[.ca] Cloud Nine (W/2 Bonus Tracks)

Harrison's triumphant return to the spotlight:
Cloud Nine (1987.) George Harrison's ninth solo album. Following the release of his 1982 album, Gone Troppo, George Harrison took an extended vacation from recording albums for a while. During his leave of absence, he recorded a track for the Porky's Revenge soundtrack, which was nothing short of excellent - and a premonition of what was to come. In 1987, Harrison teamed up with Electric Light Orchestra (E.L.O.) frontman Jeff Lynne, for some help with his upcoming ninth studio album. And in 1987, Cloud Nine was released. This was Harrison's most popular release in nearly fifteen years! Does it live up to the hype, or is it just an overrated and subpar effort? Read on for my review. Is this album overrated? Yes it is. Does it deserve to be overrated? Yes it does. This is George Harrison's first true five-star album since 1970's All Things Must Pass. No, this album doesn't quite top that one, but it's a very close second best. On this album, Harrison serves up masterpiece after masterpiece. The big hits to be found on this album are Got My Mind Set On You and When We Was Fab. Got My Mind Set On You is a cover of a song written by Rudy Clark. Harrison's take on the song hit number one on the pop charts. The other fairly popular track featured on this album is When We Was Fab, Harrison's ode to his Beatle days. Because of Jeff Lynne's assistance on this album, many tracks on the album greatly resemble Electric Light Orchestra - and this is the closest thing on the album to one of their songs. But, the big hits aren't the only good songs on this album! In addition to Jeff Lynne, Harrison recruited an assortment of all-star musicians for these sessions. The album's title track even featured Eric Clapton on guitars! While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the classic Beatles self-titled "White" album demonstrated beautifully that the two could function well as a unit, and this track helps to further establish that claim. Even seventies pop star Gary Wright appears on a few tracks (Wright was best known for his seventies hits, Dream Weaver and Love Is Alive.) Wright has appeared on a number of Harrison's solo recordings, and why not? He does an excellent job contributing to Harrison's work. There are a number of masterpieces to be found on this album, and it really must be heard to be appreciated. The album has often been called the most "Beatles-sounding" of the former Beatle solo recordings, and that's a good thing. Recently, all of the George Harrison studio albums and the live album from the Dark Horse years have been remastered and rereleased, and in some cases even gotten bonus tracks. On Cloud Nine, as far as bonus tracks go, you get the underrated tunes Shanghai Surprise and Zig Zag. Unfortunately though, the record company wasted a huge opportunity here. There were a ton more songs that should have been bonus tracks on here, but weren't included. Among these are Handle With Care, a big hit from Harrison's Traveling Wilburys days, I Won't Back Down, a Tom Petty song that George helped out with, Cheer Down, the song that Harrison recorded for the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack, and the infamous studio rarities, Poor Little Girl and Cockamamie Business. The latter three songs are available on Best Of Dark Horse, but the record company DID NOT reissue that compilation! Putting those songs on the rereleased Cloud Nine would have been extremely smart, but no. Now fans are going to have to hunt down an out of print compilation, just for the sake of three songs. Cloud Nine is George Harrison's finest work in a very long time. All of his solo albums are excellent, but this one, along with All Things Must Pass, are in a league all their own. No fan of George Harrison, casual or die-hard, should be without Cloud Nine. This is a masterpiece just waiting to be added to your collection.

George On Cloud Nine:
George Harrison had huge success with his 1987 album, "Cloud Nine," and with good reason: this is some of the most catchiest, irresistible music George ever made in his solo career. Co-produced by George and his pal, Jeff Lynne (of ELO), "Cloud Nine" contains nothing but absolutely wonderful, infectious pop: the title song, "That's What It Takes," "This Is Love," "When We Was Fab" (George's affectionate look back at his Fab Four days), "Devil's Radio," "Breath Away From Heaven," George's #1 hit single cover of Rudy Clark's "Got My Mind Set On You," and all the rest---simply marvelous music. George sings & plays his heart out, and he's joined on the album by a great group of friends, not only Jeff Lynne but also Eric Clapton, Elton John, and his old Beatle chum Ringo Starr. "Cloud Nine" is a very happy, upbeat, feel-good album that's eager to please, and it remains one of George Harrison's very best. You, too, will be on Cloud Nine listening to this one!

Cause for Celebration:
The reissue of "Cloud Nine" is a cause for celebration. The remastering sounds fresh. Harrison's material on this set is consistently strong. The title track is one of his best buoyant melodies. "If That's What It Takes" is a strong song, one that has me hit the repeat button. "Just for Today" is one of my favorite meditative songs; its sincerity as Harrison tries to live "through this day only" highlights his "Be Here Now" philosophy of living in the moment. The bubbly background vocals on "This Is Love" and the retro guitar riff makes this one of Harrison's most addictive tracks, "little things that will change you forever may appear from way out of the blue." The lovely piano part with the classical melody makes "We Was Fab" one of Harrison's greatest Beatle legacy tracks. "Devil's Radio" may be a bit overly didactic, but Harrison rocks so well that it's nevertheless quite fun as we join in singing "gossip". On "Someplace Else" the slower melody works marvelously as the gumdrop background choruses lull us into the sweetest of moods, "I need you now to be beside me." "Wreck of the Hesperus" rocks out joyfully with Harrison's marvelous lead guitar punctuating his unusual lyrics. The lovely Asian-inflected melody of "Breath of Heaven" is charmingly romantic. The closer for the original release, "Got My Mind Set On You," is one of Harrison's most commercial rockers, "It's going to take patience and time to do it right." The bonus track "Shanghai Surprise" has some lovely Beatlesque harmonies. "Zig Zag" seems a bit whimsical and perhaps a bit half-baked, but it's a lot of fun! The sequencing of songs provides just the right mix of fast & slow. The art and photos in the booklet are exquisite. This re-release of this classic set is not to be missed. Bravo!

George Harrison "Cloud 9" 1987:
George Harrison's "comeback" album is one of the best of his career. Personally I don't believe it is a comeback, it was just more commercial than any of his previous albums. This includes "All Things Must Pass." Laced with 80's productions, this album although dated has some pretty good songs. It was during this time that Jeff Lynne, the soul of ELO, was beginning a dominating career in music. Co-producing this album with George allowed him to produce and album by Roy Orbison, the quintessential Traveling Wilbury albums, and a couple of albums for Tom Petty. The only down side to this was that everyone's albums sounded like and ELO album. Okay, enough harping on Jeff Lynne...by the way, what's with the perm? Anyway, George leaves the world with his last studio album for 15 years until the release of "Brainwashed" released a year after the legends death. Up until that time, I can guarantee that if anyone walked into a used cd store, they would either find a copy of "Cloud 9" or "Best Of Dark Horse." Now those cds are as rare to find as the John Lennon box set. This is a great album that hopefully post-George Harrison fans will regard as fantastic and not just Bandwagonesque. Highlights: "That's What It Takes" "Fish On The Sand" "This Is Love" "Devil's Radio" "Got My Mind Set On You"

Every once in awhile, an artist comes along...:
Who is sublimely different from everyone else out there. The Beatles stormed the world in the '60s and changed the face of music forever. John Lennon and Paul McCartney get constant praise for being an incredible song writing team... and I can't argue there. But what about George? He is, and will always be, my favorite Beatle. He was always so straight-forward and sarcastic and spiritual. He was a rare human being and the music industry was lucky to have him. And man, could he write a song! I have many of George's albums and I am planning on getting them all eventually. When I heard that all of his out-of-print albums were coming back out, I was ecstatic. "Cloud 9" is the best of these re-releases. Its almost on the level of "All Things Must Pass" and certainly right up there with "Brainwashed" and "Living in the Material World". This album has a bit of an '80s feel to it, but that's okay. The song writing more than makes up for that. Every song on this album is a treasure. All are catchy, with a nice riff or a great chorus. Every single song is trying to say something and doing it well. George sounds almost joyful on this album. He's just enjoying making music. Highlights include: "Cloud 9", "Fish on the Sand", "When We Was Fab", "Devel's Radio", "Breath Away from Heaven" and, of course, "I've Got My Mind Set On You". God bless you George, and may you rest in peace.

• Cloud Nine
• That's What It Takes
• Fish On The Sand
• Just For Today
• This Is Love
• When We Was Fab
• Devil's Radio
• Someplace Else
• Wreck Of The Hesperus
• Breath Away From Heaven
• Got My Mind Set On You
• Shanghai Surprise (Bonus track)
• Zig Zag (Bonus track)