Review: George Harrison's Thirty-Three and Third

Talk about a quintessential work of what was best about skillful seventies pop, this album from 1976 is it. Harrison's voice is sweet and strong, his slide-guitar work is as good as any master's, and he's got a great horn and rhythm section. The instrumentation is gracefully interplayed, every instrument well-voiced and balanced. The songs each have a distinct personality, while fitting well with the overall mood and style of the album. This is not a minor album or background music, as some claim. It is funky, jazzy, soulful, reverential, compassionate, mirthfully rebellious, tender of heart, graciously laudatory, merry -- and indeed thoroughly artful. Some of the songs are mellow, but appropriately so, and mellifluous to boot; others have delightful energy and plenty of punch. There is no filler, and the bonus track for the remastering (a non-album single), though not from the time of the album's original release, does fit perfectly the tone and feel of the rest of the album (which is probably why they included it on this one rather than a later release). You could know nothing of George Harrison the Demigod Beatle, or George Harrison the Hippie Hero, and become a fan just from listening to this album alone. Living in the first decade of the 21st century and looking at this cultural product from of the heart of the 1970s, my central afterthought is: people then, like Harrison, had issues of moral concern, just as we do now, but they had so much to celebrate about the prospects of their world.