Ringo Starr has always been a strange curiosity. With his happy go lucky spirit (unless you want an autograph), he’s always come across as the cheery Beatle. But bar a short spell in the early 1970’s, his solo recording career has always been a footnote to his multiple All-Starr Band tours.
Just in the same way that each line-up of his All-Starr Band has waned every so slightly, his albums have followed suit. Ringo is never going to be known for his solo career (although he has had some decent solo tracks like ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and ‘Photograph’). In fact he’s more likely to be known for his sideline narrating Thomas The Tank Engine.
‘Postcards From Paradise’ is an album that most Beatles fans will strive to find the positives in, and unfortunately there just aren’t that many. Opener ‘Rory And The Hurricanes’ lyrically plays tribute to his pre-Beatles band, but unfortunately sounds somewhere between Cliff Richard and Butlins Redcoats. Ringo‘s voice, despite best efforts, is lackluster and monotonous and things barely pick up as the record goes on.
‘You Bring The Party Down’ is a decent track though, with sitars and a rhythmic blend of reggae and driving rock. Even Ringo’s singing, laced in reverb and echo, works withing the vibe of the song. But then it’s back to the monstrously middle of the road slab of cod-reggae that is ‘Bridges’, the less said the better really. With embarrassing lyrics like “Down every road you come to bridges/Crossing bridges is the way to go/ Down every road you come to bridges/ Crossing bridges is the best way to grow”, paired with such a one-key vocal performance that I actually mistook it for auto-tune…it’s just not a good match.
Title track ‘Postcards From Paradise’ is interesting, if only as a curiosity. In the song Ringo plays a game of lyrical shoehorn. Trying to construct a song based on Beatles track titles. Does it work? Well to put it simply, the only Beatles song that sprang to mind was ‘Help!’.
Much of the album’s remainder (see ‘Island in the Sun’, ‘Right Side of the Road’) is dad-reggae. More Mike Read‘s ‘UKIP Calypso‘ than Bob Marley. If Ringo could achieve more than one pitch, it’d be easy to expect a couple of cheeky “Yeah Man”s or some quipped references to Holy Zion.
As much as it really pains us to say, we’d probably be more inclined to watch Thomas The Tank Engine than give this album repeated listens. The only big positive is that Ringo yet again has avoided making a “drummers album” and aimed to deliver complete songs. Problem is the core missing component is a singer who can move pitch… sorry Ringo!
