Ringo Starr Goodnight

It's hard to judge Ringorama, Ringo Starr's 12th proper studio album, by most standard critical criteria. Even comparing the record to his previous solo work doesn't quite work, since so many of his albums are so driven by his persona – a combination of his actual personality and what his team of collaborators (always including a bevy of guest stars, of course) perceive his persona to be. Apart from 1973's towering Ringo, and its good follow-up, Goodnight Vienna, Starr was never consistent, partially because of his decadence in the '70s, but …

The idea, back in 1980, was to resurrect Ringo Starr's recording career by the same method that it had been launched with the Ringo album in 1973 – by having his fellow Beatles and other well-known friends help out. John Lennon was working on a song called "Nobody Told Me," and George Harrison had one ready to go…

Leaving Atlantic Records after the sales disaster of Ringo the 4th, Ringo Starr signed to CBS's Portrait label and returned to the record racks after only seven months with Bad Boy…

Paul McCartney creates a splash whenever he releases a new album, but Ringo Starr stays a bit on the sidelines, cranking out records and tours to a smaller, dedicated audience. Starr is under no delusion that he might suddenly have a Top 10 smash: he's happy to be a working musician, which is all he ever wanted to be. After all, he was a working musician before he was a Beatle, a beginning he celebrates on "Rory & the Hurricanes," the opening track of Postcards from Paradise, his 18th studio solo album. "Rory & the Hurricanes" is part of a long line of latter-day autobiographical tunes from Ringo, and that's not the only similarity Postcards from Paradise shares with the records Starr has made in the new millennium…