Ringo Starr - Look Up

I just listened to Look Up. I don't have it in me to write a long review, so this is a "quick look." The last time I bought one of Ringo’s albums was in 2008 (Liverpool 8). By then, his albums were like those made by Motorhead or AC/DC, the same but a little different. When I saw this album was produced by T-Bone Burnett, I had my reservations because I have a few albums produced by him (Gregg Allman’s Low Country Blues, B.B. King's One Kind Favor, both albums by Robert Plant & Alison Krause). His productions have a distinctive sound. That said, those albums were T-Bone Burnett albums with different vocalists slotted in. Would Ringo’s album be the same? Well, kinda. Of the eleven songs on the album, nine of them are credited to Burnett. The production is less hazy than one would expect from him, and sounds more like traditional Nashville.

This is billed as Ringo’s “country” album, but it's not his first. That honor goes to Beaucoups of Blues (1970), produced by ace steel guitar player Pete Drake. Like that first country album, Ringo sang songs picked for him by the producer. That's not to say the songs have a generic, cookie-cutter sameness. The first two songs (Breathless, Look Up) are very good. One doesn't get the feeling this is a country record until the third song, Time On My Hands. Paul Franklin's steel guitar gives it away. The fourth song (Never Let Me Go) is the first clunker, a bit stale and repetitive. The album recovers with the next song (I Live For Your Love). Side one ends here.

Side two kicks off with Come Back. This one is probably the most “country” sounding song, with mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and chick singers. I like this one. Can You Hear Me Call makes one think of Johnny Cash and June Carter. Having Molly Tuttle as a singing partner is an inspired choice. She appears on most of the album. You Want Some is a nice country shuffle. Rebecca and Megan Lovell from Larkin Poe appear on two songs. It works great on String Theory, but not so much on Rosetta (a ‘skip’ track). The finale is Ringo’s only songwriting credit, Thankful, a song to his wife Barbara Bach. Alison Krauss is Ringo’s singing partner here.

The verdict - better than I expected, good to stream. I wouldn't own it, though.