Steven Simmonds - Tears Never Dry - (1998)

Rhythm Series – CDRHYTHM 14, Parlophone – 7243 8 86116 2 6

Note - I originally posted this back in June 2012, but now re-upping in glorious 320! Enjoy!

Wow. This is such a badass, sexy track. You get the impression that poor Stephen Simmonds had been dumped by his woman when these tracks were recorded. He's really taking it hard, and beating himself up for having screwed up. Still, his pain seems to make for good music, and so we have the tracks Tears Never Dry featuring popular Swedish singer Lisa Nilsson, and One, which is track two (heh). Tears Never Dry is a catchy, nice little slice of pop soul. One is a man vs piano slow jam of repentance that's a little too self absorbed for me.

No disrespect to tracks one and two, but skip 'em and head straight into track three: the Soul Inside Mix. It's perfection. Dodge brings something really special to the table, and turns a good song into a f***ing great one. Better bassline, better beat, and you've got to love that mournful guitar. It's wicked (I'm sure that's Ronnie Jordan, considering his ties with the DCP boys, but he's not credited).  Anyway, this remix really brings the track to seductive, moody life, and is so good that I will always go straight for it.

Stephen Simmonds, big up your naughty, got caught cheating behind your girls back, chest.

By the way, his album Spirit Tales, which is the only other release I have by him, is excellent, and comes highly recommended by me.

Here's an artist bio stolen from LastFM:

Stephen Simmonds is a Swedish Alternative Soul recording artist, son of a Jamaican musician Father and Swedish Mother was raised in the south of Stockholm, the United States and Israel.

After completing a high-school education at the Stockholm music school Södra Latin, Swedish producer Peter Cartriers heard of Stephens talent in 1995 and invited him to his studio in Stockholm where they made a demo that first attracted the attention of a Swedish indie label and then secured a record deal with the UK major label Parlophone/EMI Music as well as Priority Records in the US. Stephen wrote and Peter produced Stephens first critically acclaimed and 5 times Grammy nominated album “Alone” (the album was re-mixed and re-named “Spirit Tales” for his UK and US release) and Stephen Simmonds had his breakthrough in 1997 with the hit “Tears Never Dry” a duet with Swedish superstar Lisa Nilsson that quickly became the most played track on radio that year.

Since then his talent has brought him to the US and the UK where he has collaborated with renowned artists such as Raphael Saadiq, Masters At Work and Mica Paris. His US release “Spirit Tales” was highly recommended by Prince and the New Power Generation on their official website.

He has performed for Stevie Wonder and Amnesty and he is the only Swedish artist who has been reviewed in the Quincy Jones founded Soul and R&B bible Vibe Magazine.

PS - I think there are some other mixes of this floating around, which I've never heard, so if you have these, why not share the love with us?

Tracklist

1. Tears Never Dry
2. One
3. Tears Never Dry (Soul Inside Mix)

Download: SS-TND.7z | Filesize: 33.6MB