Ringo Star

It's always been pretty hard to take Ringo Starr seriously. Despite his impressive drumming chops, he's typically relegated to the background-or punchlines-of Beatles history. It could be the name. Or the nose. Or the fact that he spent the '80s playing an eight-inch-tall train conductor on the American spin-off of Thomas The Tank Engine (this is probably a big part of it).

Starr's latest, Liverpool 8, falls prey to similar pitfalls. The album is unmistakably jolly, optimistic and upbeat, but it achieves this at the cost of border-line absurdity.

His musical ability is unquestionable, but anyone familiar with Starr's back catalogue knows he has never been much of a lyricist. Liverpool 8 confirms this.

The inadvertently hilarious "Think About You" details the Starr's method for respite from pangs of loneliness: "If I want to cast a spell/There's a little trick that I do/I just have to think about you/Yeah it's true/Shoo/I just have to think about you/So I Do!" On "For Love" Starr delicately delivers poetic gems such as "Everybody's got to know/That love is not like in the picture show/When you know, you really know."

In spite of its numerous instances of illiteracy (and occasionally because of them), Liverpool 8 is still actually a pretty darn enjoyable record. The title track is a nostalgic ballad of Beatles yesteryear, bursting with genuine enthusiasm as Starr recounts the early adventures of "Those four boys from Liverpool" over a soaring backdrop of violins and synths. Though it borders on cliche, his weepy remembrance is somehow endearing enough to forgive lines like "In the U.S.A./When we played Shea/We were number one/And it was fun."

Ringo has always been considered a great musician, but there's a good reason why he has never been (and hopefully never will be) considered a good frontman: he's just not that good at it.

Unfortunately, his performance on Liverpool 8 is no exception to this rule, but it is a solid effort that will likely appeal to any listener eager for a little Beatles sentimentality.