Y Not

I have owned this album for 10 days now and, as with most Ringo albums, it gets into your consciousness with subtle melodies which did not all grab me on first listening. On that first listening I thought it was probably a tale of two or three ditties, like say McCartney 2 (1980). But now I find myself humming along to songs from Side 2 (tracks 6-10 for this not familiar with the vinyl analogy!). So here is my rating, track by track:
Fill In The Blanks - a decent rollicking opener with some scorching guitar from Joe Walsh which we heard to great effect on Ringo's forgotten `Old Wave' album from 1983
7/10
Peace Dream - simple lyrics but a decent tune and featuring a wonderfully melodic bass line from Mr. McCartney, which lifts to song to almost top notch 9/10
The Other Side Of Liverpool - nostalgic song reminiscent of John's In My Life. But I won't pretend it's in that league. Decent latter day Ringo nonetheless! 7/10
Walk With You - the real gem of the album featuring a joyous harmony vocal from McCartney. With only Paul and Ringo left these days, this is the best we fans can expect to rekindle those Beatle memories. But it stands as a song too, a decent Ringo-Van Dyke Parks composition albeit rather reminiscent of `King Of Broken Hearts' (1998). But it's that Paul harmony which compels me to give one 10/10 :- )
Time - here the album goes downhill somewhat. Despite fine musicianship on display here this song is pretty forgettable 4/10
Everyone Wins - same again, a slightly better melody so I'll give it 5/10
Mystery Of The Night - nice song about his longstanding soul mate, wife Barbara Bach 6/10
Can't Do it Wrong - a grower but I can't really say this is more than mediocre. Harmonies reminiscent of Jellyfish from `I Don't Believe You' (1992). But not in the same league as that one 5/10.
Y Not - slightly annoying title...and song for that matter. Ringo used to be funnier than this 4/10
Who's Your Daddy - just as Ringo fans don't pay to see him in concert to see 75% of the material sung by others, we don't expect guest solo vocalists on our Ringo albums, thank you very much. Ringo here is reduced to back up singer and it's all pretty pointless with silly lyrics to boot 3/10

So in summary, this is more than anyone could expect Ringo to come up as he nears his 70th birthday. He is not Dylan after all. But Ringo's albums have always contained their fair share of heartwarming uplifting material and for that we thank him! When this album is good it is VERY good and because of that I have rounded up to 4 stars :- )

Y Not comes two years after Ringo's last studio album 'Liverpool 8'Liverpool 8 and for the first time in nearly 40 years as a solo artist Ringo decides to co-produce his own album. And its not a bad thing either!

For 'Y Not' Ringo has surrounded himself with friends old & new including co producer of 'Liverpool 8' Dave Stewart, brother in law Joe Walsh (he married Barbara's sister!) & Steve Dundas of the Roundheads on guitar. The album also includes contributions from Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers on keyboards, producer Don Was and Mike Bradford on bass, Bruce Sugar on keyboards, Ann Marie Calhoun on violin & Tina Sugandh on Tabla & chants.

The strength of Y Not is the songs & collaborators include Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Glen Ballard, Richard Marx, Van Dyke Parks, Gary Nicholson, Gary Wright & Gary Burr as well as some special guests on vocals including Joss Stone, Ben Harper and Richard Marx. But undoubted the talking point of Y Not is the contribution to the album of one Paul McCartney on backing vocals on the wonderful single 'Walk With You' and playing bass guitar on Ringo's peace song 'Peace Dream'.

The album begins with the rocker Fill In The Blanks co written & sung with Joe Walsh including typical chugging guitar from Joe. Peace Dream sees Ringo singing of peace & no more war, there's actually three Beatles on this track as John Lennon is mentioned in the lyrics!

One of my favourite tracks is Other Side Of Liverpool a biographical song of Ringo's early Liverpool days. Great guitar & keyboards.

Not just because of Paul McCartney's involvement but Walk With You is truly outstanding. The song is excellent, Ringo's vocal is brilliant & Paul McCartney's contribution is superb. As Ringo says" "Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on 'Peace Dream.' So I played him this other track and Paul said, 'Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans.' And he went to the mike and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better. He makes it bigger and he makes it fuller. It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul's idea to do his part one beat behind me. That's why he's a gen-i-us and an incredible bass player."

Time & Everyone Wins sound familiar and would have made a great singles in the 1980's!

Richard Marx co wrote the excellent Mystery Of The Night. Here's what Richard says about the track, "" I had so much fun doing that tour with Ringo in `06, and we've stayed in touch quite a bit, so last winter he asked me over to his house in LA to write a song with him. It was a track he'd already come up with and I liked it and started writing a melody to it on the spot, and then we wrote the lyrics together within an hour or so. The song's called, "Mystery of the Night." Then a few months later he asked if I'd sing background vocals on it, so when my family and I were in LA for a week during spring break we went over and I sang a bunch of tracks of vocals. I loved how the song came out. Ringo's vocal is GREAT and he even got Benmont Tench (of The Heartbreakers) to play piano on it.

The song Can't Do It Wrong could have been lifted from any of Ringo's 70's albums or at the latest Stop and Smell The Roses but the giveaway are those great Roundhead backing vocals. Title track Y Not finds Ringo on great vocal form. The lyrics are great & Ringo lets his Indian influences shine through with Tina Sugandh on Tabla & chants. This would suprise a few people if released as a single. Finally Joss Stone contributes a great vocal to the comical Who's Your Daddy ? As Ringo sings to Joss, "Who's your daddy, who's your daddy'. You can probably guess her answer!

So, in his 70th year & Ringo produces himself & releases a great album to boot!

Ringo is perhaps the physical embodiment of the old joke - Q. what do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A. a drummer! Although he was the most likeable of the Beatles, his singing left a lot to be desired and his own compositions could never match up to the other three. Nevertheless, in the seventies he started off with two really good solo singles "Back off Boogaloo" and "It Don't Come Easy" but in my opinion he never really followed these up with any other good records.

This record follows the 'Liverpool 8' album and Ringo's 2008 appearance in Liverpool for the City of Culture celebrations. It is a lot better than I expected, even though the majority of the tracks are fairly bland modern pop, well played but pretty characterless. For me the best track is "The other side of Liverpool" co-written with Dave Stewart, with Ringo reminiscing about his childhood in Dingle and giving nods to the people who helped him on his way up. Although the lyrics to some of the other tracks ("Peace dream") can be a bit corny, I found these lyrics really moving - I think it's one of the best things he's ever done! It's also really nice to hear him singing with Macca on "Walk With You" and I also enjoyed the tracks "Time" and "Everyone wins". With a band featuring amongst others Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Benmont Tench, Don Was and Edgar Winter it's no wonder the music sounds so good but for me Ringo remains the focus and I prefer to hear him rather than Joss Stone, as on the final track. It's great to have Ringo still around and still making music in 2010.