Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff (Nina Hagen band) to many other bands after Simple Minds initially declined to record it. Finally, after pressure from Jim Kerr’s wife Chrissie Hynde, Simple Minds agreed and it ended up being their biggest hit ever going to #1 in the US and #7 in the UK.

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Empires and Dance hit #41 in the UK with two released singles: the opening track “I Travel” which is a spectacular dance track and “Celebrate” which was released after the band left Arista Records for Virgin and, without much motivation for promotion, Arista did little to promote sales so it did very poorly. Both singles failed to chart. Allmusic says about Empires and Dance “Hardly content with fumbling around with the same sound, Simple Minds shifted gears once again for album number three, Empires and Dance. The “dance” aspect of the title needs to be emphasized, but it’s apparent that the group’s globetrotting and simmering political tensions in Britain affected their material in more ways than one. One gets the idea that Simple Minds did some clubbing and also experienced some disparate views of the world. The opening “I Travel” is the most assaultive song in the band’s catalog, sounding like a Giorgio Moroder production for Roxy Music. Think “I Feel Love” crossed with “Editions of You,” only faster; gurgling electronics, a hyperkinetic 4/4 beat, and careening guitars zip by as Jim Kerr delivers elliptical lyrics about unstable world affairs with his throaty yelping (this was still before he developed that predilection for foghorn bombast). The remainder of the album repeals the blitzkrieg frenetics of the beginning and hones in on skeletal arrangements that focus on thick basslines and the loping rhythms that they help frame. The hopping/skipping “Celebrate” isn’t much more than a series of handclaps, a light drum stomp, some intermittent bass notes, and some non-intrusive synth effects. It goes absolutely nowhere, yet it’s more effective and infectious than most verse-chorus-verse pop songs. The seven minutes of “This Fear of Gods,” which boast another dense rhythm abetted by trebly atmospheric elements (distant guitars, percolating electronics, sickly wind instruments), come off like an excellent 12″ dub, rather than an original mix. Just as bracing, the paranoiac disco of “Thirty Frames a Second” should have been played regularly at every club in 1980 and should live on as a post-punk dance classic. It’s a true shock that this record was released with reluctance. The band coerced an unimpressed Arista into pressing a minimal amount of copies for release (fans still had trouble locating copies), but thankfully Virgin reissued it in 1982.”

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