Neon Lights
Neon Lightsis Simple Minds' covers album. Frankly, these projects often serve little purpose beyond announcing that the artists concerned have run out of original ideas. With the Simple Minds' new album of freshly composed material,Our Secrets Are the Same, now shelved due to legal complications, the Minds have opted to doff their caps in the direction of the heroes of their youth, such asDavid Bowie,Lou Reed, and theDoors. This is the material the band performed when they were scrawny Glaswegian punks called Johnny & the Self-Abusers. The arrangements here are slightly dated techno-rock efforts, albeit without the expansive pomp and bluster of their stadium-straddling 1980s heyday. Even so,Neon Lightsis probablytoorespectful. Many of these numbers--Echo & the Bunnymen's "Bring on the Dancing Horses," Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World"--are identikit presentations, while electro-rock assaults onThem's "Gloria" and the Doors "Hello I Love You" are monotonous and misguided. A very interesting revision ofPete Shelley's "Homosapien" and a faithful, powerful reading of the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" are much better.--Kevin Maidment