Difford and Tilbrook's songs possess the tunefulness and cleverness of the Beatles' records, but they lack the fierce passion of Lennon's work. It may take a while for some of Harrison's new songs to sink in - none jumps out as an immediate pop classic - but the production is so good, the playing so supportive and the spirit so exuberant, you may not even notice that while "Cloud Nine" sounds great, it's less filling.Ĭhris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of the reunited British band Squeeze are often compared with Lennon and McCartney, but their songwriting more closely resembles Harrison's. Luckily, it's such a tight number that no one's likely to hold this toothless diatribe against him. In "Devil's Radio," Harrison seems to address some of the reasons he's chosen to stay out of the limelight this past half decade, namely the cruel and incessant gossip of the media, from print to television to radio. But while Harrison's penchant for the mystically vague and ethereal sometimes undercuts his melodies, even the weaker songs benefit from Lynne's outstanding production and the guitar work by Harrison and Clapton.
"Wreck of the Hesperus" rejects the notion that time and fashion have passed by '60s rockers like Harrison (for further confirmation, look at the current pop charts), and "That's What It Takes" is just another silly love song. "Got My Mind Set on You," his ebullient remake of an obscure '50s hit by Rudy Clark, may have an '80s gloss but it also recalls the Beatles' great taste in covers before they got around to writing their own material. Here, and throughout the album, Harrison does the best singing of his career, sounding confident and renewed. The most intriguing tune is "Breath Away From Heaven," with its oriental glaze and billowing melody. "Just for Today," a languorous and insipid ballad with lush vocal wrappings and some exquisite slide guitar, is the kind of song Elvis Presley should have lived for. There are other "Beatley" songs: the terse testimonial to love, "Fish on the Sand," which has a John Lennonish vocal line the maudlin McCartneyesque ballad "Someplace Else" and the pulsating title cut and "Got My Mind Set on You," which sound very ELOish. It's one of two songs cowritten by Harrison and Lynne, and it's hard to imagine any other Beatle pulling off such wry self-reference so well.
This is most evident on "When We Was Fab," a playful look back at older, though not necessarily better, days "when we did it all." There are evocative echoes of various Beatles stages, from "Norwegian Wood" sitar lines to "I Am the Walrus" string dissonance. "Cloud Nine" is a high-tech record grounded in a genial '60s sensibility, a bridge between the communality of the white album and the independence of "All Things Must Pass." Much of the credit must go to Lynne, who has never disguised his own work's great debt to the Beatles. Harrison has bounced back with a bouncy audio treat, not rock and droll, but effusive rock 'n' roll. Not surprisingly, "Cloud Nine" (Dark Horse LP, cassette and CD) is a relaxed and assured affair that sounds absolutely great.
On "Cloud Nine," George Harrison has come up with his best solo work since 1970's "All Things Must Pass." Of course, the ex-Beatles guitarist had seven years to work on that triple album (which actually contained only one album's worth of great material).Īfter three dismal efforts, ending with 1982's dreadful "Gone Troppo," Harrison sat out the next five years, wrote some good songs, found the most empathetic producer possible in ELO's Jeff Lynne and finally went back into the studio with some old friends, including Ringo Starr, Elton John and Eric Clapton.
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