ALBUM REVIEW: George Harrison - Wonderwall Music

    George Harrison was always the most low-key Beatle - while John was always quick with a snide comment or cheeky remark, Paul there to be the group's secondary PR man, and Ringo always with a joke and a laugh, George was more reserved. It fit the dynamic, of course, but it made him perhaps the least in the spotlight. Nevertheless, underneath the reserved and quiet Beatle was a burgeoning artistic talent of his own, and it was growing gradually more evident on albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, with his contributions already up to the standards of Lennon-McCartney tunes. Harrison was also distinguishing himself from these two with his fascination in Indian music and mysticism (it was him that eventually opened The Beatles up to Transcendental Meditation, meeting the Maharishi, and their famous trip to India). Harrison wasn't overly interested in the group's 1967 output (Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour), so when the offer came from director Joe Massot to soundtrack his upcoming Wonderwall film, he took him up on it. Far more creatively involved with this project than McCartney ever was with The Family Way, it's no surprise that George's creative blend of Hindustani music with western ideas from rock, country, and ragtime is often given the credit of "first Beatles solo album", and a solid first outing from the members at that - Harrison's passion for Hindustani music is on full display here, and his fusions do add a rich layer of sound and ideas to many of the songs here.

     Ordinarily, I try to go easier on soundtracks, especially early ones. Before the days of Shaft and Superfly and Purple Rain, most soundtracks had a special knack for not being overly cohesive or that interesting to listen to outside of background noise. You want a great example? Look at Paul McCartney's The Family Way soundtrack that predates this by almost two years, a record so bland and boring that it seems McCartney himself has disowned it - you can no longer find it on streaming services. Harrison doesn't make such mistakes, although Wonderwall Music certainly does make good background noise with its compositions. Harrison's soundtrack is mostly instrumental outside of occasional Hindu singing on moments like "Dream Scene" or the wordless singing of "Singing Om", he manages to keep your attention through the variety of compositions here and the changing of paces. From fast-paced Hindustani moments like the excellent "Gat Kirwani" to the peculiar ragtime influence of "Drilling a Home", Harrison uses his newfound creative freedom to explore various aspects of eastern and western music, and the result is certainly a bizarre album, but not an uncompelling one - it helps that it's all brilliantly performed, and you may recognize some names attached to this project such as Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr.

    With Wonderwall Music containing so many ideas and various genres throughout, I think it's safe to call the album a bit of an experiment. As experiments tend to do, sometimes the results don't always work out, although this is mostly the result of the occasional weak spot in the tracks that ebb and flow between each other throughout - as a brief tangent, the flow of the soundtrack is generally very good. Of course, most of this soundtrack is actually pretty effective, and while I've never seen Wonderwall Music I could imagine many of these moments suited to the bizarre plot of the film in question. More than the great Hindustani of tracks like "Tabla and Pakavaj" or "Love Scene", George's implementation of other genres such as the psychedelia of "Ski-ing" make for some of the album's best moments. "Cowboy Music" is great country music pastiche, and my personal favorite track "Dream Scene" is a fascinating piece of tape experimentation, and by far the most essential song on the album - grab "Dream Scene" and the pseudo-title track of "Wonderwall to Be Here" not only showcase Harrison's talent for composition, but in many ways showcases his emerging artistic brilliance.

    George Harrison, in time, would become one of the most acclaimed solo Beatles at the turn of a new decade (although that's a story for another time), but as we stand with just two Beatles solo records, he can rest easy knowing that Wonderwall Music is a very good soundtrack work that is, at the very least, a fascinating historical note. Harrison's textured songs and liberal use of other genres fuses well with his obvious respect and passion for Hindustani music, and his compositions are not only enjoyable on their own, but would almost certainly make great window-dressing for the film in question (he even The Beatles' "The Inner Light" out of this album's sessions, and that's hardly a bad thing). If you count this as Harrison's debut, than this certainly does a great job at showing Harrison's individual artistic passions and skills.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Wonderwall Music.