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Simply Red will release their first new studio album in eight years with BIG LOVE out June 2 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 was going to sound, I started writing songs,” says Hucknall. 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 Orchestra. BIG LOVE will be available on June 2 at retail outlets for a suggested list price of $18.98 (CD) and will also be available digitally.
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,” Hucknall 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 with 12 tracks to cherish. With a host of European tour dates this autumn and winter, Simply Red is once again a band in their prime.
Simply Red is: 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.
For more information about SIMPLY RED, please contact Jessica Giordano in the Rhino Publicity Department at jessica.giordano@rhino.com or 818-238-6403
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