While I toil away, writing up my year end favorites, here's this.
Because it seems I can never stop defending Paul McCartney's solo career, let me just say that, if it wasn't for my friend Bruce insisting I give "Chaos & Creation In the Backyard" another go, I never would have discovered what is arguably one of the 5 best records of his career. That said, this weekend I discovered another masterpiece in 2007's "Memory Almost Full." It took awhile, but it was worth the wait.
I recall disliking "Memory Almost Full" even more than "Chaos" on first listen. Somewhere out there in the ether, there is a scathing review sent out as part of the NYCD newsletter. Again I will ask, what is it exactly that we want from a musical legend, forty years after the fact? I will refrain from the usual Van Morrison, Neil Young and Bob Dylan examples that would normally come right about here and just offer up a few musical examples from Sir Paul.
Right up top is "Only Mama Knows." Brilliant, in a rocking "Junior's Farm" kind of way, with a killer Paul vocal.
Check out "See Your Sunshine." There are more hooks in this one song than the entire careers of many. And listen to the bass line.
Or, how about "Gratitude?" You want Beatle harmonies? How about Beatle harmonies and Paul's "I've Got A Feeling" voice, too.
"House Of Wax?" Which legendary artist is pushing the envelope the way Macca does in this tune?
And, I saved the best for last. "The End of The End."
My friend Peter Carlin, who wrote a fantastic book on Paul, not to mention one of the best books on Bruce Springsteen out there, offered this about "Memory Almost Full":
"Oh yeah, it's a really strong record. "The End of the End" is the best, but "House of Wax" is spooky and impressionistic in a way PM rarely lets himself explore. "Vintage Clothes" and "Ever Present Past" are nice little pop gems, and "See Your Sunshine" is all melodic hooks and, bonus, has one of the most lively, melodic bass lines PM has played since they were fab. Also, there's a really cool series of songs across those latter-day albums about these dark, misanthropic characters e.g. the titular subject of "Mr. Bellamy," that are so, so cool. See also: "She's Given Up Talking," (Driving Rain), "Friends to Go," (Chaos & Creation) and "On My Way to Work," (NEW)."
"Memory Almost Full" is one of my favorite albums of 2017. So what if it came out ten years ago.
16 comments:
I'm a bad fan. I haven't heard many albums post "Wings At The Speed Of Sound".
However, I like a lot of "New", and I bought "Flaming Pie", which contains one of my favorite songs, "Souvenir"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr001YXIIg
I felt Paulie pushed himself (or was pushed) more on Chaos than MAF, which is why I prefer it. But there are moments on the second half of MAF that rock as well as some of the better Wings tracks, and "Dance Tonight" is just so damn charming. And I maintain that the basic throwaway "Nod Your Head" is a salacious cross between "Please Please Me" and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road".
"The End of the End" jumped out on first listen because of how melancholy it made me feel. Not many songs have such an immediate impact as that one did.
Is it pointless to add that seeing McCartney live is still worth it? I saw him a few weeks ago (Barclays Ctr in Brooklyn) and loved it.
His voice isn't quite what it once was, but not once did I feel he was phoning it in or cashing in on a legacy.
You sold me. I will go back and listen.
from NYCD Blog: "Just to clarify, we love Sir Paul. So much so that we are still listening to Memory Almost Full, looking for that hidden gem in this mess of an album. As of listen #6, it's still dreck."
What has changed your mind? The original post didn't specify why it was dreck at the time.
"from NYCD Blog: "Just to clarify, we love Sir Paul. So much so that we are still listening to Memory Almost Full, looking for that hidden gem in this mess of an album. As of listen #6, it's still dreck."
What has changed your mind? The original post didn't specify why it was dreck at the time?"
Anonymous, I wish I had an answer. I know at the time of its release, my biz partner and I were about to abandon ship. Maybe my head wasn't ready for a cute ukulele intro on a song with whistling by Paul McCartney. I don't believe for a second we listened 6 times. Who knows? Right record, wrong time.
Guess I know what I'm doing today.
Speaking of Paul's solo career, I listen to "New" fairly regularly.
Ok you're right. This is great.
Your warning about your writing up your favorites of 2017 has inspired me to get off my ass to compile my own. I'm ready to share when you post (and look forward to everybody else doing so!) I have a "top 8" this year, but may expand to 10 if I feel like it.
Love that album... and dang, you didn't even mention two of my very favorites, "Dance Tonight" and "That Was Me." "Ever Present Past" is another of my faves from this record, as you mentioned.
OK, since you're revisiting recent underrated McCartney records... what do you think about "Driving Rain"? That's my favorite of all of his from 2000-onwards.... other than the second Fireman record.
I always kind of liked Memory Almost Full. Only Mama Knows, House of Wax and Mr Bellamy were standouts for me on first listen. Thank you for reminding me that The End of The End should join that group of songs as a standout as well.
I loved Driving Rain right out of the starting gate and thought it over shadowed Memory Almost Full. Lonely Road, From a Lover To a Friend, She's Given Up Talking, Driving Rain, Tiny Bubble, I Do, Magic (especially Magic) and Rinse The Raindrops had my hand reaching for repeat on the CD player over and over again.
Both "Flaming Pie" and "Run Devil Run" were favorites right off the bat. I did not like "Driving Rain" upon first listen. "1-2-3-4-5, let's go for a drive" are exactly the type of lyrics that would drive me crazy...at the time. Same with "Everybody dance tonight, everybody feel alright." But again, it's been years and have come to really like a lot of "Driving Rain," though not as much as "Chaos" or "MAF." I recently tried to get reacquainted with "Off The Ground" and I still don't like it.
If i remember correctly, people were slogging this off because of the Starbucks connection. Ten year on, that's not such a big deal. (Or a deal at all.)
I would posit that there is such a deep, abiding wellspring of love and affection for this artist that it colors all reason when it comes to any critical evaluation of the work. All of these records under discussion, from Driving Rain through C&C, MAF, and New, are cringe-worthy for the most part, occasionally sprinkled with moments of redemption. It's Paul, so it's going to be adept and it's going to be studio-savvy, and of course it's going to be tuneful, with mighty flashes of brilliance on the bass guitar.
But your initial impressions are consistently more spot-on than your revisionist need to resolve the cognitive dissonance of calling the emperor naked. I was willing to indulge your effort right up until I hit "play" on "See Your Sunshine" and heard the remarkably lame lyrical couplet, "She makes me feel glad/I want her so bad," and thought, "Oh, right. It does suck." "House of Wax" is a lumpen mess except for that guitar solo, which I hope (and assume) is The Man, because it's an earth-shaker.
And the anemia is not just restricted to Paul's lyrical lapses - they were never a strong suit for him anyway. Again, with a minimally reasonable amount of notable exceptions, the material is almost always coy or trite or weirdly immature or centered on some trifle that unfortunately caught the artist's attention one fine day. These are the most consistent qualities in the post-2000s work, in fact.
It merits mention that his finest stuff in the new millennium is the stuff that he allegedly thought about/worked on the least, and that is "Electric Arguments" by The Fireman. I could listen to that one all day!
For anyone who wishes, I have put up Sal's picks on a Spotify playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/user/geno44/playlist/6fMMDRXycJhIc88SPp9iet
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