George Harrison - George Harrison
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Free Music Notes for George Harrison
Free Music Review: nice...very nice
Hit: 4 Stars
I see quite a few fans are overrating this one. Shouldn't we reserve the five-star rating for a work like ALL THINGS MUST PASS? This CD is not in the same class as ATMP. It's warm, and often quite beautiful, but not really a classic. That said, I enjoy all of the tracks. The woozy "Soft-Hearted Hana" bugged me when I was younger, but now it makes me smile. "Your Love Is Forever" is one of George's best ballads as a solo artist. "If You Believe" probably would've been a big hit had it been released as a single. Actual rating: 3.5 stars.Free Music Review: Good stuff from George
Hit: 4 Stars
Very McCartney-esque, and overlooked. I liked it in 1979 and the remaster makes it sound very clean and contemporary.George could play a mean dobro..."Soft Hearted Hana." Wish he'd have done that more. He played dobro slide on "Gimme Some Truth" from Lennon's "Imagine" album.
Great, melodic songs, and I'd rate it just behind "Cloud Nine" in terms of "runner up" to "All Things Must Pass." Runs rings around "Brainwashed."
Free Music Review: The album that made me re-discover George
Hit: 4 Stars
I'll make it short and sweet......
I lost interest in George after "Living In The Material World" in 1973. Six years later, this was the album that made me re-discover him. There's some georgous melodies on this album.
Free Music Review: another George album that's pleasant but frustratingly slight
Hit: 3 Stars
George Harrison's 1976 album "Thirty-Three & 1/3" was a huge change from its predecessor, 1975's "Extra Texture", despite less than a year & ½ gap between the two albums. On the contrary, this self-titled 1979 follow up to "Thirty-Three & 1/3", despite the 2+ year gap between albums, has a very similar feel to the one that preceeded it. This album is pleasant, & the sound is often appealingly lush (though at times overproduced), but, like the last album, it's frustratingly slight. To put it a certain way, this album is like white bread--it's good & certainly not worthless, but it dramatically lacks both excitement and emotional impact. It`s also high in the sap department--George admitted in his book "I Me Mine", which originally came out in 1980, that he had been suffering from writer`s block for a lengthy period of time in the late `70s, & with this album, it really sounds like it. The fact that he does a re-recording of the 1968 "White Album" outtake "Not Guilty" does nothing to suggest writer`s block hadn`t sunk in. "Love Comes To Everyone" has a splendid melody that puts the lyrics over, making it a highly enjoyable feel-good tune--it gets the album off to a strong start, although the last 45 seconds or so of the song do drag--it's as if George was just stretching the tune out for the mere sake of making it longer (the version of the song on the "Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989" compilation avoids this problem by fading out much earlier). "Blow Away" has lovely, sighing slide guitar work, and it's nice, as is "Soft Touch", though they're both rather underdeveloped & brought down by their sappiness. "Not Guilty" has a nice, ringing acoustic guitar line, but overall this jazzy soft rock tune is fluff & sounds a bit tossed off. "Faster" has a seemingly never-ending intro consisting of a race car sound before the actual tune finally starts, & it ends up not really being worth the wait--it's a ho-hum attempt at an inspirational song with some really weak lyrics & orchestration that doesn't help any. "If You Believe" is another limp attempt at an uplifting, inspirational number. "Dark Sweet Lady" is an attempt at writing something Spanish-sounding, & it sounds like something you're likely to hear on the Weather Channel, & it's musically & lyrically half-baked, and sappy. "Your Love Is Forever" has nice ringing guitars, but, once again, the sappy lyrics bring it down, plus the slide guitar solo sounds startlingly & displeasingly clumsy as if George was having an off day & was too lazy to do another take. "Here Comes the Moon", in similar fashion to "Here Comes the Sun", is in 4/4 time & switches to 3/4 for a nice ringing, arpeggiated guitar line that unfortunately gets beaten into the ground, plus the verse melody is slight beyond all belief, the bridge portion is painfully "cosmic", & the lame chorus gets repeated way too many times. There is a very annoying tune on here, & as with "This Song" from the previous album, it happens to be the 4th track on the album (I told you these albums have a lot in common!)--it's the jokey, Leon Redbone-style "Soft-Hearted Hana", made additionally annoying by the intentional speed/ pitch fluctuations on the fade. In the end, "George Harrison" is a heck of a disappointing listen indeed. For all its faults, the album is overall quite pleasant--it's rarely ever bad enough that you'll be compelled to reach for the stop or fast-forward buttons, but the way good musical ideas get buried & the overall slightness make for an album that leaves a lot to be desired.
Collectors are also bound to be disappointed with the bonus tracks, or lack thereof, on these reissues of his Dark Horse-era albums. The inclusion of the 1980 track "Tears of the World" which was originally intended for the "Somewhere In England" album, yet got included as a bonus track on "Thirty-Three & 1/3", suggests a tossed off carelessness. Perhaps a CD of rarities/ stray tracks is in the works, because George does have a lot of these. The lone bonus track here is a total cheap shot--it's a completely needless demo version of "Here Comes the Moon". A logical bonus track for this CD would have been the song "Mo", which was recorded in 1978, & was originally intended for this album--it was written for Mo Ostin who was the president of Warner Bros. Records at the time, & it's a nice tune despite the laughably hokey lyrics.
Free Music Review: A brief review of George Harrison's self-titled release
Hit: 3 Stars
George's contribution to the Beatles is underrated, in my opinion. His solo output is inconsistent, however. I remember liking this album when it came out, so I picked up the cd recently at a used record store.
It's not as good as I remembered. The best tracks are "Not Guilty" (though a superior version can be found on Anthology 3), "Your Love Is Forever", and "Love Comes To Everyone".
George's guitar playing is excellent throughout. Unfortunately, much of this album is marred by George's weak vocals. "Faster" and "Soft-Hearted Hana" are the most blatant examples of this. At this point in his career, his voice was best suited for mellow pieces such as the three mentioned above, and "Dark Sweet Lady".
"Blow Away" was a minor hit, I believe, and its' instrumentation is appealing, with distinctive guitar work from Harrison. The song is upbeat, as is much of the album. It also contains the lyric "all its got to take is some warmth to make it" -- blecch!
"George Harrison" is a decent effort from, well, George Harrison. He sounds happy and mellow on this album, which is pleasing. For non-"All Things Must Pass" fare, I advise you to pick up "Living In The Material World" or "Extra Texture" before this one. But you could do worse than this cd.