THE FAMILY WAY (1967)
 

MCCARTNEY (1970)
 

RAM (1971)

 

WILD LIFE (1971)

Rob Eustace - Wild Life, why does everyone hate Wild Life???, it must be me I guess!!!. For me, the title track is one of McCartney's greatest moments (yeah I mean it!!!), that track is worth the price of the admission alone. I don't find anything too offensive in the remaining tracks possibly with the exception of "Bip Bop" and find the whole album has a kind of naive charm about it.

RED ROSE SPEEDWAY (1973)

 

Rob Eustace - Band on the Run is an album I really couldn't afford a 10+ to I'm afraid, its got some fantastic moments and great individual tracks but it really gets dragged down by the likes of "Picasso", "Mamunia", & "Mrs Vandabuilt", to me it needed a bit more quality control, as with much of Paul's output.

 

Nate - "..this album is so confrontationally cheesy that it sounds as though McCartney is rubbing our collective faces in his ass crack while letting go a huge, stinky cheddar fart." That's just the greatest bit of writing ever put on paper....er, screen.
    I also take issue with your disdain for Denny Laine, but other than that....

Ian's Music Reviews - Thanks.  I'm proud of that one...hehehe......

 

 

Rob Eustace - Back to the Egg, to me is as bad as McCartney II and the tracks you tip "to skip" are some of the main reasons why. "Spin it On" and "Old Siam Sir" are simply laughable, can you believe he even released the later as a single in the UK, yeah it looked real cool in 1979 UK playlists featuring The Stranglers, The Undertones, Elvis Costello and the wash of New Wave acts sweeping in. There's nothing on this album to save it for me, even the overblown, get all my mates round "Rockestra" (or whatever its called) tracks.

Rob Eustace - McCartney II, yeah you're spot on, an absolute disaster, what the hell was he thinking, to me this is far worse than Press to Play which is commonly regarded as the McCartney stinker. I seem to remember Adrian Denning liking this recently, come on guys, this is absolute crap of the highest order, not even Ringo ever stooped this low did he??. Possibly the lowest point of all Beatle solo albums together the previous Back to the Egg (if you don't count all that Lennon Avant Garde shite!!!)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHOBA B CCCP (1991)
 

Rob Eustace - Off the Ground, at last someone agrees with me. You're right, its a bloody great little album, and its too easily dismissed by the masses, and your right about something else too, just how many people have actually heard it.

Straying from the point a little, I regard Morrissey's Southpaw Grammar in the same way, ridiculously dismissed over here as his guitar album and some kind of attempt to keep up with the Oasis / Britpop boom. Crap its just a great Morrissey album, and again I'm hard pushed to find anyone whose actually listened to it at all.

Anyway back to the point, in the UK, Off the Ground is the one McCartney album you'll struggle to find on the High Street, you'll find stacks of McCartney II, Press to Play, At the Speed of Sound and Back to the Egg, you'll even find plenty of Wings over America which whilst a great album sells at a ridiculously extortionate price over here, but try and find a copy of Off the Ground and you're in for a challenge. I love it from start to finish, the only thing we differ on here is "Peace in the Neighbourhood", its great!!!!!. I note you said that others feel different from yourself about it, well I'm afraid I'm another one!!!!!!!!.  I like the McCartney/Costello collaborations generally, having said that I'm a big fan of both artists. Costello is a giant for me, an unbelievable talent with some incredible albums in this cannon....

Ian's Music Reviews - I'm also happy to see that you love Off The Ground. I understand why people dismiss it so easily - my first reaction to news of its initial release in 1993 was "who cares." I saw Paul play 'Biker Like An Icon' on Saturday Night Live, and the song totally rubbed me the wrong way, so I assumed that the rest of the album was crap too. It was only after my cousin Mark bought the album, and raved about how good it was that I even gave it a chance. I loved it from the start, and instinctively knew it was one of Paul's better solo albums. I love Paul's mastery of a broad range in musical styles on the album, and the production is timeless. That's too bad that Off the Ground is so hard to find in the UK. It's not to difficult to find it here, although Paul's solo albums are (for the most part) better received in this part of the world.

 

 

DRIVING RAIN (2001)

Javier Mora - Driving Rain is a great album, at least rocks. By the way, PAUL wasn’t supporting bush with freedom, look what Paul said about that wrong interpretation: “Freedom” was written post-9/11. Immediately post-9/11. And I wasn’t talking of a military response. I meant it like it’s civil rights. I will fight for the right, I meant. I’ll argue, I’ll shout, I’ll complain, I’ll vote. I don’t mean I’ll punch you in the face … but unfortunately that kind of meaning did get a little hijacked. I think President Bush had a lot to do with that. He talks about freedom, but it’s not the same kind of freedom I’m talking about.  Actually, it’s so unfortunate because it’s like … I’m not sure I’m going to do that song on my new tour, but I’d love to because I know what it means. But there is this doubt now as to how it will be taken. Is this just supporting any future military effort in Britain or the U.S.? That, I think, clouds the original meaning. When you sing “we shall overcome,” you don’t mean “we will overpower.”

Ian's Music Reviews - Thanks for taking the time to write. I still stand by my negative assessment of Driving Rain, which I view as being one of Paul's weakest efforts as a solo artist. As for the whole 'Freedom' issue, I have no doubt that Paul didn't actually intend the song to be "pro-Bush" or "pro-Blair," or "pro-anything" for that matter. It was just an emotional response to a horrible event - and there's nothing wrong with that per say. However, Paul should've known better than to release this song back in Autumn 2001, as America was launching its first military response to 9/11. Paul should have foreseen that people would misinterpret what he was saying. When you sing "I will fight for the right to live in freedom," most people are not automatically going to assume that you're talking about "civil rights," or "voting." Rather, most listeners will think that you're singing about fighting in the literal sense. When I called Paul a "neo-conservative" in the review I was just being sarcastic. I know he isn't. But he sure sounds like one on 'Freedom,' and it really stinks.