Direction Of The Heart is Simple Minds’ 19th studio album and features the first single “Vision Thing,” a tribute to Jim Kerr's "best pal" - his father who passed away in 2019.
Direction Of The Heart finds Simple Minds at their most confident and anthemic best and is an inspired celebration of life, most evident on the captivating lead single “Vision Thing.” Album guests include Sparks frontman Russell Mael and songwriter Gary Clark from '80s Scottish pop band Danny Wilson.
Most of the album's tracks were written, created and demoed in Sicily, where both Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill live. Unable to come to the UK because of quarantine rules, it was recorded at Hamburg’s Chameleon Studios, with Andy Wright (Massive Attack, Echo & The Bunnymen) and Gavin Goldberg (Simply Red, KT Tunstall) brought in for additional production.
Band members, bassist Ged Grimes, drummer Cherisse Osei, and vocalist Sarah Brown joined them on some of the tracks, recording their parts separately in London. All of this disparate work is belied by an album that sounds like, and is, a cohesive record, and one of the most exciting and invigorating of Simple Minds’ career to date.