Stars (Collectors Edition) - Simply Red Album Review

Stars (Collectors Edition) - Simply Red Album Review

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Album Review

It’s not often you get ‘Value For Money’ when purchasing music. This Stars Collectors Edition is simply outstanding VFM.

Back in the early 90s Simply Red was arguably the biggest band in Europe and Asia, and they remain one of the best live acts ever, fronted by blue-eyed soul boy Mick Hucknall. Stars made Mick Hucknall a superstar virtually overnight. With the band set to disband next year, this comes as a poignant reminder of the massive contribution they’ve made to the pop scene. Fusing classy jazz- soul-funk stylings, Stars was arguably their greatest studio moment, and my personal favourite, though its predecessor New Flame was pretty impressive too. Some might say they’ve never matched Star ever since, with a run of so-so albums here and there.

Up until its release I’d seen the band only once at Manchester’s G-Mex in 1988, then followed by the Stars tour, stopping off again at G-Mex in January 1992.

Now I’ve seen them 14 times and they, despite several line-up changes, remain one of the hottest live bands. In 1991, lead off single Something Got Me Started, ahead of the album’s release, got the ball rolling for the best selling album ( 2 million copies) in October 1991, outselling U2 and Michael Jackson in the UK, but faltered at 76 in America. The Stars CD single, 7” and 12” vinyl, spawned remixes and non-album track from the Robert Johnson sessions. The Johnson sessions showcase Mick’s incredible voice to perfection because of the a capella nature, with Johnson’s classic Me And The Devil Blues confirming to the critics that this boy can – really – sing, virtually anything with style. In all Stars lifted five top 40 singles, the highest being the title track peaking at 8 in November ’91 shortly after the album’s release. One of Hucknall’s most beautiful songs ever appeared on the album – For Your Babies. Soon after Your Mirror, the band released Montreux EP. Though not included here as an audio, the songs appear on the Montreux Jazz Festival DVD ( Disc 3), which shows the band thrilling the French audience with a scintillating live set of 25 songs on the shores of Lake Geneva. Respectfully, they start with some Jazz standards like a mesmerising a capella rendition of Cole Porter’s Love For Sale. It’s not long before things really hot up with SR classics like Enough, New Flame , She’s Got It Bad and later The Right Thing, Stars and Open Up The Red Box setting the crowd wild, while heavily dreadlocked Hucknall writhed and wriggled to the funky beats. Above all, this 25 song setlist allowed them to expand with a more sophisticated aspect of their repertoire. Also live, on CD, we get six live cuts from their 1992 Hamburg gig, and its sensational stuff, especially the funked-up She’s Got It Bad.

For the devotees (and DJs) we get 11 remixes on disc 2. At some stage they’ve all appeared on B-sides, all of which are excellent; though Thrill Me (Steppin’ Razor Mix) stands out in terms of overall production and re-invention. No Simply Red collection would be complete without five promo videos.

File under : Timeless classic.

Elly Roberts

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