been identified as exemplary and among the finest of Harrison's career. In his book The Beatles Apart (1981), Woffinden wrote: "Those who carped at the lyrics, or at Harrison himself, missed a great deal of the music, much of which was exceptionally fine." Woffinden described the album as "a very good one", Harrison's "only mistake" being that he had waited so long before following up his successes over 1970–71. Retrospective assessment In the decades following its release, Living in the Material World gained a reputation as "a forgotten blockbuster" – a term used by Simon Leng and echoed by commentators such as Robert Rodriguez and AllMusic's Bruce Eder. The latter describes Harrison's 1973 album as "an underrated minor masterpiece" that "represent[s] his solo playing and songwriting at something of a peak". John Metzger of The Music Box refers to Material World as "the most underrated and overlooked album of [Harrison]'s career", adding that it "coalesces around its songs … and the Zen-like beauty that emanates from Harrison's hymns to a higher power inevitably becomes subtly affecting." Writing in Rolling Stone in 2002, Greg Kot found the album "drearily monochromatic" compared to its predecessor, and to PopMatters Zeth Lundy, it suffers from "a more anonymous tract" next to the "cathedral-grade significance" of All Things Must Pass. Reviewing Harrison's solo career for Goldmine magazine in 2002, Dave Thompson considered the 1973 album to be the equal of All Things Must Pass, reasoning: "While history insists that Living in the Material World could not help but be eclipsed by its gargantuan forebear, with the two albums in the CD player and the 'shuffle' function mixing them up, it's difficult to play favourites." In his review of the 2006 remastered release, for Q magazine, Tom Doyle praised the album's ballads, such as "The Light That Has Lighted the World" and "Be Here Now", and suggested that "the distance of time helps to reveal its varied charms". Mojos Mat Snow wrote of "this long overdue reissue" being "worth it alone for four wonderful songs", including "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" and "The Day the World Gets 'Round", and concluded: "The rest is Hari Georgeson at his most preachy, but it's never less than musical and often light on its feet." In another 2006 review, for the Vintage Rock website, Shawn Perry wrote of Material World being "more restrained and immediate without the wall of