 "Harrison's "L.A." soft-rock album...and his best!" | 2008-04-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A20JLLGQO3A0O9 |
By no means was this a perfect album by George. If I were to prune/edit the album, it would be the "hit" of the album, 'You' (and its minute-long reprise), and the last song, 'His Name is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)'. 'You' sounds not only dated (and, with good reason, the instrumental track was from the ATMP sessions)but, the overall tone of the song doesn't fit with the others. And, 'Legs' could have done without the second chorus/verse, which seemed to weigh down its intended light-hearted vibe.
That said, the rest of the album is virtually flawless. George wisely decided to avoid the bombastic nature of ATMP, set aside the preachiness of LITMW and forego the bitterness that pervaded DH. Each song, from 'This Guitar' to 'Grey Cloudy Lies', has a very relaxed feel to it. The lyrics are simple yet lovingly projected. The various backing band members provide a solid professionalism, without ever over-indulging. And, George himself is in fine form throughout.
This was the sort of soft rock that was being produced at the time. Just think of 'Long,Long,Long' and 'Something' taken to a lush, '70s level. Not surprisingly, the album was recorded at the L.A. studios of AM Records. And, it is exactly the laid-back quality of that city that is well represented here.
Had Harrison been able to replace 'You' with, say, 'Far East Man' from DH, this would had elevated the album to "classic" status amongst the solo Beatles canon. Still, warm and loving, ET(RAAI)is that one George Harrison album that can be very soothing after one of those long and hectic days. So, sit back and enjoy George' soft, jazzy leanings. |
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 "Better Than Nyquil" | 2007-10-12 |
| - Reviewed By tgromek |
| This isn't a bad album but it sure is a boring album. From the dull orange cover to the music inside. I agree with another reviewer that this slow, prodding, walking through mollasses music is probably fallout from George's divorce. A more appropriate title would be "Break-Up Blues". "You" is the only song worth cranking on the stereo. The rest will put you to sleep. "Ooh Baby", "World Of Stone" and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" all sound like clones of each other more or less. And many of these songs are way too long. Just when you think one of these yawners is over, it fades back in again. I only bought this to complete the record collection. Put this one on if your kids won't go to sleep. It'll do the job. |
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 "Utterly embarrassing" | 2007-08-15 |
| - Reviewed By markofcain |
I went into this album with a fairly open mind. Sometimes if one has already heard the worst and isn't building the album up to be awesome, one's expectations won't be dashed, and one might even really like the album and find it wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of people say. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for me with this particular album. I'll agree that there is some very soulful beautiful singing on it, but that doesn't really cancel out or make up for the overwhelmingly uninspired dull amateurish repetitive crummy lyrics and melodies. 'Dark Horse' might have the serious impediment of the hoarse vocals, but if you can get past that, there are actually a lot of strong songs on that record. This album didn't seem quite so awful after I gave it a few more listens, but it didn't come to seem like an unsung masterpiece either.
The opening track, "You," is fun, catchy, and upbeat, though it does have some pretty simplistic lyrics, and since George sang it in a register higher than his natural one, it sounds a bit speeded-up. (I suppose that's partly due to how he originally wrote it for Ronnie Spector and not himself.) "The Answer's at the End" is a bit better, a nice spiritual song, perhaps one of his most underrated songs. "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" is truly horrible and embarrassing, a horrible retread of the far superior "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." It's embarrassing to listen to this song, and many of the others on here! "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" is similarly embarrassing, particularly because the lyrics consist of little more than constantly repeating "Ooh," "Baby," and "I love you." "World of Stone" is a bit of an improvement over these songs, but not so much so to elevate it into one of the album's relatively good songs.
"A Bit More of You" is a 45-second instrumental delivering exactly what the title says--a bit more of "You." At least it provides a short break before launching back into yet another embarrassing uninspired repetitive song, "Can't Stop Thinking About You." I actually like the next two tracks, "Tired of Midnight Blue" and "Grey Cloudy Lies," though not so much so I'd ever count them among George's best songs. There's some really beautiful singing on "Grey Cloudy Lies" in particular, but again, a beautiful voice doesn't cancel out a bad song. The closing track, "His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)," is upbeat and catchy enough in a harmless way, like "You," but just seems really weird and out of place here. Nearly all of the other songs are very slow, sad, and depressing, and to make it even worse, a bunch of them were demos.
In addition to generally crummy uninspired lyrics and melodies (even the guitar-playing is suffering here!), the album is also rather overproduced. Overproduction isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not when it means that the music is drowning out the singer. It also gets really old and annoying when a number of the songs consist of little more than "Ooh-ooh-ooh" over and over again. How could the man who wrote such great songs as "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," "All Things Must Pass," "Who Can See It," and "What Is Life" suddenly put out an album full of such embarrassing far-below-par dreck? He was writing better songs in 1964 and 1965 when he was just getting started as a serious songwriter! Probably the best things about this tired bottom of the barrel album are the bits of quirky tongue-in-cheek humor, the "OHNOTHIMAGEN" caption on one side of the paper sleeve and the fact that the Apple logo isn't a full green apple, but rather, respectively, an eaten apple core and a rotten apple core. I would only recommend this to completists, or people who want a cure for insomnia. |
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| "Extra Finely Textured" | 2007-02-22 |
| - Reviewed By User: AAQMEAP4A5XF2 |
| Another generally forgotten album from the usual reviewers to George's post Beatle releases, but very mistakingly so because there are some classic songs here that I appreciate based on their own merit. From the 1st song You to This Guitar and Ooh Baby finishing off with His Name Is Legs, from 1975 these tunes show George had songwriting skills from way back that were just always overshadowed and always will be by Lennon/McCartney.This review is worth an easy 4 stars! |
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| "My least favorite" | 2006-11-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3GZW9D76A9IUM |
| This is my least favorite of George's CD's. A few good songs, but the instrumentals drown his voice out too much. |
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 "Extra Texture" | 2006-03-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1CW7VP0WAAHRJ |
| As usual Theres no surprise, this album was a known winner before I got it. and it lived up to my expectations. I don't believe Harrison has ever made an album that wasn't fantastic. |
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| "EXTRA TEXTURE (READ ALL ABOUT IT) - (APPLE RECORDS/1975)" | 2005-04-27 |
| - Reviewed By prospero722000 |
| No beating around the bush here: this is George Harrison's worst solo album. A slow, plodding effort that is barely kept afloat by its own expert musicianship and a Top Twenty leftover from the "ALL THINGS MUST PASS" sessions called "You". There are a few bright spots along the way: most notably the goofy finale "His Name Is Legs (Ladies & Gentlemen)" that is a fun autobiographical number about Bonzo Dog Band member "Legs" Larry Smith (who makes a cameo appearance on background vocals!), a slew of lovely ballads ("The Answer's At The End", "Can't Stop Thinking About You", "Tired Of Midnight Blue"), a Smokey Robinson tribute ("Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You")), and the airily melodic "You". Unfortunately the album is burdened by duds like "World Of Stone" and a dreadful rewrite of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as "This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)". HIGHEST POP ALBUM CHART POSITION: Number 8. |
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| "two stars, in my opinion" | 2005-01-18 |
| - Reviewed By lonely_lennie |
I have a lot of criticism of this album but I'll just mention what I feel is important.
I think the main reason I don't like the album is because George buries his voice underneath layers of orchestration on this album. Production wise, this album makes overproduced efforts like 'All things must pass' and even Ringo Starr's 'Ringo the fourth' look like 'Plastic Ono Band' by comparison. I don't think Overproduction is necessarily a bad thing, but you should be able to hear the vocalist easily. Perhaps Harrison was paying too much attention to his critics and the comments about his voice on the last album 'Dark Horse'. Not only that, his critically acclaimed masterpiece 'All things must pass' was a very riff driven album. The critically dissed 'Living in the material world' was not a riff driven album. So on Dark Horse and Extra Texture Harrison tries to make the songs more riff driven. However, I think sometimes he tends to be repetitous, but that's just my view.
I find most of the songs fairly enjoyable, and some of the songs show his knack for writing great melodies, but overall there are not the same kind of melodies displayed here as usual, in my opinion, and music is a matter of opinion. Going by other reviews, some people think it's great, some think it's bad and a few think it's a masterpiece. Try to hear sample before you buy.
In points of praise, I think 'You' is a terrific pop song. Other highlights for me were 'Grey Cloudy lies' where George experiments with synthesisers and that song has a very unique melody. 'Can't stop thinking about you' is a beautiful ballad that has the same kind of charm as the fadeout to 'Gave it all up'. This guitar can't keep from crying is alright, and they are the only songs I like personally. |
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| "3.5 stars - Not bad, not great either" | 2004-05-16 |
| - Reviewed By i1iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii |
| Extra Texture (1975.) George Harrison's fourth solo album. Up until 1975, all of George Harrison's post-Beatles solo albums had been nothing short of excellent. All Things Must Pass was a multi-platinum success, and it fast became a fan favorite. The follow-up albums, Living In The Material World and Dark Horse, though not nearly as popular, were also excellent. However, due to his contractual obligations, Harrison had to record another studio solo album. And in 1975, his "contractual obligation" album, Extra Texture, was released. Read on for my review of this album. Most musical artists have a low point in their careers, and for George Harrison, that low point is the Extra Texture album. Just by listening to the album, you can tell that the only reason Harrison really recorded it was to fulfill his contractual obligations. Many of the songs sound alike, and many aren't up to his usual standards. But still, even the weakest George Harrison album is better than the strongest album that most muscial artists release. You, which would become one of Harrison's biggest solo hits, is present here as the opener, and it is nothing short of excellent. From there on out, it's a pretty redundant album. Although not one of these songs is a bad one, they just aren't up to George's usual standards. In fact, many of these recordings are DEMOS! This doesn't really hurt the sound quality any, but still, he should have rerecorded the songs - he could have done them better. Oh well, I'm not complaining. Sure, it's George's weakest album overall, but even George's weakest album is better than the so-called "best" album released by many artists. To put it simply, Extra Texture is an album for big time George Harrison fans only - casual fans and newbies need not apply. If you're new to the Harrison solo legacy, do the smart thing and start with All Things Must Pass. If you start with this album, you could get the wrong impression about Harrison's music. It's a good album, but he can do better. |
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| "This is a bluesy positive album." | 2004-04-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: ACASUNLYFJN34 |
| This album in retrospect is one of George Harrison's best albums. Unlike All Thing Must Pass, this album grows on you the more you listen to it. The album features one track that has the commercial appeal of about five on ATMP(YOU) but it has many soulful gems that have for too long been underappreciated. The Answer is at the End is a fantastic performance both vocally and instrumentally that has a way of sticking with you weeks after you've played it. Tired of Midnight Blue has a surreal quality that may one day have it "discovered" by a new generation of listeners. George was obviously going through a dark time in his life, but this album suggests that he had the stability and postive mind frame to continue to move forward out of the wilderness. This album may not be for everybody but along with 331/3 it rates as the best of a solid performer and songwriter. |
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