Now 84, Ringo Starr seems to have been slowing down for decades. Yet, when he does push the boat out, he invariably sets sail for unchartered waters.
Look Up finds him produced by hipster T.Bone Burnett, who wrote or co-wrote nine of these 11 songs. It’s a languid affair and Starr’s semi-spoken, shoulder-shrugging vocals sit well with these jaunty but wry earworms.
An erstwhile Beatle has nothing to prove of course, but Burnett seems to understand him like no producer since Richard Perry helmed Starr’s mid-‘70s solo peak.
So whether it’s a man who often seems to have too much time on his hands pontificating upon that very topic on the post-breakup tune Time On My Hands or raising a cheery middle finger to Beatles obsessives when he archly notes “I don’t live in the past” on I Live For Your Love, he’s in his comfort zone, while quietly making almost as much mischief as the Beatles’ resident jester once did. And his autobiographical lyric on the Allison Krauss duet Thankful shows he’s not without self-awareness.
