Simple Minds - Acoustic album review

Jim Kerr’s former electro-poppers (un)plugging away

Simple Minds Acoustic album cover

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Enjoying a revival thanks to the well-planned promotion of their back catalogue – which has ensured that Simple Minds are now as remembered for their cool early-80s output as they are for their late-80s pomp – the band continue to ring the changes with compilations, albums of covers and, after all these years, an acoustic set.

The thrillingly named Acoustic is a strange album, seeking as it does to homogenise the Minds’ ever-changing sound, lending a weird Celtic tinge to material as diverse as The American and Sanctify Yourself, while KT Tunstall guests on Promised You A Miracle.

Acoustic is a consistent collection that works best when the songs are strongest, and it’s movingly effective on the final track, a cover of Richard Hawley’s Long Black Train.

David Quantick

David Quantick is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former staff writer for the music magazine NME, his writing credits have included On the HourBlue JamTV Burp and Veep; for the latter of these he won an Emmy in 2015.