Here, though, is where I find myself faltering in my duties as a reviewer. Basically, in describing the two opening tracks on Stay, you could alternate those descriptions between the remaining tracks, and it would fit perfectly. Half of the songs are pretty little things that catch your ear and your heart and make you want to dance, and the other half are filled with just a little bit more, that makes you take notice of it all, and wonder why you don’t own more Simply Red albums.
This is not to say that I do not like this album tremendously, though. While there is nothing breath-takingly fresh and new about Stay, there is an abundance of what I was wanting there to be. At no time did I want something new and improved. No, what I wanted was a trip down memory lane… a chance to listen again to something I truly loved nearly 20 years ago, and feel validated about it.
there was a reason that I listened to Simply Red’s first two albums (Picture Book, Men and Women) enough times to literally warp the cassette tape. Stay has a touch of the same building blocks as those albums in it. Sadly, it doesn’t completely recapture the magic of those years, but it does well enough that I find myself keeping many of its songs in rotation on my iPod, weeks removed from when I first listened to it.
Good album, not great. If you are a fan of either soul music or (like me) a fan of the band’s former glories, it is definitely worth a listen. I’d give Simply Red’s Stay, three out of five stars.
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