Ringo Starr revisits a pair of previously recorded tracks on his 17th solo album.
Former Beatle Ringo Starr is back with his 17th solo album "Ringo 2012" on Hip-O.Ringo Starr, “Ringo 2012” (Hip-O/UMe). THREE STARS
You can analyze his singing, you can analyze his songwriting and perhaps you can even analyze his drum playing - but in the latter case, only if you’ve lost your marbles.
This is Ringo Starr after all, big star since 1962, unfathomably big superstar since 1964. He still holds down the backbeat as good as anyone in rock, even though he’s 71-years-old. Though he never had a great set of pipes to begin with, he’s singing as good, on this 17th solo album as at any point in his career. And on “Ringo 2012,” he’s got some typically great musicians working with him.
It’s a relatively brief album - nine songs in total, but a mostly lively bunch, like Buddy Holly’s “Think it Over,” which Starr released on a tribute last year. For a guy who rarely alters his on-stage set list, he also reworks a couple of surprising songs here.
Starr reprises “Wings,” from his 1978 album “Ringo the 4th,” but he’s on more sure fitting with the remake “Step Lightly,” which is culled from his most successful solo release, 1973’s “Ringo.”
He teams with the great lyricist Van Dyke Parks on “Samba” and reaches way back for a playful “Rock Island Line.”
Instead of writing his autobiography, the former Beatle has written songs about his hometown of Liverpool on his past few albums including “Liverpool 8,” “The Other Side of Liverpool” and on the new album “In Liverpool,” co-written with Dave Stewart. Other luminaries on the album include Charlie Haden, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Benmont Tench, Joe Walsh, Don Was and Edgar Winter, among others.
Songs to download: “Rock Island Line,” “In Liverpool”