Since COVID, living icon Ringo Starr has been releasing a series of four-song EPs, from 2021’s Zoom In (QRO review) & Change the World (QRO review) to last year’s EP3 (QRO review). Now comes Rewind Forward, another four-piece that might just be very cheery blues-rock, but done by the best person in the world (and his All-Starr Band) to do cheery music.
Like the prior EPs, Rewind Forward is up-with-life, but coming from Ringo Starr it’s as honest and pure as the peace sign he flashes on the cover. Only the title track is written by Starr (and engineer/frequent co-writer Bruce Sugar), while his All-Starrs (and Toto members) Steve Lukather and Joseph Williams wrote the more evening eighties rock of opener “Shadows On the Wall”. The cheeriest song is “Feeling the Sunlight”, written by none other than that other guy from The Beatles, Paul McCartney, while closer “Miss Jean” (from Benmont Tench & Mike Campbell, former Heartbreakers, Tom Petty & The), leans more towards the fifties party rock Starr started in way back when.
These EPs aren’t meant to fill the space of albums, any more than Rewind Forward is to be compared to ‘final Beatles song ever’ “Now and Then” (QRO review). They’re just a celebration of life & music, like Ringo Starr always has been.
