Nine Lives Review

The miracle of Steve Winwood's voice in the Sixties, on his churning R&B hits with the Spencer Davis Group and in the bucolic psychedelia of the first Traffic records, was that a white English teenager could sound so black and adult. The wonder of "I'm Not Drowning," the acoustic, rolling blues that opens his new album, is that Winwood, almost 60, sings the fighting words with the ecstatic force of his youth. His voice is a deeper, huskier shade of British blues, but it's consistent in its strength and optimism all over Nine Lives.
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For the most part, Nine Lives begins as an introspective and reflective album that eventually cooks its way through restrained but inventive Afro-Latin grooves, bluesy, funky B-3, and acoustic and electric rock guitars. Just as often, however, that same blend of rhythmic invention graces lithe, deeply reflective tunes that address some very adult issues: separation, loss, reunion, spiritual redemption, and epiphany.
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Steve Winwood has made a career out of offhanded excellence, quietly exploring an ambitious musical synthesis that occasionally connects with the pop mainstream, but more often floats in its own kind of rock muso universe. "Nine Lives" follows suit with a set whose nine songs display an ensemble sensibility that gives a generous allotment of sonic room to members of Winwood's band—especially flutist Paul Booth and percussionist Karl Vanden Bossche, whose polyrhythms percolate throughout.
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