Amazon.co.uk Review
Ever since she appeared on
Top Of The Pops heavily pregnant, to perform "Buffalo Stance", it's been obvious that Neneh Cherry would never choose to sacrifice her personal life--however intrusive or inconvenient--simply for the sake of her career. So neither the title nor the tone of her second album should come as any surprise: this is the work of a woman well-aware of her sexuality, yet grounded in a solid relationship ("Voluptuous", she boasts proudly, in "Sassy", "I made a choice to be monogamous"). It's a dichotomy best summed up in "Move With Me", with its wonderful assertion of independence and love ("I'm strong enough / To be weak in your arms"), but in fact, the highlights here are many: "Money Love", with its thrilling stop-start arrangement; "Trout", a sex education paean on which Cherry duets with R.E.M's Michael Stipe over thundering Led Zep-style drums; and "Somedays", which sets Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to a skeletal drum loop and features the album's most soulful vocals.
--Andrew McGuire
CD Description
Cherry's follow-up to her breakthrough RAW LIKE SUSHI is a fabulously inventive aural collage of jazz riffs, pop hooks,and hip-hop beats that manages to make room for R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on vocals. Highpoints in HOMEBREW's uniformly strong program include the irresistibly bubbly "Buddy X", as well as "Trout", a sort of space-age blues song anchored by--of all things--a sample from the first Steppenwolf album. A knockout.