Ringo's Rotagravure had material suited to his style; the McCartney Wings esque dreamy soul of Pure Gold would have been a good single while the mariachi Las Brisas looks towards the whole lite adult rock star records of the 80s but actually dosen't feel like a diluted novelty act as it fits Ringo's limited country like delivery. Clearly the least serious or ambitious of the Beatles and lacking a bit of the musicianship of his few solo records in the early 70s, 1976's Ringo's Rotogravure displays the AOR that was cutting edge at this point if it also carries on the dancehall quality of Ringo's work too over say more serious and rootsier AOR artists like Elton John, England Dan and John Ford Colley, etc. There's great smooth synthesizer on You Don't Know Me At All and awesome wah-wah guitar on A Dose of Rock and Roll and nice soul backing singers on a lot of the tracks for an upbeat feel even on the melancholic, slower songs.
The best track has to be the John Lennon penned Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love) with it's mix of reggae beat, barrelling piano and country guitar. There is fast tempo to the song that differentiates it from most of his songs, the speedier song also has a funky blues licks interjecting with sweet tone, as always Ringo's albums have great instrumental skills behind them and are produced cleanly and not to drastically so it is a pleasant listen. Though I must say there is a Lennon demo of this just john and a piano. It is full of his natural charisma, ingenuity when it comes to melody and delivery that frankly wipes the floor with this version, sorry Ringo..
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