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7.16pm
8 August 2013
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There’s a few I haven’t got around to buying yet (though payday is coming up!) But of the ones I have:
1. Ram
4. McCartney II (very unpopular but for some strange reason I love it)
5. New
6. Flaming Pie
7. Wings At The Speed Of Sound
9. Wild Life
10. McCartney
I don’t dislike any of the above. I’m a bit scared to buy Press To Play and Give My Regards To Broad Street as I think I’ll probably hate them from the songs I have actually heard. Not too keen on 80’s Paul, bit too cheesy for my taste.
7.21pm
8 August 2013
Offline Sorry for the double post but I forgot Tug Of War ! Not too keen if I’m honest so it would probably go last. A few amazing tracks such as Here Today but on the whole not my cup of tea. And Ebony And Ivory is one of his worst ever songs in my opinion. How two such amazing songwriters came up with that drivel is beyond me. Give me the Frog Chorus over that any day. Don’t understand the hate for it. It’s a kids song, it’s catchy, and when I was little I loved it! (It was at the end of my Rupert the Bear video. Ahhh memories!)
6.35pm
7 April 2013
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Since It was September since the last time I ranked the albums, my opinions have changed quite a bit. This time I have included the Fireman abums:
- Venus And Mars : This has really grown on me after buying it on Vinyl. Highlights: Letting Go, Love In Song, Listen To What The Man Said. Weaker tracks: Spirits Of Anicent Eygpt.
- Band On The Run : Pure Masterpeice. Highlights: Band On The Run , 1985, Picasso’s Last Worlds. Weaker Tracks: Let Me Roll It (drags on a bit), Bluebird.
- New: definitely his best album in years. Highlights: Alligator, New, I Can Bet, Queenie Eye . Weaker Tracks: Hosanna
- Red Rose Speedway : another album that has grown on me a lot recently. Highlights: Little Lamb Dragonfly, The Medley, Get On The Right Thing, Weaker tracks: Big Barn Bed, Loup
- Tug Of War : Highlights: Tug Of War , Ballroom Dancing, The Pound Is Sinking Weaker Tracks: Whats That Your Doing
- Flaming Pie : mostly brilliant tracks, but 2 i really dont care for. Highlights: The World Tonight, Calico Skies, Young Boy. Weaker Tracks: Used To Be Bad, Really Love You
- Chaos And Creation In The Backyard : although I ranked this 1st in September, my opinion has started to wane. Highlights: Friends To Go, Too Much Rain , Fine Line. Weaker Tracks: English Tea, A Certain Softness, This Never Happened Before
- Back To The Egg : would be higher if Goodnight tonight was on the album, Highlights: Old Siam Sir, Getting Closer, Again and Again and Again. Weaker Tracks: Baby’s Request, Spin It On
- Memory Almost Full : this is a very solid album what should be given more recognition. Highlights: Ever Present Past, Mr Bellamy (hence my username) and Vintage Clothes. Weaker Tracks: Gratitude, Nod Your Head
- McCartney: recently purchased this and forgot how good it really is. Highlights: Every Night , Momma Miss America, Maybe I’m Amazed . Weaker Tracks: Kreen-Akore, That Would Be Something
- Off The Ground : another very underrated album imo. Highlights: Hope Of Deliverance, Mistress and Maid, Windark Open Sea. Weaker Tracks: Peace In The Neighborhood, Golden Earth Girl
- Ram : very overrated nowadays: Highlights: Dear Boy , Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey , Back Seat Of My Car, Weaker Tracks: Smile Away , 3 Legs , Monkberry Moon Delight .
- Flowers In The Dirt : some brilliant stuff, but similarly some rubbish: Highlights: My Brave Face, This One, That Day is Done. Weaker Tracks: Motor Of Love, Rough Ride, Ou es le soli.
- Electric Arguments: again quite a checkered album, but incredibly creative: Highlights: Dance Til Were High, Lifelong Passion, Sing The Changes. Weaker Tracks: Is This Love, Universal Here, Everlasting Now.
- McCartney II : although a fun listen, its wouldn’t be a good intro to Pauls career. Highlights: One Of These Days, Coming Up , Weaker Tracks: Darkroom, Temporary Secretary
- London Town : Were now at the stage where the albums lack any real highlights. Good Songs: Cafe On The Left Bank, I’ve Had Enough. Weaker Tracks: Famous Groupies, Girlfriend.
- Driving Rain : simply too long. Good songs: Shes Given Up Taking, Heather, Lonely Road. Weaker Tracks: Riding Into Jaipur, Spinning On and Axis
- Pipes Of Peace : enjoyable and laughable album. Good Songs: Keep Under Cover, Through Our Love, Weaker Tracks: Tug Of Peace, Hey Hey
- Run Devil Run : I must admit, I haven’t listen to this in full yet but of what ive heard I liked No Other Baby and All Shock Up
- Wings At The Speed Of Sound : definitely a let down after the almost perfect Venus And Mars . Good Tracks: She’s My Baby, Beware My Love, Time To Hide. Weaker Tracks: Cook Of The House, San Ferry Ann
- Kisses On The Bottom : shows how versatile a performer Paul is but this isn’t to my fancy. Good Tracks: I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, My valentine, My Very Good Friend The Milkman
- Press To Play : very much stuck in its time (which unfortunately was the mid eighties). Good Tracks: Footprints, I quite enjoy Press aswell. Weaker Tracks: Talk More Talk, Angry, Pretty Little Head
- Rushes: I’ve listened to this one and it was rather forgettable so I wont say which tracks I like.
- Choba B CCCP : Overall not a bad covers album but lacks something Run Devil Run has: Good Tracks: Twenty Flight Rock, That’s Alright Mama. Weaker Tracks: Summertime, Crackin’ Up, Bring It On Home To Me
- Wild Life : A real bore of an album only one good track which is tomorrow. The rest I can’t bear.
- Give My Regards To Broad Street : McCartney manages to murder his own songs on this poor album. The good track is No More Lonely Nights which is a classic, but this is horribly let down by everything else
- Strawberries, Ships, Oceans, Forest: In all fairness this is basically nine version of the same dreary song.
This is all my opinion so please feel free to object with any of my rankings or song choices
"We can do what we want, we can live as we choose"
9.03pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Pretty much in agreement with you but Wild Life and Wings At The Speed Of Sound would be much higher, New and Memory Almost Full far lower – probably switch places with them.
Agree that Off The Ground is very underrated.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
11.48pm
10 August 2011
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The only album I’ve really changed my mind about is McCartney. When it came out, the Beatles were just (officially) breaking up. In fact, the album came out a month before Let It Be ! So McCartney was measured up against a Beatle album – and of course the weakest Beatle album (save Yellow Submarine which IMO doesn’t count) is stronger than McCartney. So I listened to it – and just as quickly put it away; and settled for “Maybe I’m Amazed ” on the radio. But upon re-listening to it last year, I put up with the fact that although it’s homey and raw with a few painful ‘songs,’ it’s reasonably enjoyable throughout. (And I already liked “Every Night ” and “Junk”)
With that,
Top category
New Flaming Pie Chaos and Creation
Overall quite reasonable (can move into the top category if I get nostalgic for that era)
Venus And Mars Band On The Run Tug Of War McCartney Ram Flowers In The Dirt
One or two top-level songs
Red Rose Speedway Back To The Egg (“Rockestra”) Memory Almost Full Off The Ground (“Hope of Deliverance” “The Lovers that Never were”) Electric Arguments (“Sing the Changes” “Highway”) McCartney 2 (“Summer Day’s Song” perhaps “Temporary Secretary ” and “Coming up”) Driving Rain (“Lonely Road”)
Wings At The Speed Of Sound Press To Play (“Good Times Comin’/Feel the Sun” “Footprints”) London Town
Hardly a quality song
Wild Life Give my Regards… Pipes Of Peace (Seems I’m always the polar opposite of meanmistermustard)
Honorable mention: Unplugged (this album somehow never comes up; admittedly, there are many Beatle covers)
Not counted: Run Devil Run , Kisses On The Bottom , Choba cccp [covers], Rushes, Strawberries… (Haven’t heard these)
That said, a significant number of his best songs did not initially appear on any album. Imagine “Live And Let Die ” on one of those early albums…
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
12.55am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Well not that far off. Give My Regards has No More Lonely Night (one of my favourite Paul tracks ever, both versions) and Goodnight Princess (cd only this but its a nice listen, nothing to get excited about and if it didn’t exist i wouldnt be pining for it) and Pipes Of Peace has the title track and So Bad so agree over those having few good songs. My attitude to Broad Street is that it gets a couple of points for NMLN but loses them all immediately for having such a good song amongst such total rubbish that i can’t just throw the whole damn project into a bottomless pit, concrete over it and forget it ever existed.
I honestly don’t get why Wild Life gets such poor reviews. Ever since i first heard it i’ve loved the album, very rough and raw and yeah Paul could have spent weeks and months over it, getting into shape but thats what i love about it. Its not your normal Paul album and there is plenty of energy. Wild Life , Love Is Strange, Tomorrow, Dear Friend, I Am Your Singer, Some People Never Know – i love them all. Even Mumbo i get caught up in.
I’m currently listening to WatSoS outtakes in my trip thru Paul’s solo career album by album. How i fear the mid-80’s.
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acmac"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
5.03pm
1 August 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
My attitude to Broad Street is that it gets a couple of points for NMLN but loses them all immediately for having such a good song amongst such total rubbish that i can’t just throw the whole damn project into a bottomless pit, concrete over it and forget it ever existed.
LOL! My sentiments exactly. Broadstreet was such an epic display of hubris. The product of some unholy brew of frustration, ego, grief, and pot. A mid-life crisis to end all mid-life crises.
It’s odd; “NMLN” is a really good song, but somehow I never really want to listen to it. Tainted by association?
meanmistermustard said
I honestly don’t get why Wild Life gets such poor reviews. Ever since i first heard it i’ve loved the album, very rough and raw and yeah Paul could have spent weeks and months over it, getting into shape but thats what i love about it. Its not your normal Paul album and there is plenty of energy. Wild Life , Love Is Strange, Tomorrow, Dear Friend, I Am Your Singer, Some People Never Know – i love them all. Even Mumbo i get caught up in.
I love “Tomorrow,” “Dear Friend,” and “Some People”; “Love Is Strange” is a cool cover and very summery. The rest are meh for me. Except for “Wild Life ” and “Bip Bop,” which I hate! Even Paul hates the latter; there’s some interview where he’s all “OMG, what a crap song! It doesn’t GO anywhere!”
Unlike Into the Sky with Diamonds above, I have absolutely zero use for “Live And Let Die ” and am very glad it’s not on an album. A lot of Paul’s singles are that way for me; “My Love” springs to mind.
5.45pm
16 September 2013
Offline My favorite track on “Wild Life ” is the short instrumental throwaway, not even listed on the album credits, but known as… “Bip Bop Link.” It consists of exquisite acoustic guitar noodling, that Paul apparently couldn’t be bothered with developing further; he couldn’t even be bothered giving the instrumental fragment a proper title.
6.48pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Acmac, My Love is on the Red Rose Speedway LP, and one of the better songs.
Bungalow Bob. I don’t mind the link tracks, thankfully they are short so don’t outstay their welcome. If that was the only Bip Bob i’d be delighted.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.40pm
16 September 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
…If that was the only Bip Bob i’d be delighted.
mmm, your phrase “Bip Bob” made me laugh. Whether it was an unintended typo, or an extremely clever interweaving of “Bop” and “Bob,” I can’t say. But it made me laugh, so that’s a good thing. 
“Wild Life ” is one of those albums that I think could have been really good, if Paul had made more of an effort. For example, Bob would quip: “Drop Bip Bop.”
9.13pm
22 December 2013
Offline “Ranking Paul’s Studio Albums” is pretty cut & dry for me. In my opinion, and yes I’ve heard them all, only 2 of them are even worth ranking as albums because almost all of them are comprised of mainly second-rate material (“throwaways” or “filler”, whichever is your preferred coin phrase) with few bright spots scattered throughout his collections. Had he been anybody else he would’ve been hard pressed to even find a recording contract after the first two to even have had the opportunity to make another crappy album like ‘Wild Life ‘ or ‘Red Rose Speedway ‘, let alone have any of them go to number one. The only two albums that Paul has made post-Beatles that contain equal amounts of greatness and forgettables (50/50 ain’t my idea of a “Great Album”), in my opinion, are ‘Band On The Run ‘ & ‘NEW’, and if you own all of his solo material you may be able to squeak out a highly customized double album of bright spots that garners repeat listening over an extended period of time, but the vast amounts of pointless, uninspiring and pretentious tracks far and away outweighs any gems, in fact, I’d probably call the compilation ‘Far & Away’ for a number of reasons…:-)
9.30pm
14 December 2009
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Strong words!
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
9.44pm
22 December 2013
Offline Von Bontee said
Strong words!
It’s just one person’s opinion, for what it’s worth….:-)
1.39am
8 November 2012
Offline acmac said
Unlike Into the Sky with Diamonds above, I have absolutely zero use for “Live And Let Die ” and am very glad it’s not on an album.
Interesting. You might be the only person I’ve come across who dislikes that song. It’s one of my favorites, and my experience is that people who don’t like Paul at least like that one.
parlance
2.31am
Reviewers
1 November 2013
Offline parlance said
acmac said
Unlike Into the Sky with Diamonds above, I have absolutely zero use for “Live And Let Die ” and am very glad it’s not on an album.Interesting. You might be the only person I’ve come across who dislikes that song. It’s one of my favorites, and my experience is that people who don’t like Paul at least like that one.
parlance
It’s not his finest work, but it’s fun.
(This signature brought to you by Net Boy and Net Girl. Putting messages in modems since 1996.)
3.15am
17 January 2014
Offline 4. Ram
5. New
6. Tug Of War
7. Wings At The Speed Of Sound
8. McCartney II
9. McCartney
Amazing career considering doing all of this after The Beatles. Could listen to BOTR over and over.
4.08am
1 August 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
Acmac, My Love is on the Red Rose Speedway LP, and one of the better songs.
Oh, was it not a single then?
6.15am
8 November 2012
Offline acmac said
meanmistermustard said
Acmac, My Love is on the Red Rose Speedway LP, and one of the better songs.Oh, was it not a single then?
It was. When you said you were glad LaLD isn’t on an album, and a lot of Paul’s singles are like that for you, it looked like you were saying “My Love” isn’t on an album. I had the same confusion at first.
parlance
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acmac8.27am
17 October 2013
Offline Billy Rhythm said
“Ranking Paul’s Studio Albums” is pretty cut & dry for me. In my opinion, and yes I’ve heard them all, only 2 of them are even worth ranking as albums because almost all of them are comprised of mainly second-rate material (“throwaways” or “filler”, whichever is your preferred coin phrase) with few bright spots scattered throughout his collections. Had he been anybody else he would’ve been hard pressed to even find a recording contract after the first two to even have had the opportunity to make another crappy album like ‘Wild Life ‘ or ‘Red Rose Speedway ‘, let alone have any of them go to number one. The only two albums that Paul has made post-Beatles that contain equal amounts of greatness and forgettables (50/50 ain’t my idea of a “Great Album”), in my opinion, are ‘Band On The Run ‘ & ‘NEW’, and if you own all of his solo material you may be able to squeak out a highly customized double album of bright spots that garners repeat listening over an extended period of time, but the vast amounts of pointless, uninspiring and pretentious tracks far and away outweighs any gems, in fact, I’d probably call the compilation ‘Far & Away’ for a number of reasons…:-)
Indeed……..pretty strong and seemingly heartfelt opinion.
I have most of Paul’s solo albums……. Missing 4 or 5 I suppose.
My view is that if The Beatles had never happened……If ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘ ‘Yesterday ‘ et al had never been written, I think over his solo career Paul’s produced enough strong material on each album to have carved for himself an almost peerless reputation and be rated as one of the best singer songwriter, performers ever.
1.53pm
22 December 2013
Offline Atlas said
My view is that if The Beatles had never happened……If ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘ ‘Yesterday ‘ et al had never been written, I think over his solo career Paul’s produced enough strong material on each album to have carved for himself an almost peerless reputation and be rated as one of the best singer songwriter, performers ever.
We’ll never know for certain, but it’s pretty hard for me to accept that he could still sell out Fenway Park in a few minutes at 70+ years of age playing ‘My Love’, ‘Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey ‘ and the likes. Listen, I’m not all that big on any of their solo careers to be honest. John came up with atleast two excellent and concise records while George’s swansong album is really brilliant, in my opinion, but Paul appeared to me to had suffered the most from the breakup of the band and spent 1970 onwards desperately trying to recapture something that he’d never recover again. There’s no denying his commercial successes post-Beatles, but most of his solo work is difficult for me to digest after I grew accustomed to ‘For No One ‘, ‘Golden Slumbers ‘, ‘Let It Be ‘, etc. Take a song like ‘Silly Love Songs’ which I believe spent more weeks at number one on the Billboard Charts than any of his other solo singles. While John was better known as a lyricist than Paul when The Beatles were still making music together, Paul had shown that he was every bit as accomplished back then, but this?!
First of all, he asks a pretty straight forward question in direct response to his critics who’d pointed out how “wimpy” his solo music had become since the Beatles’ breakup:
Some people wanna fill the world with Silly Love Songs
And what’s wrong with that?
After further underscoring that the critics had clearly hit a nerve with him with:
What’s wrong with that?
I need to know, cause here I go again
I love you, I love you
He then actually answers his own question by stating:
It isn’t silly, no, it isn’t silly, love isn’t silly at all
Which should put the “silly” question to rest and make him realise that his more elegant approach to “love” before sounded much better. The fact that he was even responding to the critics so directly speaks volumes, he’d clearly become a follower and was no longer the leader he was to contemporary music. Even his bass playing on this song wreaked of him attempting to emulate the funky disco lines that were dominating the charts of the day, he seemed to have forgotten that he was all ready “funky” long before the craze had hit. Yet, ‘Silly Love Songs’ is to be one of the highlights of the ‘At The Speed of Sound’ album? This is Paul McCartney at the height of his solo career?! Hmmm, can’t wait to hear what ‘Cook of The House’ sounds like…:-)
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