Simple Minds: Walk Between Worlds review – new-romantic pop on steroids

For 40 years, Glaswegian power-pop purveyors Simple Minds have captured the spirit of the outcast and on their 18th album, they borrow sounds from their 1980s heyday and push them forward with dramatic cinematic soundscapes.

Jacked up and big, it’s new-romantic pop on steroids.

The first half of the album is built for stadium shows, with anthemic choruses and splitting guitar riffs driving songs such as Magic, In Dreams and The Signal and The Noise.

Pumped with pomp, it’s the perfect progression for a band that’s survived the passages of time and the many line-up changes it brings. Vocalist Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill are the band’s two remaining founding members and they get reflective on the second half of the album.

Honouring their hometown's ballroom music venue on Barrowland Star, they muse over their rise to fame and on Sense of Discovery, the melody of their 1985 single Alive and Kicking makes an appearance.

As the album title goes, Simple Minds are celebrating the then and now, reminding us to don't forget about the past but to also move along with the times. simpleminds.com