Ringo Starr may have closed his godforsaken P.O. box, but the spirit of peace and love is carried elsewhere. Not in letters and packages sent to The Beatles member, but in his country music. Choose Love, the second single from Long Long Road, is about as on the nose as it gets from Starr as a brand. His peace signs and love of love are a front for villainy, or, at the very least, a cover for what he wants to do with his work. That desire to create country songs with T Bone Burnett and, in a previous decade, Bob Dylan, is what keeps him going. He yearns for the cowboy hat which featured on the front of Look Up, but it has presumably been put into storage along with the millions of unsigned Yellow Submarine-themed mugs littering his now closed P.O. box. Choose Love is the lighter touch Starr has made a name with in recent years, and it’s the likeable style he has always tried to present in his music.
While the results may vary, it’s never insincere. Likeable country ditties while his Beatles bandmate reaches back into the early years of his Liverpudlian roots feels like a nice contrast. But there’s far more overlap for the two than first expected. Choose Love feels like an honest moment from Starr. Not just a sincere offering, but a chance to hear the veteran musician touch on his personal life. Those black clouds overhead, the rough times which come, either out of the blue or clearly so, must be fought against. Choosing love is the way to do that, according to Starr. It’s a likeable message at the best of times, but knowing how Starr operates in the public eye adds another layer to Choose Love. It’s hard not to be swept up in the emotional simplicity of the song, especially when Starr and his credible instrumental collective is hard at work rattling off some countrified gems.
Part of the charm, too, comes from a surprise inclusion. St. Vincent has paired well in the past with legendary performers, and she herself is fast becoming one. But between a collaboration with David Byrne and this Starr feature, St. Vincent is positioning herself as a dependable draw for legendary performers. Her versatility here is clear, and the strength it gives Starr is obvious. There’s a bit of The Beatles to this song, a touch of the psychedelic sound in the instrumentation throughout. Starr was a leading man for With a Little Help From My Friends, and he certainly sounds strong enough to lead that sort of styling in a countrified context here. Starr has leaned into these competent country charms several times before, and they always sound solid. It’s a relief to hear he wants to pursue it further, and Choose Love has a victory lap appeal to it.
This is no Beaucoup of Blues, though. We are far from that adventurousness of Starr. That’s not to say Look Up and what we’ve heard of Long Long Road isn’t up to scratch, it is, but it feels like a collaboration-heavy feature thrill ride than anything particularly unique to Starr. Still, he sounds as though he’s having fun and, as a result, so too can a listener. There’s a charm to Choose Love that marks it as the standout single. Between that Beatles-adjacent sound, the shimmer and stylishness of it all, and the St. Vincent addition, it may be one of Starr’s best songs in some time. It’s not as though the bar is all that high; he’s managed to maintain a relatively solid songwriting base for some time, but this one feels a lot fresher and more closely knit into Starr’s public image.
