# Homebrew (Neneh Cherry album)

Homebrew is the second studio album by Swedish musician Neneh Cherry. It was released in 1992 via Circa Records. The album features several different genres, including hip hop, R&B, dance, and pop. The album photography was by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Recording sessions took place at Cherry Bear Studios in London and at the Cherry Bear Mobile, except "Sassy" was additionally recorded at Grapehouse Studios in Copenhagen and "Trout" was additionally recorded at Power Play Studios in New York. Gang Starr co-wrote and produced "Sassy" and "I Ain't Gone Under Yet". Geoff Barrow wrote and produced "Somedays".
"Trout" features a guitar riff replayed by Jonny Dollar from Steppenwolf's version of "The Pusher", and the drum track by John Bonham from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". "Buddy X" was allegedly inspired by Lenny Kravitz. It was later remixed by Falcon & Fabian and featured the Notorious B.I.G. and also remixed by the Dreem Teem and Masters at Work. The track "Move with Me" later appeared on the soundtrack of the 1993 film Sliver, while a dub version of the song appears on the soundtrack of the 1991 Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World. The track "Red Paint" is a reinterpretation of a true story told to Neneh by her late mother Moki Cherry.

## Singles

Two singles were released from Homebrew worldwide: "Money Love" and "Buddy X". "Money Love" charted within the top 40 of various countries while "Buddy X" became Cherry's third top-50 hit in the United States. In Germany, a third single—"Move with Me"—was also released. Meanwhile, a fourth song, "Trout", received heavy airplay on US alternative radio; despite never being released as a single, it peaked at number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in January 1993.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 |
| The Village Voice | B+ |
| Vox | 9/10 |
In the Los Angeles Times, Connie Johnson said that although Homebrew lacks the "power of surprise" of its predecessor Raw Like Sushi (1989), Cherry's blend of "soul, rap and hip-hop with an alternative slant" remains "wholly unique". Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot wrote that Cherry's music "defies categorization", while her "post-feminist view is an appealing combination of resilience and compassion." Mark Coleman of Rolling Stone found that while her debut often sounded "a tad too conceptual, more compelling in theory than practice", Homebrew "supplies the opposite effect", with Cherry more effectively switching between rapping and singing. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Alex Henderson called it as "equally magnificent and risk-taking" as Raw Like Sushi, noting its "unorthodox" hybrid of genres and Cherry's alternately "humorous" and "quite pointed" reflections on "relationships and social issues".
Robert Christgau, reviewing for The Village Voice, deemed Homebrew more impressive musically than lyrically, but noted that Cherry had "marked out a meaningful piece of turf: sophisticated secondhand homegirl, personally decent and artistically accessible". Ian McCann viewed it as an "alluring" albeit "flawed" record in NME, summarising it as sounding "like the best demos you ever heard".

## Charts

Chart performance for Homebrew :
| Chart (1992–1993) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 49 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 48 |
| European Albums (Music & Media) | 64 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 43 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 29 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 16 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 27 |