Digital Roundup: 9/24/2014
New this week in the Rhino Room at iTunes:
Echo & The Bunnymen, Reverberation: Yes, diehard Bunnymen fans, your long wait is over: Reverberation, the lone album recorded by the band during the brief period when Ian McCulloch had decamped and Noel Burke had replaced him at the microphone, has finally been added to our digital catalog. Although the album is easily the most obscure album in the Bunnymen’s back catalog, the lone single from the record, “Enlighten Me,” did actually hit #8 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart. The problem at hand, though, was that Burke, God love him, was no McCulloch, and the opportunity to make this observation in the snarkiest manner possible was impossible for the average music critic – and most Bunnymen fans, too, for that matter – to resist. When the album failed to make any significant commercial waves, the band soldiered on for a bit longer, but after two self-produced singles (“Prove Me Wrong” and “Inside Me, Inside You”) suffered a similar fate, the Bunnymen disbanded and the existence of Reverberation was either forgotten or ignored by most. Still, if you approach it as the debut of a new band rather than an attempt to keep an old name alive, it’s actually quite nice.
Ringo Starr, Ringo's Rotogravure/Ringo the 4th: Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, it was good to be a Beatle. Actually, it’s never really not been good to be a Beatle, but from a sales standpoint, that’s when every member of the Fab Four had a thriving solo career. By the mid-1970s, though, there wasn’t quite as much of a guarantee that John, Paul, George or Ringo could instantly shift mass units simply by being John, Paul, George or Ringo. For the purposes of this discussion, let us consider Ringo Starr’s 1976 album, Ringo’s Rotogravure, and the 1977 follow-up, Ringo the 4th, the only two albums Starr recorded for Atlantic Records and – what a coincidence! – two albums which have been newly mastered for iTunes and added to our digital catalog this week.
As Ringo’s solo discography goes, they may not be his strongest efforts, but it’s particularly surprising that Rotogravure stalled at #28 on the Billboard Top 200, given that it still found him working with the usual big names: in addition to the songs written by his former bandmates – “Pure Gold” by Paul, “Cookin’ (In the Kitchen of Love)” by John, and “I’ll Still Love You” by George – Starr also had Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Dr. John, Harry Nilsson, and Melissa Manchester participating in the sessions. Somewhat surprisingly, the only top-40 hit from the album wasn’t even one written by a Beatle (which may speak to the quality of the material the lads had donated to the cause, but whatever): it was Ringo’s cover of Carl Groszman’s “A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll” that made its way to #26 on the Hot 100.
And what of Ringo the 4th? Well, it’s…something. Not a hit album, certainly (it didn’t even crack the top 100), nor a haven for successful singles (four different songs were released in various countries around the world and not a one of them charted), but…something. You can give the man credit for deciding to give it a go without any assistance from the other Beatles, but the decision to take things in somewhat of a disco direction was perhaps not the best of all possible creative choices. There are those who find a certain charm in the songs Starr co-wrote with collaborator Vini Poncia and his covers of “Drowning in the Sea of Love,” “Can She Do It Like She Dances,” and “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,” but…well, let’s just say that, as his albums go, 4th ain’t no Ringo.
Various Artists, Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974: The opening line of AllMusic.com’s review says it all: “This eight-CD set should be a part of any collection that presumes to take American music – not just rock & roll or rhythm & blues – seriously.” Actually, hang on, that doesn’t say it all, because it doesn’t tell you what you can expect to find on this set. There are 200+ tracks here, and you might be shocked at just how many of them you already know by heart. Granted, there are also a number of relative obscurities scattered throughout, so you’re in for a lot of wonderful discoveries, too, but with songs by Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ben E. King, Carla Thomas, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Sam & Dave, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, the Bar-Kays, the Spinners…oh, why should we bother continuing to reel off names at this point? If you’re not sold yet, you never will be.