Although it doesn't have a single as strong as "Holding Back the Years" or "If You Don't Know Me by Now," Stars is Simply Red's best album since their debut.
It's smoother and more polished than their previous work, yet Mick Hucknall is singing better than ever and his songwriting is improving.
That is a good thing, too, since Stars is the first Simply Red album not to contain any cover songs.
Having absorbed his pop, soul, and reggae influences, Hucknall is now successfully writing songs in his own style, something that, with the exception of "Holding Back the Years," he hadn't managed previously.
The result, in Europe and especially the U.K., was a massive commercial breakthrough for the group.
Stars even outsold Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at home.
In America, where the band had never established much audience continuity beyond its two number one hit singles, it was a different story, which, given the band's highly American-influenced sound, was a confirmation of the overall decline of English bands in the U.S.
in the early '90s.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Something Got Me StartedMick Hucknall, Fritz McIntyre | Simply Red | Play | 04:01 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 2 | StarsMick Hucknall | Simply Red | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 3 | Thrill MeMick Hucknall, Fritz McIntyre | Simply Red | Play | 05:03 | 11 MB | 36 MB |
| 4 | Your MirrorMick Hucknall | Simply Red | Play | 03:59 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 5 | She's Got It Bad | Simply Red | Play | 03:34 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 6 | For Your BabiesMick Hucknall | Simply Red | Play | 04:17 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 7 | Model | Simply Red | Play | 03:46 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 8 | How Could I Fall | Simply Red | Play | 04:45 | 10 MB | 32 MB |
| 9 | Freedom | Simply Red | Play | 03:52 | 8 MB | 28 MB |
| 10 | Wonderland | Simply Red | Play | 03:50 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 41 mins | 94 MB | |||||
| 41 mins | 285 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jess Bailey | Keyboard Programming, Keyboards, Programming |
| 2 | Gota | Drums, Percussion, Programming |
| 3 | Mick Hucknall | Composer, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 4 | Tim Kellett | Keyboards |
| 5 | Ian Kirkham | Saxophone |
| 6 | Daren Klein | Engineer |
| 7 | Stewart Levine | Producer |
| 8 | Fritz McIntyre | Composer, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 9 | Simply Red | Primary Artist |
| 10 | Heitor T.P. | Guitar |
| 11 | Shaun Ward | Bass, Guitar (Bass) |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |