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6.44pm
14 December 2009
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Aww, “Secret Friend” is the highlight of the whole album for me. (I liked “Coming Up ” enough to buy the 45 in 1980 but I’m pretty tired of it now.)
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
10.14pm
Members
18 March 2013
Offline I hate the ‘Coming Up ‘ album version but I love it live. Why the hell did he mess up his vocals on the album version and Linda’s vocals aren’t the best on it :/
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10.49pm
18 April 2013
Offline This is one of my favorite McCartney albums. I especially love Waterfalls.
Has anyone heard the popular song that was a rip off of this song? I can’t think of the artist but it starts out “Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.”
"If you're ever in the shit, grab my tit.” —Paul McCartney
11.16pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline TLC were the group. There is a thread on it in the archives.
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12.51pm
2 April 2014
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This was the first album I decided to look at on YouTube when I was starting to delve into the Beatles’ solo careers (I still do think there’s something missing, like all their songs aren’t complete), which I admit wasn’t the best choice. McCartney II isn’t a brilliant album. It’s… weird. It’s going into that synth territory and it’s very abstract in terms of musical structure. Waterfalls is probably my favourite song from the album, with a very nice melody. The song everyone seems to hate is Temporary Secretary , which I really can’t make my mind up on. It’s got a catchy melody which really draws me into it, but the synth sound and Paul’s frankly weird American twang is annoying. Knowing me I’ll probably cave in anyway and get it, because it’s so irritatingly catchy.
On the plus side, the record cover is very exploitable.
1.27pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline I certainly dont hate Temporary Secretary – love the song with its great use of syths, music programming and Paul’s vocals.
McCartney II is a rare Paul album where it was recorded very much not looking to appease the public so very experimental yet was thankfully edited down from a rambling double LP to make it more commercially appealing resulting in a very tight album. I love it.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.00pm
7 April 2013
Offline I personally think this is a bad album. There are a few good songs (Waterfalls and One Of These Days) its mostly bad. However I must say it was very innovative and ahead of its time. Songs like Front Parlour and Frozen Jap sound like music from video games, even though they weren’t invented yet.
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7.57pm
14 December 2009
Offline Video games have been around since 1971, at least!
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Starr Shine?Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
7.58pm
2 April 2014
Offline Hindsight is an amazing thing for me, actually, because I just realised how much I love this album. It’s got some great tracks, and it just makes me happy. It’ll probably be my go-to album when I’m not feeling too good.
10.34am
7 April 2013
Offline Von Bontee said
Video games have been around since 1971, at least!
They are not my specialty subject
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8.48pm
1 August 2013
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When I’m in a certain mood, it’s a perfect fit — the only fit for that particular mood, in fact (that I know of). So I rather love it. Despite being A), influenced by the electronic underground already underway in ’79 and B), a precursor to subsequent such music, McCartney II still has a unique flavor.
Agree with Mr Moonlight about “Front Parlour”; it makes me want to be an old-school video game hero of dubious “powers.”
“Horseriders” is so delightfully bizarre and under-skin-getting. I love the vocal distortion on “horrrseriderrrs” in that strange voice which I don’t think he ever used in any other recording (well, maybe “Flaming Pie ” a little bit). I always see a pixelated rainbow in the rider’s wake as he jumps the stream.
My faves are “Summer’s Day Song” (synth classical with a nice little haiku of a lyric), “Waterfalls,” and “Temporary Secretary .” The last is an ugly song by an ugly character about an ugly thing; an impressively incisive satire of misogyny. Watch and learn, Lennon — grossly offensive titles are not necessary to the making of pointy points; “temporary secretary” just about sums it up.
Actually, the above triptych is a good sketch of something I love so very much about Crazy!Paul: “HERE HAVE SOME CLASSICAL MUSIC AND SOME PERPLEXINGLY DESPERATE TALK OF POLAR BEARS AND ALSO SOME FEMINIST COMMENTARY.”
8.55pm
Members
18 March 2013
Offline I am certain that I have heard ‘Front Parlour’ in some game, it sounds like a tune that would be brilliant in a Pokémon game!
INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!
***
Make Love, Not Wardrobes!
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"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison
2.54am
Moderators
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20 August 2013
Offline http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/…..62681.html
has this bit of information:
No. 1 this week in 1980
Paul McCartney “Coming Up “Exactly a decade after Paul McCartney released his solo debut album, “McCartney,” he debuted its follow-up, “McCartney II .” The disc was filled with the synth-heavy pop music that is well represented in its first, chart-topping single, “Coming Up .” That track, which spent three weeks at number one in 1980, was McCartney’s seventh post-Beatles number one hit.
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2.06am
3 June 2014
Offline Love Paul as a musician, and I also love the first McCartney album, but this is certainly the worst I’ve heard from him. On the Way, Nobody Knows, and Bogey Music are good, but the rest is pretty bad. I’ll have to listen to Waterfalls again, but it seemed really slow and really long on first listen.
Coming Up is okay, I suppose, but the live version released as a single is soooo much better than the studio version. Some people like or don’t mind Temporary Secretary , but… I hate it, utterly hate it. Sometimes I sing its chorus to annoy my dad, but that’s about all it’s good for. I’d rather All You Horseriders had been on the album instead, at least it’s fun to listen to and imitate.
I’ll actually have to listen to this whole album again, but it doesn’t seem like one I’ll ever buy.
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5.09am
1 November 2012
Offline Yeah, an uninspired album. I liked “Temporary Secretary “; but that’s about it.
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6.06am
8 November 2012
Offline I don’t listen to the album in full very often, but I appreciate it for its experimental nature. Also, “Check My Machine” is at least in my top 15 of Paul songs, maybe top 10. And that’s enough to color the album in a favorable light for me.
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2.38am
8 January 2015
Offline My sister bought this for me as a Christmas present, and it’s been a favourite ever since. I pretty much compare his other work against it because it’s mostly so unconventional. The reviews of the time were “huh?” I’m rather pleased they’re still “huh?” Songwriters get into ruts especially when they’re writing for a particular vehicle. This is just Paul writing for him and there’s too little of it, although he recently said in an interview that he’s been playing with the computer again and he’s been playing Temporary Secretary live so there’s hope.
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5.54pm
5 February 2010
Offline It’s not my least favorite McCartney album (that honor probably goes to “Press To Play “), but the first time I heard it (with no knowledge, and therefore, no predispositions to either love or hate it), I got a few tracks in and just went, “What … the … [bad word]?” I never even finished it on that first listen. I went back and made myself listen to the whole thing years later, and like most of you, I found a couple/few tracks I liked. But on the whole, when I think of this album, I wince.
On the bonus DVD that came out with the remaster, there’s an interview segment from 1980 or so, where Paul says flat out that this was just him having a mess-around with different sounds, and that he didn’t intend it to come out as an album until he’d played it for a few people, and they said “hey, put it out!” Personally, I wish he’d held on to those few songs that were good, written a few more decent songs to go with them, and released that.
Two songs in particular, I think, could be really good songs if he’d have ditched the synth and hired a string quartet to play instead: “Waterfalls” and “Summer’s Day Song.” For me, the synth just ruins those songs.
Not a bit like Cagney.
6.23pm
14 December 2009
Offline Am I the only one who hates “Waterfalls”?
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
7.10pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Von Bontee said
Am I the only one who hates “Waterfalls”?
I doubt you are as there are many billions of people in the world of which some will have have heard it. Surely one of those people hates it as well.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
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