Give More Love (2017)
1. We're on the Road Again 2. Laughable 3. Show Me the Way 4. Speed of Sound 5. Standing Still 6. King of the Kingdom 7. Electricity 8. So Wrong for So Long 9. Shake it Up 10.Give More Love 11.Back off Boogaloo (Re-do) 12.Don't Pass Me By (Re-do) 13.You Can't Fight Lighting (Re-do) 14.Photograph (Re-do)
When the former Beatles started releasing solo albums in the seventies, Ringo rightly concluded that he didn't have the songwriting chops to carry an entire album by himself, so he solicited a little help from his friends. It was typical to see some of Ringo's earlier works scattered with songwriting and performance additions from the likes of Harry Nilsson, Elton Johh, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, among others. Once that trend stopped, Ringo's solo material never again rose to the level of acceptance. His releases were always (and still are) looked at as a necessary novelty and never really taken seriously.
In 2017, whether conscious or not, he again applies the same formula. It's been over 40 years, so most of the names have changed, but the idea is roughly the same. We have Joe Walsh, Richard Marx, Peter Framption, and I'm told Paul McCartney even does backing vocals on a track (although I couldn't really tell). Once we're reminded of the fact that Ringo will never be in the same category as Bruce Springsteen, Prince, or U2, we can grade this album on a curve and come to the conclusion that it's easily his best release in almost a decade. The tunes are happy, light, and kitchy. He throws in a couple of (I guess we could call them) rockers, and a couple of heavily influenced country tunes - which I've always thought Ringo should do more. As a "bonus", he includes four older, well-known songs that are "redone". The only reason why such an inclusion is here is to possibly tempt the fan who feels Ringo doesn't have anything new to say in terms of music.
Speaking of "kitchy", my main problem with Ringo Starr is that he always feels obligated to include a silly-whimsical song on every album where he reminisces about his Beatle days. This got old quick. In fact, he basically ran out of ideas, so on his last album Postcards From Paradise, he embarrisingly scrapes the bottom of the barrel by singing about his band prior to joining the Beatles Rory and the Hurricanes. Well, we almost escape that embarrassment here. Almost. The song Electricity tells another story of yore about growing up in Liverpool. The song is about somebody named "Johhny Guitar". Is it about John Lennon? Not sure. Don't even know if this song is fiction or not. Regardless, it's the worst thing here. One really wishes Ringo didn't feel the need to do these kind of songs.
Like every other latter day release from Ringo Starr, this one will only be bought by the faithful, and once the next Ringo album arrives, everything here will be mostly forgotten. A bit sad as this material is one of his better releases from his catalog.
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