Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr

Liverpool 8

(Capitol)

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t’s nice to know that Ringo Starr hasn’t changed, said Jon Pareles in The New York Times. Celebrated as the genuine, good-humored Beatle, Starr brings his lightheartedness to Liverpool 8—a nostalgic look back at the band’s old stamping grounds. Like Paul McCartney on “Penny Lane” and John Lennon on “Strawberry Fields Forever,” Starr takes his turn at paying homage to his hometown. He “treats the past with nothing but fondness.” Liverpool 8 is primarily a cele­bration of Ringo, said David Quantick in Uncut. Every song has the “melody, wit, and the galumphing charm” that has marked Starr’s strongest work. The album is “possibly his best” solo effort since 1974’s Goodnight Vienna. It gleams with a pop sheen and sensibility warmly reminiscent of peace, love, and Beatlemania. With a little help from a friend, producer Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, Starr even makes Liverpool 8 sound refreshingly new, as though “made if not in, then at least near, the 21st century.” A third of the tracks mention “love” in the title, but you can’t blame the guy for going soft in his old age. Still, a person would have to be “deranged to go into a new Ringo Starr album expecting a masterpiece,” said Pete Paphides in the London Times. You can only take so much of his “sunny truisms” before they turn schmaltzy.