Simple Minds – Queen City Sounds and Art

The New Division, photo courtesy the artist

The New Division’s synth pop single “Lust For Lies” and the rippling neon color outlines in the music video will trigger memories of another era for many listeners/viewers. The rhythm has the immediacy of Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice Theme” with the blend of rock instruments and rich synths of that song and the sweeping grandeur, energy and melodic layering of Simple Minds’ “New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)” as it was used to contrast with the decadence of the scenes in the opening sequence of the 2008 film The Informers. And the song itself resonates with some of the themes of that film and how we can get stuck in a cycle of habits that feel like empty rituals that we may not truly enjoy anymore but find ourselves drawn back into out of an ingrained instinct of joys once had. It is an effective pairing of ennui and lushly entrancing soundscapes that suggest that awareness is key to breaking out of a rut. Watch the video for “Lust For Lies” on YouTube and follow The New Division at the links provided.

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“Get Your Mind Right” and its underlying hints of bass with drifty melodies floating over the top sound like something that might have been on the soundtrack of a 1980s thriller. When the vocals come in one can all but envision the Miami Vice-esque fashion coupled with a dusky mood, the song hitting the same thoughtful emotional resonance of a more brooding but equally epic mid-1980s Simple Minds. But the theme of the song about getting your head together and on the path of pursuing habits leading to positive outcomes after a period of maybe straying from the path you know is right for you because life has jostled your instinctive trajectories into survival mode for long enough that perhaps you adopted a new normal that having the time to mull these things over reveals was a diminished state of things you came to accept because it made sense for a time but now no longer serves you. The song is definitely a mood piece and despite its retro style it’s absolutely of the moment when we’ve all had to reassess and come to terms with what we’ve accepted to merely get by. Listen to “Get Your Mind Right” on YouTube and follow 100DAYS at the links below.