Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Today BMG release Simple Minds’ new single, ‘Elysium’.
The second single to be released from Simple Minds‘ forthcoming album “Sacrosanct”, ‘Elysium‘ is named after the paradise of Greek Myth. A rock track blessed with thunderous riffs and hammering drums, the song was in part inspired by the band’s love of Magazine, particularly their 1978 track ‘The Light Pours Out of Me‘. It’s further evidence of what is set to be a career highlight on one of the band’s most confident and succinct albums.
“Over decades of writing songs together, there are moments when Charlie Burchill lets me hear a new piece of music he has been working on in solitude,” says Kerr. “Often the first few bars literally stop me in my tracks. Then, as the music unfolds, I’m left wondering how on earth he has conjured something at once so familiar and yet so alluringly strange.”
“That was the case with the seeds of what would, over time, become ‘Elysium’, the song chosen to open Simple Minds’ forthcoming album, ‘Sacrosanct’. The otherworldly feeling of what I was hearing instantly gave me the freedom to be suitably outlandish as I set about writing lyrics, building images to match the atmosphere of the music.”
You can hear the speed, energy – and, yes, faith in what their band can do – all over “Sacrosanct”. Simple Minds’ 20th record is a taut, tight collection of eight songs that speaks to both the band’s post-punk heritage in the Glasgow that built them, and to their forward-facing hunger to constantly interrogate and expand their craft.
‘Beginner Boys’, the first song to be released from the album, is inspired by Kerr watching his twin grandsons grow up and thinking about what it means to raise a good man today — “how strength, tenderness, courage, and gentleness might still belong together, even when the wider culture around them can send mixed signals. Featuring an outstanding vocal from Kerr, and the unmistakeable shimmering guitar of Burchill, the song belies an infectious euphoria.
‘Our Secrets Are The Same’ directly explores the lifelong bond between Kerr and Burchill, a song about a remarkable friendship; two eight-year-olds, who met on a Glasgow street, and are still finishing each other’s sentences fifty-odd years on. The most ‘pop’ moment on the album arrives in the form of ‘Songs’, a celebration of the power of songs to lift you on good days, and pull you out of depression on harder ones when little else can.
“Sacrosanct”’s two closing songs, ‘Alive In This Moment’ and ‘The Next Right Thing’, deal with nostalgia from differing perspectives. The former, with a trademark, uplifting Burchillian guitar intro, is about resisting the urge to reach back and, instead, to remain present, while the latter’s elegiac beauty focuses on the passing of time and the loss of those we love.
Regarding the choice of album title, Kerr said: “We called the album “Sacrosanct” because after a lifetime of doing this — nearly fifty years of writing songs together — it’s stopped feeling like a career and started feeling like something closer to faith. Calling the record “Sacrosanct” isn’t an exaggeration. It’s just honest.”
“Sacrosanct” is an artistic triumph and the third, alongside “Walk Between Worlds” and “Direction of the Heart”, in an emphatic trilogy.
In the four years since 2022’s top 5 album “Direction Of The Heart”, the band have been busier than ever, releasing a critically acclaimed career spanning documentary, publishing a joint memoir (Uncut magazine and Rough Trade’s ‘Books of The Year’), and delivering live shows across the world, that have seen them continually lauded as one of the greatest bands of their generation.
Last year alone they played in front of over 1.5m people and some of their biggest audiences since 1985, on their hugely successful Global Tour. It was during this remarkable period, on a high from touring, they began to craft and record their new album.
Their North American leg in 2025, inspired Kerr and Burchill to draw on their art rock and new wave roots, after witnessing fans in cities they’d never before played, react ecstatically to early songs such as ‘Sons and Fascination’. This atmosphere prevails throughout “Sacrosanct”, and its eight brilliantly crafted songs that have both a simplicity and an ethereal directness to them.
“Making records and performing live is as much part of our lives now as when we started out. We feel grateful to those who support new music from Simple Minds and look forward to seeing you all on our upcoming world tour.” Jim Kerr
The metalwork on the album artwork comes from a collaboration between Simple Minds and Glasgow-born sculptor Andy Scott, who has reimagined the band’s logo in steel (see photo below). Scott was awarded an OBE in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours for services to sculpture and fine art.
A lifelong fan who first saw the band at Glasgow’s Tiffany’s in 1982, Scott builds his large-scale outdoor works using a distinctive welded assembly technique, composing each form from thousands of hand-cut steel sections. He is best known for The Kelpies, the pair of 30-metre horse heads at Falkirk — the largest equine sculptures in the world.
The release of “Sacrosanct” coincides with Simple Minds embarking on their biggest arena tour to date, which will begin early February in Australia and New Zealand, before heading to Europe and the UK in April and May.
Demand to see the band perform has grown exponentially over the last few years, with them being consistently recognised as one of the best live outfits of their generation. The Guardian said, “they’re back in arenas, with a retooled seven-piece line-up. Decades-old songs arrive waxed and polished, while more recent tracks have a contemporary shimmer.”
The Simple Minds V Tour 2027 promises a panoramic live music experience, an all-encompassing celebration of music across 5 decades from a band who have not only managed to remain relevant to each new generation, but continue to shape and perform with the same energy that has defined their career.
SIMPLE MINDS V TOUR DATES:
EUROPE**
“Sacrosanct” tracklisting
