Sons and Fascination Sister Feelings Call

Overview

Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call were two separate albums. They were assembled from the same sessions and released at the same time and, in some instances, sold as a double-LP set. The two releases are variously categorised as a double album, two single albums or a single album and an extended play. The current CD remaster contains all the tracks once split onto two LPs, with their respective track running orders preserved. The original 1986 CD reissue deleted two songs from Sister Feelings Call, as the maximum running time of redbook CD releases at the time would not accommodate the entire set, and Virgin were unwilling to issue the material as a two-CD set.

Recording

The sessions are the last to have the same line-up as all its predecessors. Drummer Brian McGee left just after recording the set, and was replaced by Kenny Hyslop as part-time member for the upcoming tour. Hyslop also appeared in the "Sweat in Bullet" and "Love Song" videos.

Having ended their contract with Arista the sessions were the first recordings the band made for Virgin Records. They worked with producer Steve Hillage, who was a guitarist in the progressive rock band Gong. One thing Hillage and Simple Minds had in common was a love of krautrock music. The band's previous three albums were produced by John Leckie.

The rhythm section was made more prominent than on any earlier album of the band, loud, heavy and sometimes anchoring a track to one or two driving rhythm patterns, but also often put at moving angles with some of the other instruments or with Kerr's vocals (as in "The American" or "Sweat in Bullet"); this gave the songs a spatial, multi-planed and atmospheric sound, whilst keeping up propulsion.

"Boys from Brazil" is inspired by the novel, as Kerr has said in interviews. The line "babies cannot manage crocodiles" is likely inspired by the Lewis Carroll logic puzzle: "All babies are illogical / Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile / Illogical persons are despised".

Releases

Viewed as vinyl LPs, Sons and Fascination is the fourth Simple Minds album, released in 1981, with Sister Feelings Call the fifth. The two were released simultaneously, Sons and Fascination being the main feature, and Sister Feelings Call included as a bonus disc with the first 10,000 copies of the original release. It reached number eleven on the UK Albums Chart, number thirty-one on the Australian Kent Music Report chart, number 7 on the New Zealand RIANZ chart and number four the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart. Since 1981 the album has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry.

The restructured Canadian version of the Sons and Fascination album (expanded to ten tracks, six of the eight on the UK release and a further four taken from Sister Feelings Call, there shortened to five tracks on the vinyl release and six tracks on cassette) had a significantly different running order, beginning with "Love Song".

Upon its first CD release in mid-1980s Sons and Fascination came with tracks from Sister Feelings Call added directly after the main set, so that the CD played as a single long album. Due to technical limitations, the disc's running length having to fit within 74 minutes, two tracks from Sister Feelings Call, "League of Nations" and "Sound in 70 Cities" (an instrumental version of Sons and Fascination's "70 Cities as Love Brings the Fall") were dropped. However they appeared on the CD single of the 12-inch cut of "The American" and would re-appear in album form in 2002 and 2003 when remasters of the double set were issued under the title Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call.

In 2012 Virgin Records released the X5 CD box set containing the band's first five albums, each containing extra tracks. This could be considered to contain the definitive version of the album(s), collecting all the tracks spread across the various releases to date.

Singles

"The American", "Love Song" and "Sweat in Bullet" were released as singles. "The American" preceded the album and became the group's first charting single in the UK since "Life in a Day" in 1979 reaching number 59.

"Love Song" followed and charted slightly higher at No. 47 in the UK. "Love Song" proved to be the first breakout hit for the group charting across several countries. It was a Top 20 hit in Sweden and Australia. It reached number 46 on the Canadian RPM National Top 50 Albums Chart on 6 February 1982 and remained on the chart for four weeks.

"Sweat in Bullet" was remixed for single release by Peter Walsh. The single reached number 52 in the UK, number 47 in New Zealand and number 17 in Sweden. Walsh went on to produce the band's following album New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) in 1982.

Critical reception

The listeners of Toronto-area alternative radio station CFNY-FM voted the album the best of 1981 (in a tie with King Crimson's Discipline); the follow-up New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) would top the following year's list. In The Essential Rock Discography (2006), Martin C. Strong rated Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call highly and wrote: "Simple Minds were beginning to find their niche, incorporating their artier tendencies into more conventional and melodic song structures." The album was ranked by Sounds as the 18th best album of 1981. The album's legacy was further strengthened in retrospective critic listings; a 2007 issue of Mojo magazine listed Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call as one of the 80 greatest albums of the 1980s, while The Guardian newspaper selected the record as one of the "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die", writing, "Before they descended into epic pomp-rock bluster, Simple Minds were purveyors of supremely romantic, slyly futuristic synthpop. Sons and Fascination found them cannily mining a seam of mesmerising, shimmering art-rock, while tracks like 'Love Song' were so gorgeously lustrous that you could even forgive them their future."

Track listing

All lyrics written by J. Kerr; all music composed by Simple Minds.

Sister Feelings Call

All lyrics written by J. Kerr; all music composed by Simple Minds.

Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call

The 2002 remastered reissue includes all titles from both albums. It was also released in heavy duty gatefold picture card sleeve with black inner sleeve. The original 1986 CD omits "League of Nations" and "Sound in 70 Cities" due to space constraints.

All lyrics written by J. Kerr; all music composed by Simple Minds.

Personnel

Additional personnel