Label: 7243 4 90215 9 4 1. Any Road 2. Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) 3. Looking for My Life 4. Rising Sun 5. Marwa Blues 6. Stuck Inside a Cloud 7. Run So Far 8. Never Get Over You 9. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 10. Rocking Chair in Hawaii 11. Brainwashed Comments Completed by George Harrison's son Dhani and Jeff Lynne (Traveling Wilburys, Cloud Nine) after the ex-Beatle succumbed to a long illness in November 2001, Brainwashed is a bittersweet reminder of the myriad contradictions that made Harrison such a compelling figure. One of the most warm, melodically rich albums in a career pockmarked by personal frankness and professional indifference in its latter years, Harrison finds rewarding ways here to reconcile bitter assessments of the material world (the title track) with more fleshy concerns, as his jaunty take on the Arlen-Koehler chestnut "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" ably demonstrates. Pushing the singer's distinctive dry voice to the forefront, and with Harrison's trademark slide guitar riffs as sinewy as ever, Lynne's showcase production is mostly spot-on and refreshingly restrained, while Dhani brings his own fresh, touchingly personal insights to the record. He double-tracked his own voice onto an old recording of his father chanting the traditional "Namah Parvati" and appended it as the album's spiritual benediction, a touching reminder that while musicians come and go, music can truly embody their spirit forever.
© 2011 David Laurie