| | | |  Album Description:
Nine Lives expands on all the many phases and turns of Steve Winwood's lustrous career, bristling with his pure joy of music-making. The new songs range from the inspiring "Fly" to the burning "Dirty City" (featuring a guest appearance by long-time friend Eric Clapton) to the simmering "Hungry Man", joining a canon that spans more than forty years to include some of the most beloved songs of modern pop and rock. |  | | | |
Average Rating : 
Rating :  - Fresh, Strong, Diverse
This great and surprising release from a 60 year old rocker is one of the best popular music albums I have heard in years. Winwood has been there for decades of course, occasionally surfacing, but usually somewhat blended in the background of famous group projects. This release is evidence he is still growing, still interested in tuning up his considerable skills.
There are diverse sounds here from calypso, folk, vintage metal -- all fresh and excellently recorded and produced. Nothing is out of place and there are no bad cuts; everything is eminently re-listenable. Winwood's voice has not only held up but sounds better than ever before. The album is also lyrically and poetically interesting and subtle, as rock music goes; thankfully no politics, no preaching, no mawkish "looking back" over life & career. Every song stands on its own and there is no filler. There are some songs that stand with Winwood's greatest -- notably the lyric "Fly," the driving "Raging Sea," "Dirty City" featuring great work from Clampton," and the astonishing heartfelt closer, "Other Shore." This is a record that glows with life and will doubtless not age.
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