No musicians have ever been presented witha more daunting challenge. What exactly do you do for an encore after being part of the most important and influential pop cultural phenomenon of all time? Over the course of the last 50 years since The Beatles split up in such bitter fashion, the individual parts of the four-headed behemoththat was John, Paul, George and Ringo have served up an extraordinarily diverse collection of solo albums.
In fact, even before the band parted ways, bothJohn and George had begun to fully embrace avant-garde experimentalist music, while Paul has gone on to assemble a singularly individualistic back catalogue that has taken in a classical symphony as well as ambient and electronica, alongside his trademark melodic pop songcraft. Only Ringo – at the peak of his partying powers arguably the most well-connected man in rock, witha bulging address book of A-list collaborators – clung resolutely to a more traditional path, that has frequently referenced the musical styles of his former band.
While they rarely put a foot wrong as Beatles, the wavering quality of the Fab Four’s solo efforts has seen the quartet come under fire for failing to live up to their reputations as the pre-eminent pop and rock force of their age.