December 1999
Simply Red
simply red*
Love and the Russian Winter
(East/West)
During the mid-1980s, Simply Red, headed by lead singer, composer
and flaming redhead Mick Hucknall, knew how hit music was made: a funky mix of soul and elegant pop. By its third album, though, the band’s creativity and energy was clearly on the wane. There is no greater proof of the Red’s apathy than their seventh effort, Love and the Russian Winter. A disoriented Hucknall weaves aimlessly through the pop music spectrum: banal house, lackluster soul and idiotic radio ditties. The worst part of it is, Hucknall’s famous pipes are rusty from years of musical lethargy. Simply awful.
