Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Harrison, George
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1973
Length: 43:55
“Living In The Material World” is Harrison’s fourth studio album and his second of the post-Beatles era. Following the lead of the solo debuts of his two former bandmates Lennon and McCartney, Harrison showed that he was at his expressive hottest in the first stretch of his post-Beatles solo career. “All Things Must Pass” brought him enormous success, and with that tremendously high-quality pop rock album the guy put everyone on notice that his musical ideas, compositionally speaking, were far from boring, and that Harrison, with his vision, could take on even the best work of both Lennon and McCartney without hesitation. Not counting Harrison’s minimalist approach to writing lyrics, of course. It took a full two and a half years for “Living In The Material Wolrd” to finally see the light of day, and after the huge commercial success of “All Things Must Pass”, expectations among the critics only grew during that long gap between releases.
The album kicks off with Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth). It’s a track placed right at the start to satisfy, in the very first breath, everyone hungry for another My Sweet Lord-style hit like the one on the previous “All Things Must Pass”. And it delivers. The song is dressed head to toe in unmistakable Harrison reach. Organic sounds, a ride on the slide guitar that, in conversation with Harrison’s distinctive, thin-hued singing and under the baton of his production, gets under your skin automatically! A new pop hit that conquered the tops of the world charts. Proud, easygoing, relaxed pop rock within this kind of cliché, for the long-ago year of 1973. The lyrics are simplified to the max and their purpose is preaching. Harrison made no secret of his obsession with Hinduism, so repeating just three words in the verses is perfectly fitting for this kind of expression. All in all, in the garments of gentle sonic palettes, with piano figures, slide guitar and acoustic strumming flowing together and lifting up the stamp of Harrison’s front-and-center vocals — which, to be honest, have nothing to brag about technically, but are saved by that recognizable charisma of fully immersed delivery — Harrison achieves the goal of his sermon in full!
The man conjures up an excellent dynamic, atmospheric twist with the following Sue Me, Sue You Blues, a lament over unpleasant memories of frequent courtroom visits. Obscurely set up compared with the easygoing opener, poured into a blues mold and with it a breeze of mourning, on the wings of a reality check, with depressive vocals wrapped in a weave of natural collages of classical piano and slide guitar! The album’s dark undertone is far more obviously captured this time than on its predecessor “All Things Must Pass”. The album as a whole has an exceptional flow of dynamics and many moods. After the fragile, tender ballad The Light That Has Lightened The World, Harrison returns to the living with the easygoing, radio-minded pop dance number Don’t Let Me Wait To Long and wraps the album again in the glow of longing devotion to the heavenly lords, guardians of Hinduism, in the new masterful ballad Who Can See It, where we first meet string arrangements that, with entirely simple tricks, prop up the theatrical mood in the background of the song.
The title track unmistakably points to the dual nature of Harrison’s way of life. The contrast between material (and bodily) liberation (the spiritual side) and clinging to matter and the physical body, as a consequence of the existential necessity that Western civilization strives for (world without end, amen). Floating in the sphere between Ravi Shankar and Bob Dylan is most directly summed up by The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord). The romantically dreamy Be Here Now is followed by one of the record’s strongest moments, the psychedelic, late-period “Beatles-ism” of Try Some, Buy Some. With its dissonant melodic curves, which only heighten its appeal as an obscure whisper of mystery hanging in the air — one that smolders solemnly and mysteriously in the background throughout, while Harrison’s thin vocal breaks through the clouds of dark atmosphere from the orchestral arrangements and classical piano with particularly bold, personal expressiveness and authenticity — the song always drew in David Bowie too, who, as a kind of student of it, finally found the time to dig in, dress it up in his own way and put it on his album “Reality” (2003). Harrison’s artistic maturity as a solo artist is rounded off nicely by the last track, That Is All, which underlines his exceptional knack for finding the middle path between all the musical building blocks and fusing them into a compact whole, through which the charm of his yearning singing shines with special intensity in the boundless surrender of his love to Lord Sri Krsna!
“Living In The Material World” reaped praiseworthy commercial success on release, thanks mainly to the fame of its predecessor and not so much to airplay of its “singles”. That’s why it sank into oblivion very quickly and remains, to this day, an underrated, overlooked Harrison album. Still, it boasts some exceptionally strong moments carrying noble, high-quality virtues that true fans of The Beatles, as well as of Harrison as a solo artist, can’t afford to ignore. Perhaps the album’s lower level of acceptance among the music-buying masses was helped along by a misunderstanding of its pronounced spiritual side, through Harrison’s preaching — he was in that period actually going through a turbulent, stressful time in his life and simply needed a personal refuge in purifying the heart through faith, which he clung to especially tightly at that moment, capturing those feelings on tape as they were. “Living In The Material World” is a musical document, strong above all as a strictly personal, confessional album, which in that respect delivers a new classic of Harrison’s one-of-a-kind musical character.
Lineup
George Harrison – vocals, guitar
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards
Gary Wright – keyboards
Jim Horn – saxophone, flute
Zakir Hussein – tabla
John Barham – orchestral arrangements
Klaus Voormann – bass guitar
Jim Keltner – drums
Ringo Starr – drums
Jim Gordon – drums
Production
George Harrison
Track list
1. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)
2. Sue Me, Sue You Blues
3. Light That Had Lighted the World
4. Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long
5. Who Can See It
6. Living in the Material World
7. Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)
8. Be Here Now
9. Try Some Buy Some
10. Day the World Gets ‘Round
11. That Is All
Album length: 43.55
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 2006 REMASTERED EDITION:
12. Deep Blue
13. Miss O’Dell
