Simply Red - Stay
This past Friday, while loading my car to travel home 3 hours on the legendary I-90, a most unfortunate thing happened. A compact disc which will remain nameless was hanging halfway out of the slot of my car’s CD player, and was severed in half when I plopped a bag of dirty laundry onto my passenger seat. The CD player, perhaps momentarily possessed by a demon spirit, sucked the remaining half of the compact disc into the player, and proceeded to spin it around in futility. My CD player was broken and I would now have to rely on FM radio to hold my attention for 3 hours. I was no happy camper.
Amidst my quest to find a bearable radio station, I came across many channels which were labeled as “Adult Hit.” Michael Bolton, Elton John, Norah Jones, and other mind-numbingly boring artists were featured on these stations. The album in question this week “Stay” by Simply Red would have fit like a glove on any of these “Adult Hit” radio stations.
The first cut of the record “The World and You Tonight” provides a great overview of all the sounds featured on the record. Strong pop undercurrents drag Simply Red through a rip tide of soft island rock, swanky pseudo-porn riffs, middle-aged love ballads, and predictable hooks that are sure to make anyone over 40 nod in approval.
The front man of Simply Red doesn’t have that bad of a voice. It is smooth and slightly smoky, gliding easily over mid-range notes and hitting higher notes with ease. When his powers are employed for the evil act of creating such awful music, however, one can’t help but cringe.
There is not one cliché that is not present on this record; tambourine, whistling, cowbell, synthesizer, harpsichord, children’s choir, a fake string section…..you name it, and its all here! As you listen to the record for the first time, you will be sure that you have heard it a thousand times before. Perhaps this familiar quality will be a great selling point of the album to an older generation, but it’s harder than that to pull a fast one on smart-assed college students.
We won’t easily be fooled into recycled music that fits splendidly on the “Adult Hit” radio station. We will be the first ones to turn the dial. Hell, most of us would rather turn the radio off altogether and drive in silence. I know that’s what I did!
Amidst my quest to find a bearable radio station, I came across many channels which were labeled as “Adult Hit.” Michael Bolton, Elton John, Norah Jones, and other mind-numbingly boring artists were featured on these stations. The album in question this week “Stay” by Simply Red would have fit like a glove on any of these “Adult Hit” radio stations.
The first cut of the record “The World and You Tonight” provides a great overview of all the sounds featured on the record. Strong pop undercurrents drag Simply Red through a rip tide of soft island rock, swanky pseudo-porn riffs, middle-aged love ballads, and predictable hooks that are sure to make anyone over 40 nod in approval.
The front man of Simply Red doesn’t have that bad of a voice. It is smooth and slightly smoky, gliding easily over mid-range notes and hitting higher notes with ease. When his powers are employed for the evil act of creating such awful music, however, one can’t help but cringe.
There is not one cliché that is not present on this record; tambourine, whistling, cowbell, synthesizer, harpsichord, children’s choir, a fake string section…..you name it, and its all here! As you listen to the record for the first time, you will be sure that you have heard it a thousand times before. Perhaps this familiar quality will be a great selling point of the album to an older generation, but it’s harder than that to pull a fast one on smart-assed college students.
We won’t easily be fooled into recycled music that fits splendidly on the “Adult Hit” radio station. We will be the first ones to turn the dial. Hell, most of us would rather turn the radio off altogether and drive in silence. I know that’s what I did!
posted by Evan at 8:36 PM
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