Album review: Ringo Starr’s Look Up — peace, love and country music
As a post-Beatles solo artist, Starr recorded an album of country songs in 1970, but it’s taken him more than 50 years to record another one after a string of 20 hit-and-miss pop albums.
Album reviews for week of January 10 2025:
COUNTRY
Look Up
Ringo Starr
Lost Highway Records
The ersatz country roots of Ringo Starr run deep, back to that famous stage name and further. Long before he joined The Beatles, the man born Richard Starkey coined his nom de guerre not only for his love of wearing rings but for its resonance as a cowboy sobriquet. As a teenage drummer growing up in depressed post-war Liverpool, he’d even tried to emigrate to the US to visit his musical hero, Lightnin’ Hopkins, a country bluesman who lived in Houston, Texas. Starr’s run of token Beatles album tracks began with his snappy take on Act Naturally, a country hit for another Texan, Buck Owens. It appeared on the band’s 1965 album Help! and was his first and arguably finest vocal moment as a Beatle. Later, as a solo artist, Starr recorded an entire album of country songs — 1970’s well-received Beaucoups of Blues — though it’s taken him more than 50 years to record another one after a string of 20 hit-and-miss pop albums. Look Up is the result of a chance meeting in 2022 with American studio denizen T Bone Burnett. Starr asked the gun country producer/writer to contribute a song to an EP he was recording, and Burnett came back with nine. So the EP became an album, though the variable quality of those nine songs suggests it should have remained in short-form. Look Up has 11 tracks in all, including a Billy Swan composition, You Want Some, and a lone Starr original written with Bruce Sugar, one of the album’s two co-producers (the other is Daniel Tashian, who incidentally has a hand in three of the best songs).
The playing, as you’d expect with Burnett in charge, is first-class, with bluegrass hotshot Billy Strings on guitars alongside Tashian and Burnett; Molly Tuttle, Alison Krauss, indie popsters Lucius and sibling roots duo Larkin Poe (Rebecca and Megan Lovell) sing harmonies, while Paul Franklin (pedal steel), Mike Rojas (piano) and Mickey Raphael (harmonica) round out a high-calibre guest list. Starr plays drums throughout, overegging the fills in places, and even whistles on one track (Come Back). His trademark monotone remains intact, though it only ever works to full advantage on songs that don’t take themselves too seriously. Too often on Look Up, Burnett’s traditionalist songwriting approach precludes the self-deprecating humour that marks Starr’s best vocal moments. There are way too many gauche love songs (Breathless, Never Let Me Go, I Live For Your Love and Can You Hear Me Call), all of which ring hollow when sung by an 84-year-old who’d much rather be cracking hearty. The best tracks are Time On My Hands and You Want Some, both lit by Franklin’s alternately mournful and step-lively pedal steel; String Theory, a playful duet with Molly Tuttle; and the title track, again featuring Tuttle, which is more a jaunty blues than a country song (“It’s a long way down, and there’s no bottom / You had the blues, but you forgot ’em”). There’s your EP, right there.
Phil Stafford
ROOTS
More Life
Jeff Lang
ABC Music
Over the course of a storied career, Jeff Lang has left barely a pebble unturned on his sonic quest, one that continues via More Life, a duets album with a twist in that rather than bringing existing songs to the table, Lang actually wrote with the duet partner in question. The results are songs that mean something to all concerned, and as such their inherent beauty seeps out via the vocal interplays and how the voices become one with the sounds being produced simultaneously, whether via the incendiary slide of Debashish Bhattacharya (Calling Me Back Home); the Neil Young-esque vibes of The Other Side of Life featuring Liz Stringer; the pure folk of The Long Grass with Suzannah Espie; or the late-night piano noir of Don Walker on Adults Are Full of Shit. The tone of the album is, in the main, low-key; one of Lang’s more raucous affairs this is not, but via collaborations with the aforementioned along with the likes of Kerri Simpson, John Butler, William Crighton, Fred Leone and Hat Fitz & Cara, Lang shows that one doesn’t need to be hard-charging in order to make an impact. The quest continues, unabated.
Samuel J. Fell
ROCK/EXPERIMENTAL
Cutouts
The Smile
XL
Across two previous albums with The Smile, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have briskly integrated jazz and classical influences alongside ace drummer Tom Skinner. Recorded during the same period as Wall of Eyes, the trio’s second album of 2024 begins more like a blissful comedown by comparison. The opening Foreign Spies foregrounds gorgeous, glacial synths before string arrangements from repeat collaborators the London Contemporary Orchestra begin to drift through the album at organic intervals. Yorke’s vocal and lyrical approach remains all too distinctive, but The Smile’s music is so intricately woven that those elements often feel like just another elliptical layer. Entrancing details abound, from the King Crimson-esque prog flourishes on Eyes & Mouth and the bubblegum rock riffing on The Slip to the dank vocal echo on Don’t Get Me Started and other funhouse touches. Even when so much is stripped away, as when a piano is recorded with background noise intact on Tiptoe, it seems like a sign of three players gently expanding the parameters of this ensemble as they go.
Doug Wallen
PROGRESSIVE ROCK/METAL
The Last Will and Testament
Opeth
Moderbolaget / Reigning Phoenix
Forget the Gallagher brothers patching things up or No Doubt’s Coachella set; here we have the biggest musical reunion of 2024, if metal-centric social media is to be believed. The real musical story of last year arrives a little over a minute into the opening track, when Mikael Akerfeldt pulls out a guttural roar — the first time ‘harsh’ vocals have made their way on to an Opeth album since 2008’s wonderful Watershed. Truth be told, though, it would be a shame if the return of this vocal style overshadowed this record. Last Will and Testament is the proggiest this Swedish act has ever sounded. A concept record about a family breakdown over a will – narrated by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson – these eight songs see the band flip between jazz fusion, folk, 70s rock, and the occasional frosty metal riff. Best consumed in one sitting, it’s hard to highlight specific songs within the suite, but special mention goes to the remarkable drumming on S3 by newcomer Waltteri Vayrynen. This claustrophobic hurricane of ideas only relents on closer A Story Never Told – the only conventionally titled song here. Opeth’s third chapter is off to an intriguing and thrilling start.
Alasdair Belling
JAZZ
Aerogramme
John Scurry’s Reverse Swing
Lionsharecords
Aerogramme, with 11 leading Melbourne jazz musicians, features a team similar to that which put together the group’s great 2021 album Early Risers, especially trumpeter Eugene Ball, who has again done the horn arrangements for leader/guitarist John Scurry’s 14 splendid compositions. (That’s on the CD version; the bonus download has six additional tracks.) Once again the band includes unabashed traditionalists, so much of the music has the flavour of pre-bebop. As before, however, the group also includes modernists such as saxophonist Julien Wilson, drummer Danny Fischer, trombonist James Macaulay and alto saxophonist Stephen Grant – players who can be relied upon to stretch the boundaries of the music towards modern jazz. Previously I described the music on Early Risers, and also on Scurry’s 2018 album Post Matinee, as “Ellingtonian” — a compliment I’ll stick with, as Scurry’s music palpably transcends normal categories. The perceptive journalist Gideon Haigh, who provides the album’s interesting liner notes, says it all: “Aerogramme is what you get when talent blends with experience, seriousness with fun. Out comes the sound of art.”
Eric Myers
Album reviews for week of January 3 2025:
HIP-HOP
Missionary
Snoop Dogg
Death Row/Aftermath/Interscope
It’s been more than 30 years since Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre were first at the door, forging a dynamic partnership that would go on to be responsible for some of the most seismic cultural moments in hip-hop. So, what’s left? A victory lap, of course. Missionary, Snoop Dogg’s 20th(!) solo album, is billed as their official reunion; here, Dre handles the entirety of production for the first time since 1993’s Doggystyle. The timing feels right; though neither has left the cultural zeitgeist for too long, neither has had an event album release for some time. Dre’s 2015 album Compton, which arrived after a 14-year wait, dissipated almost instantly upon arrival. Meanwhile, only Snoop’s brief transformation into Snoop Lion on the reggae-driven Reincarnated is of note within that same decade-and-change framework. The album opens on stabbing two-note piano, with BJ The Chicago Kid claiming “Snoop Dogg makes the world go round” and the man himself trumpeting that they’re “about to rewrite history in this motherf..ker”. Spoiler alert: they’re not.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way: Missionary is not a new hood classic. For one thing, it sports a modern, almost pop-oriented sheen to it; a far cry from the raw, unfiltered nature of Doggystyle. While it would have been foolhardy to expect a retread to the OG sound, it also wouldn’t have gone astray for a song or two – especially when tracks like the skippable, glossy Hard Knocks made the cut. The guestlist, too, is a mixed bag. Nashville rapper-turned-country singer Jelly Roll, of all people, massively over-delivers on the Tom Petty-sampling highlight Last Dance With Mary Jane. Fellow Dre protegees 50 Cent and Eminem, however, feel forced and phoned in during the underwhelming Gunz N Smoke. Even with these inconsistencies taken into consideration, Missionary is handily Snoop’s best album since 2004’s R&G. Another Part Of Me playfully reworks The Police’s Message In A Bottle — with assistance from Sting himself on bass — with a slew of melodic earworms and energetic bars from Snoop. Thank You, meanwhile, sees Dre flip the titular Sly & The Family Stone classic with celebratory swagger, making for one of his hardest beats in years. Throughout, the 53-year-old Snoop muses on the career he’s had and the “hell of a ride” he’s been on. If Missionary is indeed his last hurrah, let the record show this well-known cannabis consumer went out on a high – pun very much intended.
David James Young
ROCK
The Hard Quartet
The Hard Quartet
Matador
The Hard Quartet combines the unique talents of Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang) and Australia’s own Jim White (Dirty Three). All four have excelled in multiple contexts, but they feel especially energised in this configuration. Malkmus emerges as de facto leader, based purely on how many songs feature his lead vocals. He gets to cut loose even more so than on his solo albums, from the gnarled psych heat of opener Chrome Mess to the rip-roaring bluster of Renegade. Yet the real standouts come when his bandmates step to the mic and the noise level drops. Led by Sweeney, Rio’s Song is a folksy ramble shot through with dazzling guitar tones and followed by Kelly’s Our Hometown Boy, a Byrds-esque wash of jangle and distortion. This 15-track debut loses energy in the middle, with the almost seven-minute Six Deaf Rats dragging most noticeably. But Malkmus latches onto a renewed seam of spontaneity on Action for Military Boys, and we’re right back into everything great about The Hard Quartet.
Doug Wallen
POP
For Cryin’ Out Loud!
Finneas
Interscope
Finneas’s talent as a producer and songwriter has been proven many times over, just not under his own name. Through his creative partnership with his sister Billie Eilish, Finneas has accomplished what most producers can only dream of: multiple Grammys, numerous chart-topping hits, era-defining and needle-shifting records. A relentless creative, a solo career was always calling, and in 2021 he issued his debut, Optimist. It was a disjointed record that saw him spinning through scourges like the evils of the digital age and the trudging, terrifying, passing of time. For Cryin’ Out Loud! is a much better and more consistent record, although it does have some trade-offs. The stylistic flashes of his debut have been sanded down into a stable, lo-fi pop sheen, with Finneas’s steady and beautiful vocal the most arresting instrument. There are plenty of nice moments, including the standout chorus of Cleats (pity about its bouncy, incongruous verses). The best, however, comes on Family Feud, when he contemplates the unique and fierce relationship between himself and Billie.
Jules LeFevre
JAZZ
The Running Tide
Sandy Evans Trio
Independent
Sandy Evans (saxophones), Brett Hirst (bass) and Toby Hall (drums) have been collaborating for 21 years, so they’re a tried and true combination. The empathy between them here is palpable. The Running Tide features 13 relatively short compositions by Evans, mostly mere snatches of musical experience, plus one tune composed by the three musicians. I found the music relaxed, joyful, melodic and compelling. This is not to say that the trio was averse to higher energy when it was called for, for example in Evans’s composition And You Are?, which is highly reminiscent of John Coltrane’s great recordings in ¾ time; and also to turbulence, as in Astral Poet Remembrance 1, Evans’ unaccompanied two-minute improvisation in honour of Cecil Taylor. Three of Australia’s greatest jazz musicians are playing here, with Evans’ virtuosity authentically captured. Hirst and Hall, no mere sidepersons, are able to establish brilliant rhythmic grooves throughout, and when called upon to solo, both come to the party with absolute authority. Importantly, the sound on this great album is immaculate, courtesy of leading recording engineer Ross A’hern.
Eric Myers
COUNTRY/POP
Firecracker
Taylor Moss
Independent/Ditto
To say the debut long-player from Australian country music chanteuse Taylor Moss is much anticipated would be an understatement: the Ulladulla native has amassed more than 10 million song streams on the strength of only a handful of singles and an EP release. Firecracker, then, has a fair bit to live up to, particularly within the ultra-competitive space that is country/pop in this country, and it’s fair to say that Moss delivers across a collection that charts her life thus far: inspiration, heartbreak and, finally, love and the future. Perpetually upbeat, you’re left in no doubt as to Moss’s MO – dive in, reveal all, anthemic ‘big country’, and while a good deal of the subject matter is fairly derivative – ”Here’s the old-time country song that y’all wanna hear / About tailgates, and denim jeans and ice cold beer”, she sings on Country Proud, for example — she aims for her audience and hits them square between the eyes, singing about a life completely relatable, set against a backdrop of searing guitars and thumping percussion. Moss’s voice is her weapon, and it’s showcased to a tee on a record that will no doubt set her up for further success.
Samuel J. Fell
