Since 1970, former Beatle Ringo Starr has quietly released twenty solo albums, the most recent of which being 2019’s What’s My Name. While Starr intimated that the album might well be his last, the challenges of a global lock down provided the necessary creative impetus for a change of heart and, six months on from the surprise drop of Zoom In, Ringo is back with Change The World, a four-track EP that shows Ringo’s ability to pen an insistent melody remains undimmed.
While the title track’s sentiment may be rather cliché, Ringo and his band (including members of TOTO) sidestep fears that the music may prove cloying by heading into a surprisingly sprightly number complete with sparky lead guitar (courtesy of fret-board wizard Steve Lukather) and funky bass. Bright and breezy, with a Dan Reed vibe to it, Let’s Change The World is a sweet-but-slight opener that overflows with optimism for how the world might emerge, blinking, from its isolation. It’s followed by a cod-reggae number, Just That Way, which harks back to Clapton’s take on Swing Home Sweet Chariot and the results are not quite so favourable. While the carefree lyric is clearly designed to deflect attention from the experiences of the past eighteen months, it just feels far too blasé, although the sweet reggae groove is beautifully played and comes with an appropriately sunny bounce.
Things get back on track with Coming Undone, a mid-tempo psyche-pop number that could quite honestly slip unnoticed onto a Beatles playlist. With its countrified acoustic strum and trombone lead (Trombone Shorty), Coming Undone is very much the EP highlight, and it feels like a warm nod to Ringo’s past, delivered with just a hint of sadness, despite the laid-back delivery. The final track, a cover of Rock Around The Clock, is simply Ringo and his band (including guitarist Joe Walsh) having a hell of a lot of fun in the studio and sharing the results with the world. A vigorous take on a well-worn classic, it’s all the better because it feels like an unguarded moment in which a veteran musician and his band kick out the jams because they can, and it provides a toe-tapping conclusion to this short EP.
Clocking in at fourteen-minutes or so, Change The World largely avoids any inclination to live up to its title, emerging rather as an opportunity to add a little brightness to people’s lives at a time when there’s been altogether too much darkness. Stylistically scattershot, it’s likely that every listener will emerge with their own favourite but ultimately, it’s a record made for the sheer love of it by a musician who has nothing whatsoever to prove and there’s something rather special in that. 8/10
