Simply Red
release their first new studio album in eight years with Big Love out June 1st
on East West Records. When the band announced a massive world tour to celebrate
their 30th anniversary last autumn, main man Mick Hucknall started thinking
about recording again. “Once I began wondering how Simply Red were going to
sound, I started writing songs,” says Mick. And once he started, he couldn’t
stop.
Big Love is the first Simply Red album to feature only original
compositions since 1995’s ‘Life’. All twelve tracks are written by Mick
Hucknall and produced by Andy Wright. Highlights include the celebratory first
single ‘Shine On’ driven by their trademark blue-eyed soul sound and ‘The Ghost
Of Love’, a big soul song punctuated by wah-wah guitar and the kind of bold
orchestral strokes that once powered Barry White and his Love Unlimited.
The
break has done Mick Hucknall a power of good, newly refreshed he now has a much
clearer appreciation of Simply Red’s considerable legacy. He admits that the
band’s last studio album in 2007, ‘Stay’, was an attempt to pull away from
their sound. “With ‘Stay’ I was running away from Simply Red,” Mick admits.
“But now I’m comfortable with the notion of us as a blue-eyed soul group. I had
to stop myself fighting that idea. Our sound is original too. I honestly don’t
know of another band that has pulled so many musical strands together.”
Quite
simply, Big Love is Simply Red at their best, 12 tracks to cherish. With a 16
date UK tour this winter, including 3 shows at London’s 02 Arena, Simply Red
are once again a band in their prime. Simply Red are: Mick Hucknall (vocals),
Ian Kirkham (sax), Steve Lewinson (bass), Kenji Suuki (guitar), Kevin Robinson
(trumpet and flute), Dave Clayton (keyboards) and new drummer Ronnie Roth.
Tracklisting: Shine On, Daydreaming, Big
Love, The
Ghost Of Love, Dad, Love
Wonders,. Love
Gave Me More, Tight
Tones, Woru, Coming
Home, The
Old Man And The Beer, and Each
Day
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