A Tramp Shining

2024’s comedy horror sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice helped reintroduce the world to the exquisite melodrama of Richard Harris’ 1967 hit “MacArthur Park,” yet there is much more to enjoy in the musical output of the hellraising Irish actor and latter-day Gladiator/Harry Potter star. Unlike a lot of actors who have fancied a go at playing rock star over the years, Harris was helped no end by the fact that his chief collaborator on his first three albums was songwriter Jimmy Webb, who here penned a suite of impossibly lush baroque pop, fleshed out by a 35-piece orchestra, on which his friend could show off his not inconsiderable vocal talents. A Tramp Shining is dramatic and over-the-top to the point of being almost preposterous at times, yet in the cinematic sweep of the music and Harris’ stirring performances, it more than stands up next to comparable offerings by the likes of David Axelrod, Lee Hazlewood and Scott Walker.