Customer Reviews

Extra Texture

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This record is George's "soul" album. And I have actually felt for a long time that George Harrison is one of the most soulful white singers, writers, and guitarists. I love this entire record, because it has a certain "feel" that you just don't hear anymore in music these days. My favorite tracks are "The Answer's at the End," "This Guitar," and "Tired of Midnight Blue," but I really do enjoy every track. I suppose "Can't Stop Thinking About You" is another favorite. What people forget about this record is that it was a HUGE improvement over the hoarse sounding mess that was the Dark Horse album. This record finds George's voice back to its sweetness and soulfulness. Also, the production is much cleaner and tighter. The musicians are all top notch, especially the rhythm section. Jim Keltner plays on every song except the last. Klaus Voormann plays bass on a few songs here, Leon Russell contributes some stunning piano on Midnight Blue. The drumming, in particular, is outstanding. Jim Keltner is the next best thing to Ringo. His snare drum is so full and warm on this record, and it floats through every song with grace and ease. George's guitar playing is sublime as always, particularly when he plays slide in his own trademark melodic style. The songwriting is also much more sophisticated in terms of melody and harmony. George has always known just how to tastefully use the right seventh and ninth chords, and diminished chords, for exactly the right effect, without overdoing it. Listen to the backup harmonies on "Can't Stop Thinking About You," and how they mesh with the strings! Heavenly! Listen to the rhythm guitar on "Tired of Midnight Blue," and how it meshes with the piano! Absolutely luscious! And ooh those warm Keltner drums! Every track has something special, even the ones I didn't mention right away. "World of Stone" has a gospel feel, very lovely. "Grey Cloudy Lies" is a beautiful melancholy piece, with gorgeous harmonies and drumming, and wonderful synthesizer work as well, very tasteful. This is emotional music, very heartfelt, very beautiful and gentle on the spirit.

George's best solo albums are All Things, Material World, Extra Texture, 33 1/3, the self-titled 1979 record, and Cloud Nine. This album is closest in feel to the 1979 "George Harrison" album, which is another relaxed and soulful affair. 33 1/3 is more uptempo and extroverted, certainly also one of his greatest records, in a similar rock vein as Cloud Nine. But when you want to get swept away by the soulfulness and heartfelt musicianship of George Harrison and his closest musical allies, Extra Texture is the one. It always puts me in a more peaceful and positive frame of mind, always soothes me in times of doubt. If you want to crank up a rock and roll album, 33 1/3 is among George's best, very muscular and energetic. When you're having a rough time, and you NEED to hear something to heal your soul, look no further than Extra Texture. George WILL NOT let you down. The man has real soul.

EXTRA TEXTURE came out in 1975 and followed George Harrison's ill-advised LP, DARK HORSE. Harrison's voice was shot when he recorded Dark Horse, but recovered for EXTRA TEXTURE. While this album isn't great, I agree that  taken as a whole  it is fairly strong.

The CD starts out with "You"  the one "up tempo" song. It has an excellent combination of horns and Phil Spector-like "wall of sound" production. From then on, the album takes a reflective and somber tone. The songs are all somewhat sad, and a bit bluesy as well. (Fortunately, Harrison managed to avoid references to Hinduism.) Take the second song  "The Answer's at the End"  "Don't be so hard on the ones that you need / it's the ones that you need that you think so little of." OK, not exactly profound, but these words have popped into my head a lot over the years.

Not all of the ten (actually more like nine) songs succeed equally well. I'm not a fan of "Grey Cloudy Lies" and "Ooh Baby" for example. But if you are in the right mood, I think you'll enjoy this effort.

This album is a notch above "Dark Horse"....the opening track is ahea dof it's time, with an 80's feel, already in 1975! "The Answer's At The End" is an exquisite track, worthy of his earlier efforts..."This Guitar" (Can't Keep From Crying is enjoyable and grows on you with repaeted play.....but the true hilight here is a track called "Tired of Midnight Blue"...excellent, deserving to be placed with his best...George is returning to great form, and his best period artistically 1976-89 was looming ahead...

Extra Texture (Read All About It) provided George Harrison with a nice comeback after the disappointing Dark Horse album. The latter album suffered from being hastily recorded and Mr. Harrison's voice being strained. Mr. Harrison's voice sounds much stronger on this effort and he comes up with some strong material. The album's opener, "You", is an excellent song and "This Guitar (Can't Stop From Crying)" is a worthy follow-up to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Other strong songs include "World Of stone", "Grey Cloudy Eyes", "A Bit More Of You" and the brilliant "Tired Of Midnight Blue". The album would peak at number eight in 1975 and would be twelve years before he would get back there.

"Extra Texture" was the last Apple release for George, and continued a downward trend for every record he recorded through that period (started great with "All Things Must Pass", with each subsequent album losing something). Luckily, this turned around in his first Dark Horse album in 1976 ("33 1/3"). So how far down does this record go? For Beatle fans, it's still listenable. The odd thing about this CD is that collectively the songs seem depressing; however, when certain tracks are taken individually, they hold up well. The album starts out great with "You"- not a lyrical masterpiece, but a good catchy song in sync with that time period. "This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)" is a little too close to the idea of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", but holds its own OK. The love song "Can't Stop Thinking About You" is actually pretty pleasurable when the songs around it are put aside. So what's the story? A lot going on in his personal life at the time probably contributed to the overall low feel his writing. In addition, the strings are overused. They work ocassionally in "Answer at the End", but too much elsewhere. Toss in a throwaway such as "Ooh Baby"...well, you get the idea. It's your call. I'm a big Harrison fan, so I still like the album and play it myself. Honestly, it's a little high at $..., but it's out of print here. Beatle fans' interests may outweigh those costs.

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.

What is the problem? There's nothing wrong with depressing songs. LIFE is depressing. If you want to kick back and listen to something that actually makes you think and relax and realize you better get your lovin' now or how great your god is (whichever god you prefer) or your guitar can't keep from cryin', this is a great album. 'Tired of Midnight Blue', slow, yes, depressing, hell no. If you want to listen to 'Got my my set on you' or 'Crackerbox Palace' or (gulp) 'Ding Dong', you should stick to the McCartney. If anything 'You' and 'Hats off to Legs' or whatever that pieceof fluff is called, should have been put somewhere else. Don't you get it, this is MUSIC, if it doesn't touch you, if it's just background, why listen. Art isn't art unless it provokes emotion. This is not a 'bluesy-jazzy' kind of thing. This is heart and mind and soul. Absolutely buy this CD. Buy it right now. George is on his way out, and when he's gone I'm going to listen to this album, get very depressed and cry, but I'll be loving every second of it.

I've read through the reviews about this album over the years, and the most recent ones on this page. Another Harrison album put on the proverbial cinder block for too late inspection.

One thing you will find on this album and on George's next album "Thirty Three and a Third" (1976 and out of print?!?!?)
is that Harrison had a very soulful voice. Moreso than McCartney's Little Richard impersonations and Lennon's nasal derived voicings. Whats most pleasing to hear after a few years away from this album, is that George Harrison had a pretty [darn] good falsetto and upper range voice. "The Answer's At The End" has one of his best vocal performances recorded.

I've read a previous review where it's said that the staunchest anti-Beatle reunion participant (Harrison) constantly made reference to The Beatles songs in his solo work. Sorry, but thats no different than any of them apart from Paul. Lennon, Starkey and Harrison all made reference to Beatles years in their solo work. I find the most hypocritical of those three to be Lennon, not Harrison. The man who said he did not believe in Beatles went an awful long way to make sure "How Do You Sleep" hit its target (McCartney), and to release such a petty and nasty song at someone you've said you didn't care about anymore a year previously is just hypocritical. The Beatles were these 4 individuals past, they can say what they like about it in song, jest or interview.

The standouts on this album are "Tired of Midnight Blue", "World of Stone", "Can't Stop Thinking About You", "The Answer's At The End", and "You". Even Harrison at his supposed worst wrote very good songs, and when listening to 1975's other offerings from ex-Beatles, you know I'd rather hear "Tired of Midnight Blue" than Paul's "Magneto & Titanium Man". Whatever the tale was that inspired Harrison to write "Tired . . . " it is a very twisted tale and quite dark in tone. Not a nice subject, but the thing is no matter what the darkness of the story, this song is upbeat, has an amazing hookline in it and is sung with great voice and character. It has a very New Orleans / Rhythm & Blues verse and chorus and a very smooth jazz bridge. Up and down in mood, "Tired of Midnight Blue" is an underrated gem.

This and "Dark Horse" are the albums by Harrison absolutely trampled on (apart from "Gone Troppo" and "Somewhere In England"). It's also been said that this is the last album Harrison made of concentrated spiritual message. Wrong. Every album he wrote had spiritual tone and lyric throughout. Just because you don't see 'God' written in the lyric, doesn't mean its not about God. "Dear One" (from 33 1/3) is just as spiritual in tone as "The Lord Loves The One (That Loves the Lord)" from 1973. He never stopped talking about God in his songs. That you think its about God you find in a bible or in a church is up to you, but if anyone had listened to the lyrics of All Things Must Pass's "Awaiting On You All" , Harrison said you'd have a fat chance of finding God in any of those places or things. That this man is seen as preachy by the populace is absolutely infuriating to me. On Extra Texture itself he says "Wise men you won't be to follow the likes of me . . . ", whereas Lennon, who is absolutely raised on a pedestal, told you to follow him if you wanted to be a Working Class Hero. Harrison tried not to let ego infiltrate his songs, which is what the whole rock world and pop culture is about -- EGO. That is why Bono, McCartney, Elton John, and a host of others are raised way above their stations in life, but contribute very little to the conscience or the pursuit of life outside the SELF. Would you rather see another egotistical Jennifer Lopez in the world, or another self-involved Lennon complaining Harrison hadn't included him in his auto-biography about gardening, cars and guitars? There is too much I ME MINE in the world, and Harrison tried to tell you all about its destructive qualities, but you shoved it back in his face and told him he was better being The Quiet One.

Great.

Buy Extra Texture if you've had enough of [bad stuff] in your musical collection and "Baby Hit Me One More Time" just doesn't have the punch that it used to anymore.

This is a close to a companion piece for All Things Must Pass, but better in lots of ways. Rather than having the songs drown under Spectors production, this is GH in great voice with a stellar band behind him...creating a really funky bluesy white soul vibe. Nearly every track on this album should have been ALL OVER the FM Dial in 1975. This is the first GH Lp I purchased new as a high schooler back in '75. Spent tons of time with it then...and it still holds up.

I swear that I don't understand why people don't like this album. Some of these songs do make me kind of teary eyed, and if you want an album to relax you and think of suicide, this is it!I recommend this album to only serious Harrison fans, like myself. If you are just looking for a Beatle Harrison, then I would have to tell you to get All Things Must Pass.