Simply Red - Life [Blue UK Import]

Simply Red's Life, the 1995 album that finally gave Mick Hucknall a UK number one single, comes as a limited blue vinyl UK import in biodegradable eco packaging.

The band's fifth album was recorded between Manchester, London and Johannesburg and produced by Hucknall with Stewart Levine, the American producer who had helped shape their earlier records. It went straight to the top of the UK albums chart, reached number one across much of Europe and eventually went five times platinum at home. It was also the last Simply Red album to feature Fritz McIntyre and guitarist Heitor Pereira.

Fairground set the tone, a hypnotic, percussion-driven single that became their first UK chart-topper and still sounds unlike anything else in their catalogue. Elsewhere Hucknall leans into the blue-eyed soul he does best: Remembering the First Time is all slinky groove and nostalgia, So Beautiful slows things to a candlelit simmer, and We're in This Together picked up extra fame as the official theme of Euro 96.

All ten songs were written by Hucknall, and the album has a warmth and polish that suits vinyl beautifully.

It is the sound of a band still riding high in the mid-nineties, confident enough to take a few chances along the way.