Sparkle in The Rain - Legacy

Legacy

"Sparkle in the Rain is supposed to be when the rot set in: a regressive step back from pop to stadium rock. But the ambient bombast of "Waterfront" is actually pretty magnificent in a Jim Morrison sort of way. And "Up on the Catwalk" is probably Simple Minds' most underrated single, their last bout of topsy-turviness and abstract euphoria, before the descent into facile transcendentalism and blunt, unwarranted affirmation ("Alive and Kicking", etc)."

In his biography of the band, Adam Sweeting looked back on Sparkle in the Rain as a "transitional album, a step away from the mesmerizing, instrumentally-based travelling music they'd become identified with towards an outsize form of rock. Their new music was harder, heavier, and less subtle. They knew they were moving on towards a new phase, but they hadn't got it quite right yet, which was why Sparkle seemed rooted in the past while straining to see into a future which still wasn't entirely clear."

Simon Price of The Independent, agreeing that the album was a departure, asserted that although "something horrible happened" later in Simple Minds' career, Sparkle in the Rain was not the cause: "Their post-New Gold Dream decline didn't immediately make itself obvious. Sparkle in the Rain pioneered a new "Big Music" whose full stadium-sized horror had yet to become apparent, and there was something attractive about the clattering majesty of "Waterfront". Peter Walker, writing for The Guardian, went against this view, describing "the thudding, plodding backdrop to "Waterfront", lead single for the follow-up album, 1984's Sparkle in the Rain. The song was their first major hit but heralded a new, lumpen Simple Minds, who in pursuit of U2 and world domination shed all that was good about their sound."

Sparkle in the Rain was listed as the 100th greatest Scottish album of all time by a 2003 issue of The Scotsman newspaper, who praised the album thus: "Released in 1984, Sparkle In The Rain was the album by which Simple Minds became a 'stadium' band. Lillywhite conjured a more direct sound in which former subtleties were shrouded in power and dynamism. New drummer Mel Gaynor thrived in this environment, best exemplified in "Waterfront", a homage to Glasgow as seen through the changing face of the River Clyde."