Picture Book is the debut album by British pop and soul group Simply Red, released in October 1985.

It contains the US number-one single "Holding Back the Years", and covers of The Valentine Brothers' "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" and Talking Heads’ “Heaven”.

He said of Hucknall, "With the most prodigious voice this side of Motown and a burning socialist heart, here he infuses everything with a passion that he's rarely matched since.

"[8] William Ruhlmann, in a retrospective review in AllMusic, felt that Simply Red produced "a steady R&B groove reminiscent of '60s Stax house band the MG's" and that Hucknall was a "big-voiced soul singer".

[6] In the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Andy Robbins attributed the record's commercial success in both America and the UK to "Holding Back the Years", which he feels is Hucknall's best vocal performance.