Album of the Day

"With STAY, I was running away from Simply Red," Mick Hucknall says of his band's previous album from 2007. "But now I'm comfortable with the notion of us as a blue-eyed soul group.” The new BIG LOVE plays to that strength with 12 Hucknall-penned songs including celebratory first single "Shine On" and "The Ghost Of Love," a big soul song punctuated by wah-wah guitar and bold orchestral strokes recalling Barry White and his Love Unlimited Orchestra. The British singer, whose piercing, powerful voice remains a thing of wonder, was inspired to make Simply Red's first full album of originals in 20 years by the success of the group's recent 30th anniversary tour. To judge from early response, BIG LOVE is another in the band's long string of successes.