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Another George album that's pleasant but frustratingly sligh

Dave | United States | 11/08/2004

(3 out of 5 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.



Although Capitol has put out a remastered version of this album at this point (which contains a demo of "Here Comes the Moon" as a bonus track), the sound quality is very strong on this older version of the CD as well."