With Brainwashed—the album on which 1992 Billboard Century Award honoree George Harrison was working at the time of his death almost one year ago—the Beatles’ other songwriter has left us with a transcendent musical postcard. With 11 original cuts (plus a mirthful ukulele cover of Count Basie’s “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”), his signature lead and slide guitar work, and an indefatigable combination of social indictment (“Brainwashed”), wry humor (“P2 Vatican Blues”), and spirituality (“Looking for My Life”), there isn’t a flat moment on the disc. The songs of this album, admirably completed by his son Dhani and longtime friend Jeff Lynne, further confirm Harrison’s importance to the Beatles, as well as his individual brilliance. Beautifully fatalistic and unimposingly pedagogical, Brainwashed is quite possibly Harrison’s next-to-best album and a sober reminder that his passing is a loss too large to measure.—AZ
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