Glitterball

Simple Minds in 1998 decided to make a return of sorts to the proto-electronica sound of their nascent days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the release of the much-underrated 'Néapolis'. This change in artistic aesthetics caught many bandwagon fans by surprise, the same fans who revelled in the stadium-rock stridency and the foghorn bombast of the preceding years. Unlike the mainstream pop-rock accessibility of chart-busting hits like 'Don't You Forget About Me', 'Alive and Kicking' and 'Sanctify Yourself', the tracks from 'Néapolis' were by contrast more measured and restrained, not to mention more abstract and thought-provoking. The first single, the effortlessly streamlined 'Gliterball', was a veritable mélange of icy synth patterns, processed guitar riffs and a slow-motion Kraftwerkian rhythm logically spiced with some updated junglist elements. Check out its evocative video clip, set in the future-surreal surroundings of the one-of-a-kind Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.