Barefoot Strength

Neon Lights is 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 as David Bowie, Lou Reed, and the Doors. 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 Lights is probably too respectful. 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 on Them's "Gloria" and the Doors "Hello I Love You" are monotonous and misguided. A very interesting revision of Pete Shelley's "Homosapien" and a faithful, powerful reading of the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" are much better.

The Mission - London Shepherds Bush Empire (2008) {5CD Set, Eyes Wide Shut Recordings Limited Edition EWSR 002~006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.45 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 865 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 287 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 Eyes Wide Shut Recordings | EWSR 002~006
Rock / Alternative / Indie Rock / Neo-Psychedelia

The Mission are finally calling it quits and have been doing a "Farewell Tour" of Europe. The tour culminates at London's Shepherds Bush Empire end of february 2008 with four nights in succession, each night promising to deliver an entire performance of one the band's first four albums in turn. There was released 5 discs from this 4 days event, one is a bonus disc. The Mission where playing an exclusive four-show event at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London UK between 27th February and 1st March. Each show sees the band dedicate an entire album (covering the band's first four albums 'First Chapter', God's Own Medicine', 'Children' and 'Carved in Sand') plus favourite tracks from that era for that show.