George Harrison

Welcome News

Review Score:

(10/10)
The rerelease of several "middle period" George Harrison albums is welcome news to both Beatles fans and pop/rock music fans in general. All of the albums that have now been made available on CD contain many songs worth reacquainting oneself with or discovering for the first time. But I think this album represents his best effort in this period and it, like much of his work, is terribly underrated. "Love Comes to Everyone" would have been right at home on "Rubber Soul", and there are several other cuts on this CD that display gracefully the familiar mixture of sweetness, melodicism, and that distinctive guitar sound that constitute Harrison's style at its best.

Perhaps it is a blessing that so many of these albums have been unavailable for such a long time on CD. If any artist deserves a reevaluation, it's Harrison, who always seems vulnerable to the invidious comparison: he's good but he is no Lennon or McCartney. While there is truth in that, there is also truth in the fact that too much of his work has been dismissed all too easily. If he is no John or Paul, he nonetheless is a superb craftsman and song writer who just happened to find himself always in the shadows of his legendary bandmates. Maybe now with so much time having passed since the Beatles and with the lack of familiarity with the newly rereleased material that its absence has caused, we can begin to rediscover Harrison's immense gifts and appreciate them on their own terms. He wrote a lot of beautiful music and it deserves to be heard.

More Reviews: