3.5/5
Country Starr
A little bit of country from the rock and roll star. The Beatles' legendary drummer Ringo Starr asks you to take a 'Look Up' with his new LP. Just a calendar and change after his 'Rewind Forward' extended play that saw him reunite with Paul McCartney, like the new 'Now and Then' song from the entire Fab Four. This is Sir Richard Starkey's twenty-first solo album, and first full length since 2019's 'What's My Name', on the long and winding road of the eighty-four years young singer/songwriter and skin man for the three other lads from Liverpool.
Yet, going well across The Mersey, Ringo (which here in Japan means, "Apple", like that iconic green logo one, mister) gets by with a little bit of help from his friends in Nashville, Tennessee. Because, forget his 21st for a second, this is Starr's very first country album. Moving swiftly with a tip of the cowboy hat across genres as he truly becomes a country star, with 'Look Up' and the titular lead single to titillate all of those whose Lennon and McCartney is Waylon and Willie. Dear John once joked, that Ringo Starr wasn't even the best drummer in The Beatles, when asked if he was the best roller in the world, but now, he's definitely the best country and western singer of the fabulous four. All the way down to the rhinestone black and white album artwork that is instantly iconic like 'Photograph'. Choosing love and peace again, who cares if he sings out of tune? All you need is what he chooses. What else would you do?
Epic, like another record label. Especially with the somebodies like the head of the pack Molly Tuttle (the lead 'Look Up Single', standout statement 'I Live For Your Love', yearning ode 'Can't You Hear Me Call' and 'String Theory' with Larkin Poe), Billy Strings himself (on the 'Breathless' opening, beautiful ballad 'Never Let Me Go' and the stone-cold 'Rosetta' (also with Poe)), Lucius (pleading 'Come Back') and the legendary Alison Krauss, planting the 'Thankful' dedicated closer. Dialled to eleven tracks like Spinal Tap, even when the legend goes it alone with 'Time On My Hands' ("I turned my collar up/Kept my eyes turned down/I walked the empty streets/The blue side of town") and 'You Want Some' in this lavish landscape you really do, as Ringo shows and proves he has another note to him. Just like the time he stepped from the skin to lead the ship with the biggest song pumping out of the 'Yellow Submarine' not named after the oceanic vehicle itself.
Original tracks like the outstanding artist himself is, you'll find no records from the great American country songbook here...even though Starr adds a couple of his own himself. You won't find Ringo taking 'Jolene' from Dolly Parton, like that "b####" that Beyoncé threatened did the '9 to 5' singer's man. As a matter of fact, with a nod to 'Cowboy Carter', this first big name release of the New Year is the best country step since the 'Beyoncé Bowl' of Netflix and the NFL's Christmas Day gridiron games. Lassoing a cymbal crash of a cinematic campfire legend, co-written by the iconic T Bone Burnett, Starr puts the pedal to the metal, as he gazes up above at the stories told by the two sticks he rubs together. Alas, peace, love and understanding are never far from his mind, and what's wrong with that like fellow Liverpudlian Elvis Costello? We can all sing along to the lasting lyrics of, "Look up/In the midnight hour/Look up/Love is the higher power/Keep your eyes on the skies/Don't look down on the shadow town/Look up." Something we can all look up to and towards in 2025. Happy New Year! TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Look Up (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'I Live For Your Love (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'Thankful (Feat. Alison Krauss)'.
Spin This: Ringo Starr - 'Rewind Forward (EP)'
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