Steve Winwood
Nine Lives
Release Date: Apr 29, 2008
Genre(s): Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Record label: Sony
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Album Review: Nine Lives by Steve Winwood
Fairly Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
The final two tracks, and the other bookend, as it were, include one of the jauntiest, funkiest numbers on the set in "Sometimes We Do Forget," with a groove that is simply infectious with a bumping guitar and bassline. The closer, "Other Shore," is the only cut that recalls Winwood's early solo records, but it's sparse despite its beautiful, easy R&B lilt. Again, redemption for oneself, for others, for a love that has endured the goodbyes, and the letting go that ushers in a new "hello." This is pop music with soul, with grit and the grains of revealed truth pouring from Winwood's mouth, not as a survivor but as a man who has seen enough of life to know that the sun really does rise in the morning.
Based on rating 2/5
Steve Winwood has actually led about nine lives in the music biz since his Beatles-influenced boy band the Spencer Davis Group first surfaced in London back in 1963. Since then he’s honed his chops with the greats – Hendrix, Clapton, Tito Puente – and been a member of bands Traffic, Go, Blind Faith and Latin Crossings. And that’s not to mention his 30-year solo career, which in 1986 gave us the seminal yuppie-pop hit Higher Love.