Graffiti Soul | |||||
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Studio album by Simple Minds | |||||
Released | 25 May 2009 | ||||
Recorded | August - October 2008 | ||||
Genre | Pop rock | ||||
Length | 42:52 | ||||
Label | The Universal Music Record Label | ||||
Producer | Jez Coad, Simple Minds | ||||
Simple Minds chronology | |||||
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Simple Minds studio albums chronology | |||||
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Professional ratings | |||||
Aggregate scores | |||||
Source | Rating | ||||
Metacritic | (58/100) | ||||
Review scores | |||||
Source | Rating | ||||
Allmusic | |||||
Contactmusic.com | (favourable) | ||||
Mojo | |||||
NME | (5/10) | ||||
PopMatters | (5/10) | ||||
Q | |||||
The Quietus | (favourable) | ||||
Record Collector | |||||
Daily Telegraph | |||||
The Times |
Graffiti Soul is the fifteenth studio album (of original material) by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released on 25 May 2009.
On 31 May 2009, the album entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 10, becoming Simple Minds' first UK top ten album in 14 years, since the release of their 1995 album Good News from the Next World.
In early April 2009, the video for the single 'Rockets' was made available via the band's official website.
During the recording of Graffiti Soul, Jim Kerr stated: «We really are flowing with ideas at the moment and [...] I do feel that we are possibly writing two albums simultaneously at present.» Several tracks were omitted from Graffiti Soul so that the album had more focus. Possible candidates include "Six Degrees Of Separation", "Lotus Effect" and "Shaman".
An e-mail announcement by Simple Minds stated that Graffiti Soul was initially written on location in Rome, Sicily, Antwerp and Glasgow. The band then returned for the first time in almost three decades to Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales, where the group originally recorded their earlier albums Real to Real Cacophony, Empires and Dance and New Gold Dream. The album was mixed in Los Angeles by Bob Clearmountain.
Graffiti Soul is also available as a Vinyl LP and a 2-CD Deluxe edition, both including a second album called Searching for the Lost Boys, actually a covers studio album made up of cover songs of Neil Young, Massive Attack, Magazine, The Stranglers, Thin Lizzy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Call and The Beach Boys.