writing as a skeptical act

[zenithblue]

The other thing I'm remembering (after a hiatus from regular writing which now has endured about six months, due to application/acceptance/moving/etc.) is that writing, at least in the early stages, at least for me, is nothing more than a pure skeptical act. I mean skepticism in its classic sense, which calls upon the thinker to suspend both belief

Comments

[blozor]

I know you've heard at least one Simple Minds song. They performed the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" for the movie The Breakfast Club, which was their only #1 hit in America, although they still remain fairly big internationally. Of course, that wasn't written by them, and was first offered to Brian Ferry, who turned it down, and was in consideration for U2 if Simple Minds turned it down. Frontman Jim Kerr even resented it at first because it wasn't their original song and refused to include it on any album until a 1992 greatest hits album.

"Great Leap Forward" came from Good News From The Next World which was a bit heavier and guitar rock-oriented album for them. I enjoy it for the most part. I really liked Neapolis which was darker and more ambient, and their latest Black and White, which has so far not been released in North America. Every album has at least a few good songs on it, though. Not every album is going to be as hard as Good News; they are at the core an Eighties new wave pop band, only really talented, highly creative, and able to build a phenomenal wall of sound.

If you like really early 80's post-punk experimental synth rock like Brian Eno, Roxy Music, or Velvet Underground, you might enjoy their early albums: Life in a Day, Real to Real Cacophony, Sons and Fascination / Sisters Feeling Call, Empires and Dance, and New Gold Dream. They're nothing like their later albums after they went in a more stadium rock direction, but I still count Real to Real Cacophony amongst my favorites because, despite the weaker production value, it is probably their most experimental album. Charlie Burchill plays the guitar like freaking Adrian Belew on a few of the songs, and it really made me appreciate him as an underrated guitarist. It was so experimental in fact, that their first record company couldn't market it and made them end up dropping the band.