Ringo Starr needs no preamble. As one quarter of the biggest band of all time, the man has seen it all and done it all and has nothing left to prove. Nor would he even want to – part of Starr’s enduring charm has always been his everydayness, content with his reputation as the definitive nice man of music. Now at the ripe old age of eighty and with the country still in lockdown, you’d imagine Starr was happy just to put his feet up. Not a bit of it. 

Instead, Starr has spent much of lockdown assembling an online who’s who of modern musical legends and recording a new EP, seemingly for no other reason than the sheer lockdown-beating fun of it. And what a guestlist it is too, featuring Sir Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Dave Grohl, Jenny Lewis, Corinne Bailey Rae, as well as prollic songwriter Sam Hollander, who has worked with everyone from Blink 182 to Kelly Rowland. 

If that sounds like quite an eclectic band to have strung together, you’d be right, but despite the cocktail of styles behind Zoom In – yes, it’s named for the online conferencing tool – it remains an unapologetically Ringo Starr affair, dominated by the kind of relentlessly upbeat, remorselessly genuine, smile-inducing optimism you’d expect from a man who spearheaded the ‘peace and love’ movement.

Closing track Not Enough Love In The World is where Starr hammers home his message most directly, singing: “There’s not enough peace / There’s not enough hope / There’s not enough love in the world’ over a jaunty, trumpet powered backing track. Here’s To The Nights counts down the days until lockdown restrictions end and we can all cheer “Here's to the nights we won't remember / With the friends we won't forget / May me think of them forever / As the days that were the best”, while Zoom In Zoom Out is a stomping tribute to the technology that has kept us all connected over the last year.

Zoom In then is deliciously strange. To the cynical it’s all a bit cringey, but I challenge anyone not to raise a smile listening to Ringo’s infectious enthusiasm. I mean, we could all do with a bit of positivity right now, couldn’t we?

Zoom In tracklist:

1. Here’s To The Nights
2. Zoom In Zoom Out
3. Teach Me To Tango
4. Waiting For The Tide To Turn
5. Not Enough Love In The World

Watch the official video for Here’s To The Nights here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.