Detailed item info | Track listing | 1. You Make Me Believe
2. So Many People
3. Lives and Loves
4. Fairground
5. Never Never Love
6. So Beautiful
7. Hillside Avenue
8. Remembering the First Time
9. Out on the Range
10. We're in This Together
11. Fairground - (extended mix, bonus track)
| | Details | | Playing time: | 52 min. | | Contributing artists: | Bootsy Collins, Hugh Masekela, London Metropolitan Orchestra, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar | | Producer: | Mick Hucknall, Stewart Levine | | Distributor: | WEA (distr) | | Recording type: | Studio | | Recording mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
| | Album notes | The extended version of "Fairground" is not listed on the CD package.
Simply Red: Mick Hucknall (vocals, guitar, bass); Heitor TP (guitar); Ian Kirkham (saxophone, EWI synthesizer, keyboards); Fritz McIntyre (keyboards, background vocals); Dee Johnson (background vocals).
Additional personnel: Hugh Masekela (flugelhorn); Robbie Shakespeare, Bootsy Collins (bass); Ritchie Stevens (drums); Sly Dunbar (drums, programming); Danny Cummings (percussion); Andy Wright (programming, keyboards); The London Metropolitan Orchestra.
Umoja Singers Chorale: Kwazi Shange, Janshi Mayo, Lawrence Matshiza, Tembe Mkhize, John Hassen, Marilyn Nokwe, Beulala Hashe, Phumzile Ntuli, Stella Khumalo, Faith Kekane,, Felicia Marion, Anneline Malebo, Khanya Malphumulo, Tu Nokwe, Tholo Ndlozi, Mandisa Dlanga, Vuyo Mokoena, Victor Rxumalo, Sipho Mbhele, Bongani Masuku, Zamo Mbutho, Luyanda Jezile, Ringo Madlingozi, Vuyisile Dikana, Sipho Mhlambi, Hugh Masekela (background vocals).
Recorded at Planet 4 Studios, Manchester, England; Air Studios, London, England; Downtown Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Undoubtedly, Mick Hucknall's soulful and honest voice is Simply Red's trademark; but while it holds prominence on the British group's fifth album, there is much more to LIFE than mellow, R&B-influenced crooning. There are also strong, pure melodies and mature, intimate lyrics, all written by Hucknall. On LIFE, Simply Red teams up with a solid group of musicians and the result is an accessible, smooth, pop-styled album that includes plenty of ballads, but is fortified by tangible reggae, funk and jazz influences.
The new weightiness of LIFE's lyrics moves beyond the personal toward the global, a clear theme of "So Many People," a mellow jazzy song which describes love as something enormous, reaching beyond human beings to the earth itself. Even on more earthbound songs like "Fairground," whose underlying tribal dance-beat gives it substance and which addresses a specific, individual love, the ever-present connection between the personal and the universal resonates.
| | Editorial reviews | 3.5 Stars - Good - ...With rare command and airy confidence, lead singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall's free tenor steers the music....Didn't anyone ever tell Mick Hucknall that world superstars don't usually come up with albums as soulful and weird as LIFE?..
Rolling Stone Magazine (11/16/1995)
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