Ringo Starr - Choose Love

Genre rock Publisher Koch Records External Links Official Website Koch Records

What a happy, lovable freaking idiot. Perhaps because I reviewed this album back to back with Richard Thompson's foxy latest, but I've never been more struck by what an adorably doltish dude Ringo is. How the same country can produce two such diametrically opposed songwriters is staggering. Then again, we here in the States claim both Patti Smith and Madonna, so...there you go.

"Some People" is foremost in the battalion of big sound, relatively over-produced pop-till-you-concurrently-puke-and-crap-yourself ditties compiling Starr's 13th studio album. "Don't Hang Up" is so much beat-driven fun it's sick; even with a little help from comparatively dour Chrissie Hynde it's gonna end up re-hacked on a children's album, watch. The title cut rocks on guitar, and he steals lyrics from himself by reminding us that "you've gotta pay your dues if you want to sing the blues." He also reminds us on this one that his vocal range is nonexistent, though the stuff he can manage to belt out is attractively dripping with British charm. I have to go with "The Turnaround" as the best song on the record, showing off the pied-piper effect of the impressively at ease combination of Ringo with longtime cohorts Mark Hudson, Gary Burr, and Steve Dudas. Wait wait wait - is this possibly, possibly a call to political activism? A jab at the Bush Administration? Yeah? Little bit? It seems that in this instance I underestimated our friend...color me impressed. Next to that, the last song "Free Drinks" is a spurred, saddled, accordianed letdown, and comes across as nothing more than a half-assed attempt at a barroom standard.

You get what you expect out of this record, you get Ringo at his yippy skippy keep-it-simple-stupid best. He's more confident, happier, and daffier than ever; following suit, his band is breezy and assured like never before. Now I'm so giddy I'm going to have to gauge my ears with a knitting needle. Not bad, not bad at all.