Stay - Simply Red Album Review

Stay - Simply Red Album Review

Mick Hucknall & Elly Roberts

Album Review

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 far back as Stars.

The father-to-be, seems to have pulled off a brilliant album, but it’s not 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 cleverly disguise what’s to come. At the album showcase at Life Café in Manchester on February 4 2007, I got the feeling there was more progression in his overall repertoire. Frankly, this album has come as a big surprise, and I believe that fans will love it. In the past decade, Hucknall has veered towards a loungy and urban jazz feel, tending to lack punch and zap. It was all too smooth and bland for many tastes. There have been intermittent musical highlights on Blue, Love and The Russian Winter and Home, but not enough to excite even the die hards, like myself. Hucknall remains one of the best singers in the world, and his recent outing in Manchester confirmed this. With a new found spark, Hucknall and collaborators of which there are many, principally Andy Wright, this has turned out to be a real team effort, with Hucker’s leading the pack.

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

The real oomph starts with Stay. Mid-tempo with a glorious and catchy chorus, 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 at this 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 the band 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 the keys, and sizzling sax by Ian Kirkham, as they did in Manchester. Odd choice is a cover of Faces B-side Debris, which out of sync with rest.

Lady restores the template. This gentle mid-paced ballad is sophisticated and sublime, but again the main feature is Hucknall’s brilliant vocal dexterity. Stunning solos by Suzuki introduce Money TV, and further carry the bouncy playfulness of a Blues - laden pop gem, which is carried by subliminal hand claps and brass section – a potential hit single! Penultimate song, The Death Of The Cool, goes into mellow mode, and possesses a cool 80s Acid Jazz feel. Out of the blue, we get harpsichord - led ‘quaint’ ballad Little Englander. There’s even some daring whistling and choral backup, accompanied by the swirling strings of The London Session Orchestra 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 ‘the death of the cool’.

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

Elly Roberts

Gigs

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