Big Love is the eleventh studio album by British pop group Simply Red. The album was released on 29 May 2015 by East West Records.[4] It is their first studio album since Stay (2007), and the first album to only feature original material since Life (1995).[5]Big Love is also the first album to be released under a new recording contract with East West Records, a label Simply Red previously were signed to until April 2000.[6]
On 3 November 2014, Simply Red announced they would be reforming in Autumn 2015 for the Big Love Tour, a 30th anniversary European tour[7]
On 19 April 2015, on their official Facebook page, the band announced that they would be releasing a new studio album containing 12 new tracks.[8]
Lead singer Mick Hucknall said of the album: "Once I began wondering how Simply Red were going to sound, I started writing songs. With Stay I was running away from Simply Red. But now I'm comfortable with the notion of us as a blue-eyed soul group. I had to stop myself fighting that idea. Our sound is original too. I honestly don't know of another band that has pulled so many musical strands together".[5] Hucknall has said he wanted to make an album like Stars with a consistent theme: "And the theme here is life from a family viewpoint. It’s an album that deals with birth, love, death, and all the stuff in between".[9]
Chart performance
The album debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 18,292 copies, becoming Simply Red's 13th top 10 album.[10] In December 2015, the album was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 60,000 copies in the UK.[11]
At Metacritic, which assigns a "weighted average" rating out of 100 from selected independent ratings and reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a Metascore of 58, based on 7 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Harriet Gibsone of The Guardian gave Big Love three out of five stars and wrote that, "a wizened nostalgia hangs above this blue-eyed soul – the songs are smooth and sentimental, like easy-listening epitaphs. Wistful laments are nothing new for the group, and their unbridled sincerity remains consistent."[13]The Telegraph's Helen Brown also gave the album three out of five stars, and commented that "Hucknall appears to have got some of his mojo back, with added sincerity."[14]
The album was re-released on 27 November 2015 in a two-disc version entitled Big Love – Greatest Hits Edition (30th Anniversary), featuring a second CD with 18 previously released tracks.[16]
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