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A pair of South African friends with impeccable musical taste implored me to buy this CD, alleging that my life would be impoverished without it.
I’m not convinced.
No doubt Mick Hucknall has a certain appeal. He’s got a tuneful, bluesy voice, though not one that would get him a notch on anyone’s Blues Fireplace. He can be occasionally soulful. The Simply Red sound has at times been memorable.
Yet Blue ultimately falls into the ‘easy listening’ rather than ‘great music’ category. That’s not a bad thing and might well be considered a compliment when written of most performers.
With apologies to those who believe no artist should have another go at a signature performance of a given piece, Hucknall’s ‘The Air That I Breathe’ is arguably a high point of the album, up there with the very fine ‘Someday in My Life’. ‘Say You Love Me’ represents the CD’s best writing, words and music penned by Hucknall himself.
Yet Blue is not blues enough, and there is little here that is Simply Red as we remember that sound best.
Canter Bridge 
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