Simply Red: Stay

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Elly Roberts reviews

Simply Red: Stay
Distributed by
simplyred.com

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  • March 2007
  • Rating: 10/10+

It’s been a long time coming, a really great Simply Red album.

For too long Mick Hucknall has been operating like some lost slush puppy.Stay, is Simply Red’s best album in a long, long time, going as farback as Stars.

The father-to-be, seems to have pulled off a brilliant album, but it’snot Stars mark 2. If anything this is SR’s most adventurous album ever.

The first two tracks didn’t look like much of a progression; they cleverlydisguise what’s to come. At the album showcase at Life Café in Manchesteron February 4th 2007, I got the feeling there was more progression in hisoverall repertoire.

Frankly, this album has come as a big surprise, and I believe that fans willlove it. In the past decade, Hucknall has veered towards a loungy and urbanjazz feel, tending to lack punch and zap. It was all too smooth and blandfor many tastes. There have been intermittent musical highlights on Blue,Love and The Russian Winter and Home, but not enough to exciteeven the die hards, like myself.

Hucknall remains one of the best singers in the world, and his recent outingin Manchester confirmed this. With a new found spark, Hucknall and collaboratorsof which there are many, principally Andy Wright, this has turned out to be areal team effort, with Hucker’s leading the pack.

First two, The World And You Tonight and single So Not Over goall sloppy, but tuneful as all Simply Red songs normally are. At this pointit wasn’t sounding too exciting.

The real oomph starts with Stay. Mid-tempo with a glorious and catchychorus, it eventually explodes into urban-soul at its best, a major highlight.Things get even better with brass heavy They Don’t Know (his voice atthis time is unbelievably perfect) followed by a rasping 2006 single Oh!What A Girl! This superb Latino-infused belter is as hot as hell, as theband go into overdrive – a real party song.

Chunky Good Times … has original Rhythm and Blues roots, with Kenji‘Jammer’ Suzuki ripping up some deft blues solos with added textures on thekeys, and sizzling sax by Ian Kirkham, as they did in Manchester. Odd choiceis a cover of Faces B-side Debris, which is out of sync with rest.

Lady restores the template. This gentle mid-paced ballad issophisticated and sublime, but again the main feature is Hucknall’s brilliantvocal dexterity. Stunning solos by Suzuki introduce Money TV, and furthercarry the bouncy playfulness of a Blues – laden pop gem, which iscarried by subliminal hand claps and brass section – a potential hit single!

Penultimate song, The Death Of The Cool, goes into mellow mode, andpossesses a cool ’80s Acid Jazz feel. Out of the blue, we get harpsichord -led ‘quaint’ ballad Little Englander. There’s even some daring whistlingand choral backup, accompanied by the swirling strings of The London SessionOrchestra as he laments with “Let me smash the plastic face of my country”.

While Hucknall and co write and perform like this, there’ll never be ‘thedeath of the cool’.

The band has recently finished a mini-tour of Europe, Australia and embarkon Canada in April, returning to the Albert Hall London on May 24, 25, 26,27, 30, 31.

Weblinks:simplyred.com /myspace.com/simplyred

The full list of tracks included are :

1. The World And You Tonight
2. So Not Over You
3. Stay
4. They Don’t Know
5. Oh! What A Girl!
6. Good Times Have Done Me Wrong
7. Debris
8. Lady
9. Money TV
10. The Death Of The Cool
11. Little Englander

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