Home

1	Home 3:17
2	Fake 3:58
3	Sunrise 3:19
4	You Make Me Feel Brand New 5:05
5	Home Loan Blues 5:00
6	Positively 4th Street 4:33
7	Lost Weekend 4:05
8	Money in My Pocket Plan B Mix 3:38
9	Something for You 5:59
10	It's You 3:15
11	Home (Reprise) 0:53

Barnes & Noble

Simply Red's first album in four years signals the Brit band's return to the more straightforward R&B roots of early works such as Picture Book and A New Flame. For Home, frontman Mick "Red" Hucknall -- essentially the group's one constant member -- enlists an 11-piece outfit that allows him to move effortlessly from interpreting the Stylistics (a lush, falsetto-infused "You Make Me Feel Brand New") to Bob Dylan (a lightly orchestrated "Positively 4th Street" with a kicking horn section). Not only does he put his own stamp on the aforementioned warhorses, along with a synth-washed interpretation of late reggae great Dennis Brown's "Money in My Pocket"; Hucknall's originals also stand up well against Home's covers. The crooner's pliable tenor -- one of the most characteristic voices of the '80s -- takes flight on the heartfelt title track, with its Burt Bacharach–reminiscent string-and-trumpet arrangement. By incorporating the main riff from "I Can't Go For That" into the seductive "Sunrise," Hucknall also tips his hat to a fellow blue-eyed soulsters Hall & Oates. The vocalist's brightest moment, however, comes on the harmony-laden and horn-soaked "Fake," where he cuts loose like a latter-day Al Green over the funky groove. On their first self-released album, it truly sounds as if Simply Red have finally found their Home. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

Most people expected Simply Red to have popped up on VH1's Where Are They Now? at any moment, but Home is their eighth proper album. Finding a niche as Jamiroquai for the smooth jazz set, they've released album after album while living off the worldwide success of Stars. Home looks like a return to form with Mick Hucknall taking over a good amount of the production and releasing the album on his own label, Simplyred.com, although an outside producer might have given them an extra kick in their velour pants. However, despite the album's weak moments, there's the genuine sweetness of "Home," the lavish funkiness of "Fake," and the profound and moving "Home Loan Blues." When the band masterfully slinks its way through Dennis Brown's "Money in My Pocket," all sorts of Picture Book flashbacks appear. Home gives half an album's worth of reasons to cheer for Simply Red. David Jeffries