Yet another great Charlie Burchill construct. His initial demo, presented a world that felt apart from one that I have ever known, except in dreams.

For the sake of setting the scene, if pushed, I’d say confidently that although symbolic of Simple Minds in the here and now. Utopia undeniably has roots that clearly reach deep into the territory of some of the more “shadowland” tracks that feature on the second side of New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84.

Failing that as a notion, I might also suggest that our Utopia would not be out of place stylistically on Roxy Music's classic Avalon. (Avalon itself being a sort of Utopia - according to Celtic myth - being an island paradise based in the western seas.)

Jim Kerr
6th December 2017

Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg
Producers Interview
March 2018

JK: "Yeah, that’s what it is. It’s escapist, but escapist in a more profound way. That’s why I love music. Because when I put the needle on and I write about it - there’s a song called Utopia on the new album, and the utopia I’m talking about was falling in love with music when I was a teen, and it transporting me to another place. Glasgow was on its knees at that time. The Industrial Age had come and gone. All the industries were closing, unemployment, it was just bleak, bleak, bleak. And Rock And Roll took us to a place. Color came through the music. There was a sense of something else out there. A sense that the world could begin at the end of your street, as opposed o ending at the end of your street. It liberated us from the gravity! And I think I’m back at that level of understanding again."

Jim Kerr
North Of The Internet
March 2018