Ringo Starr – Postcards from Paradise (Universal Music Enterprises; 2015)
The newest solo album released by everyone’s favourite Beatle, Ringo Starr, is anything but a solo project, bringing together 16 musicians, notably Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh. It seems that no one has informed Starr that he could just be phoning it in at this point in his career because he has delivered a solid album that outshines anything fellow Beatles veteran, Paul McCartney, has recently done. The songs are upbeat, and the light-hearted lyrics make the whole experience feel familiar to anyone who has ever heard “Octopus’s Garden,” one of the few Beatles songs written by Starr. The album’s title track stands out as the lyrics make reference to dozens of Beatles songs. That’s not to say that this album is a discount bin rip-off of 50-year-old songs. Postcards from Paradise feels like an evolution of the sound that Starr helped craft all those years ago and tweaked over his past 17 “solo” albums.
Trial Track: “Postcards from Paradise”
Rating: 8/10
