FEATURE:
Paul McCartney at Eighty
Twelve: The Legend’s Five Greatest Solo Albums
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CONTINUING my run of features…
leading to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday in June, I am exploring and dissecting his work with The Beatles, Wings and solo. Now, I am going to collate, chronologically, McCartney’s best solo albums. His best five, I am not including any that credit him and Linda McCartney – as they are technically a duo in that sense. 2020’s McCartney III was his eighteenth solo album. To honour the masterful musician, here are the five essential Paul McCartney albums, a review, the standout tracks and where you can buy each of the albums. Perhaps you have different opinions regarding the albums of his that are best. It is very hard to narrow it down to five, though I am pretty confident in my choices. These are the Macca solo albums that…
EVERY fan should have.
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McCartney
Release Date: 17th April, 1970
Label: Apple
Producer: Paul McCartney
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/paul-mccartney/mccartney-46a38282-f0e1-4b0e-a61f-abaee0df0c4e/lp-x2
Standout Tracks: That Would Be Something/Every Night/Junk
Key Cut: Maybe I’m Amazed
Review:
“Paul McCartney retreated from the spotlight of the Beatles by recording his first solo album at his home studio, performing nearly all of the instruments himself. Appropriately, McCartney has an endearingly ragged, homemade quality that makes even its filler -- and there is quite a bit of filler -- rather ingratiating. Only a handful of songs rank as full-fledged McCartney classics, but those songs -- the light folk-pop of "That Would Be Something," the sweet, gentle "Every Night," the ramshackle Beatles leftover "Teddy Boy," and the staggering "Maybe I'm Amazed" (not coincidentally the only rocker on the album) -- are full of all the easy melodic charm that is McCartney's trademark. The rest of the album is charmingly slight, especially if it is read as a way to bring Paul back to earth after the heights of the Beatles. At the time the throwaway nature of much of the material was a shock, but it has become charming in retrospect. Unfortunately, in retrospect it also appears as a harbinger of the nagging mediocrity that would plague McCartney's entire solo career” – AllMusic
Tug of War
Release Date: 26th April, 1982
Labels: Parlophone (U.K.)/Columbia (U.S.)
Producer: George Martin
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/paul-mccartney/tug-of-war-0a47a6a8-270c-4839-9850-91381c38a17b/lp
Standout Tracks: Take It Away/Here Today/The Pound Is Sinking
Key Cut: Ebony and Ivory (with Stevie Wonder)
Review:
“The latest releases in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection represent two turning points in McCartney’s career. Tug of War emerged in the wake of personal chaos: John Lennon’s death and McCartney’s pot bust in Japan. A year after the critically acclaimed album, McCartney released the followup Pipes of Peace, which represents his attempt to embrace 1980s pop.
Best remembered for “Say Say Say,” the hit duet with Michael Jackson, Pipes of Peace received a lukewarm critical reception, unlike its predecessor. The remastered Archive Collection releases allows listeners to revisit this turning point in Paul McCartney’s career, determining his place in the 1980s musical landscape.
Tug of War finds McCartney in a reflective mood, embracing his Beatles past and paying tribute to his best-known songwriting partner. Beginning the album with the title track, Paul McCartney gently sings words of turmoil and conflict, longing for a better world (“In another world we could stand on top of the mountain, with our flag unfurled”) but recognizing that only through struggle and change can we achieve such lofty goals (“In a time to come we will be dancing to the beat, played on a different drum”). Until a more positive world emerges, he must endure an emotional “tug of war” and knows that if he simply gives up, “the whole thing is going to crumble.”
The haunting strings give way to pure nostalgia with “Take It Away,” Paul McCartney’s fond look back at the Beatles’ early days. He recalls playing in dingy clubs until “some important impresario” discovers the band, none-too-subtly evoking images of Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Cooing and sighing, the lush harmonies provide the soundtrack to McCartney’s sentimental journey. But the emotional tug of war draws him back to the present, with the moving “Somebody Who Cares” allowing fans a rare peek into the singer’s life. He assures listeners that he too has felt like “somebody has taken the wheels off your car, when you had somewhere to go.” He repeats “I know how you feel,” but urges fans to draw strength from friends and family.
Initially saying little about John Lennon’s death, Paul McCartney finally makes his statement through the lovely but fragile “Here Today,” reminiscing about his complicated friendship with his former collaborator. Now a staple of McCartney’s live shows, “Here Today” reveals his vulnerability, his lilting voice crying “I love you.” Like “Somebody Who Cares,” “Here Today” lets Paul McCartney bare his soul musically, an all-too-rare occurrence in his music. But nostalgia returns with “Ballroom Dancing,” McCartney’s charming ode to dance and young love.
The singer’s ultimate “back to his roots” moment is his playful duet with childhood hero Carl Perkins, “Get It.” As they trade lines on the country-tinged track, the two legends clearly enjoy performing together, punctuated by Perkins’ laughter giving way to the next track, “Be What You See.” Other joyful moments include Paul McCartney’s duets with Stevie Wonder, the incredibly funky “What’s That You’re Doing” and the huge hit “Ebony and Ivory.” Unfortunately, the latter track has been lampooned in recent years, but it stands as a genuine ode to racial harmony.
The one track that best summarizes the complicated Tug of War is “Wanderlust,” the epic ballad that remains one of Paul McCartney’s most underrated tracks. “Take us from the dark,” he pleads. “Help us to be free.” Through music, McCartney longs to transcend the emotional tug of war he has endured for two years. Yet, he ends the sweeping track on a hopeful note: “What better time to find a brand new day?” he asks listeners” – Something Else!
Flowers in the Dirt
Release Date: 5th June, 1989
Labels: Parlophone/Capitol
Producers: Paul McCartney/Mitchell Froom/Neil Dorfsman/Elvis Costello/Trevor Horn/Steve Lipson/Chris Hughes/Ross Cullum/David Foster (and Phil Ramone on CD reissue tracks)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=40048&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Put It There/Figure of Eight/How Many People
Key Cut: My Brave Face
Review:
“Paul McCartney must not only have been conscious of his slipping commercial fortunes, he must have realized that his records hadn't been treated seriously for years, so he decided to make a full-fledged comeback effort with Flowers in the Dirt. His most significant move was to write a series of songs with Elvis Costello, some of which appeared on Costello's own Spike and many of which surfaced here. These may not be epochal songs, the way many wished them to be, but McCartney and Costello turn out to be successful collaborators, spurring each other toward interesting work. And, in McCartney's case, that carried over to the album as a whole, as he aimed for more ambitious lyrics, themes, sounds, and productions for Flowers in the Dirt. This didn't necessarily result in a more successful album than its predecessors, but it had more heart, ambition, and nerve, which was certainly welcome. And the moments that did work were pretty terrific. Many of these were McCartney/McManus collaborations, from the moderate hit "My Brave Face" to the duet "You Want Her Too" and "That Day Is Done," but McCartney also demonstrates considerable muscle on his own, from the domestic journal "We Got Married" to the lovely "This One." This increased ambition also means McCartney meanders a bit, writing songs that are more notable for what they try to achieve than what they do, and at times the production is too fussy and inextricably tied to its time, but as a self-styled comeback affair, Flowers in the Dirt works very well” – AllMusic
Egypt Station
Release Date: 7th September, 2018
Label: Capitol
Producers: Greg Kurstin/Paul McCartney/Ryan Tedder/Zach Skelton
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1418458&ev=mb
Standout Tracks: Come on to Me/Back in Brazil/Caesar Rock
Key Cut: Despite Repeated Warnings
Review:
“The thunderous opening of ‘People Want Peace’ (“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m standing before you with something important to say,” it begins) recalls the title track of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. The bossa nova bop of ‘Back In Brazil’ speaks to his love of borrowing from other cultures. ‘Do It Now’ is baroque pop in the ‘In My Life’ vein. ‘Who Cares’ sounds like ‘Band On The Run’-era Wings, a swaggering rock ‘n’ roll with a sweetly naive message about getting one over on bullies. It has the feeling of a pep talk from a beloved granddad: “Who cares what the idiots say / Who cares what the idiots do / Who cares about the pain in your heart / Who cares? I do.”
McCartney’s been preaching peace and love for an entire career, and the message hasn’t diminished over the years. But there’s an extra edge to it this time. ‘Fuh You’, a track co-written with hit-maker Ryan Tedder (though surely if there’s a man who doesn’t need a co-write, it’s Macca) is eyebrow-raisingly randy. ‘Come On To Me’, another track released to tease the album, is plonky in sound, but bonky in lyrics: “I saw you flash a smile that seemed to me to say / You wanted so much more than casual conversation,” it goes. Paul McCartney, by design or accident, has made an album that occasionally pulses with Big Dick Energy, the term that defined summer 2018’s zeitgeist, even if it pops a comfy pair of slippers occasionally too.
Mostly, ‘Egypt Station’ is a record that’s going to delight McCartney’s fans and – importantly – Beatles fans who might sniff at some of his solo work. It’s not wildly out there, like his work as The Fireman, but nor does it err on the safe side, like 2013’s ‘New’. It’s an album of upbeat and winsome notes, and it’s simple and honest, as if one of the most famous people in the world has left his diary open for us to read.
‘Happy With You’ talks about just what the title implies – being happy in the company of his partner, with personal revelations too: “I walked around angry / I used to feel bad… I used to drink too much / Forgot to come home / I lied to my doctor”. That song, and ‘Confidante’, reveal much about McCartney, the latter a love letter to the guitar he keeps in the corner of his living room, which went largely untouched for a couple of years before ‘Egypt Station’ came into being. Those tracks, in particular, preach a satisfying message of peace: one of peace in the mind of the songwriter.
The album ends, like ‘Abbey Road’, on a medley: ‘Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link’. We don’t need to remind you of ‘Abbey Road’’s famous closing lines, but ‘Egypt Station’s are notable too: “I‘ve been naked for so long / So long, so long, yeah.” McCartney’s always been about inclusivity and openness, but this latest glimpse into his life feels like a particularly enlightening one” – NME
McCartney III
Release Date: 18th December, 2020
Label: Capitol
Producers: Paul McCartney/(except Slidin', by McCartney and Greg Kurstin, and When Winter Comes, by McCartney and George Martin)
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/paul-mccartney/mccartney-iii/lp
Standout Tracks: Long Tailed Winter Bird/Seize the Day/Winter Bird / When Winter Comes
Key Cut: Slidin’
Review:
“The disparity between the initial reviews and their later standing suggests that McCartney’s one-man-band solo albums only reveal their true glory in the fullness of time, an idea that whirls around your head when you’re confronted with McCartney III’s Lavatory Lil. A jaunty excoriation of a gold-digger, the best thing you can say about it is that it isn’t quite as awful as its title leads you to fear. There’s always the chance that, by the middle of the century it’ll be claimed as the worthy descendent of the Beatles’ Polythene Pam, or the version of the ribald Liverpool folksong Maggie Mae that snuck on to Let It Be, but that feels a stretch: it’s not as weird or funny as the former and nor does it have the latter’s sense of history, Maggie Mae being a song the pre-Beatles skiffle band the Quarrymen used to perform. In fact, it feels more like a successor to the interminable joke track Bogey Music, one bit of McCartney II that not even the nuttiest Macca fan has attempted to reassess.
If Lavatory Lil is a moment where the process behind McCartney III – recorded in lockdown, with its author in charge of everything – has led to a self-indulgent lapse of judgment, the rest of the album finds him letting his guard down in far more appealing ways. A certain freedom is evident in opener Long Tailed Winter Bird, a lovely instrumental that’s allowed far more room to breathe than you suspect McCartney in more commercially minded mood would permit. He might also have balked at releasing Slidin’ on the grounds that it was too obviously a homage to Queens of the Stone Age, albeit one laced with an infectious sense that its author is having a high old time.
Deep Deep Feeling, meanwhile, may be the best song to bear McCartney’s name in more than a decade. Its melodies slowly entwine and uncoil over eight minutes involving lengthy instrumental passages, falsetto vocals, shifts in tempo, a Mellotron-esque synth that recalls the opening of Strawberry Fields Forever (as with Winter Bird/When Winter Comes’ nod to the bucolic atmosphere of 1971’s Ram, it’s the kind of musical self-reference that never seems accidental on a McCartney album) and an acoustic coda. The lyrical examination of emotional extremes feels authentically confessional. Similarly personal, if more oblique, Pretty Boys puts the audibly aged aspect of his voice to use, quaveringly describing its titular subject as “a line of bicycles for hire, objects of desire … a row of cottages for rent for your main event”.
It’s moving because he knows of what he speaks. This isn’t a superannuated rocker sneering at latter-day manufactured pop bands, but something fonder and more personal: a man knocking on 80 who was the subject of teen hysteria a lifetime ago, who gave up playing live because he couldn’t hear himself over the screaming. Seize the Day features the prickly, defensive McCartney of Silly Love Songs – “it’s still all right to be nice,” he protests, a sentiment that gains heft in a world of snarling binary divisions – set to a melody that’s almost preposterously McCartney-esque, navigating its twists and turns without appearing to break a sweat” – The Guardian