McCartney Album "NEW" (2013), part22

That's what makes the world go 'round of course. If I've learned anything on the forum over the years, it's that a song I might think is execrable(not talking about "Save Us" here) will have a legion of fans here, and a song I might think is amazing will have other people or possibly the SAME people, saying .."What ? That song sucks!"

But you'll have to excuse me. I have to leave : I've got the feeling of a jungle rhythm beating in me, and I'm also preparing for the heat of battle, so I have a lot on my plate at the moment.

 

My favorite song on the album is "Alligator."

 

I like most of them but at this point I'd pick "I Can Bet" "Appreciate" and "Hosanna" as my three faves, and I know "Hosanna" isn't a big favorite around here.

 

My thoughts as of 11-17-14 4:2o PM - Still my favorite McCartney album!

Great
2. "Alligator" Mark Ronson 3:27
7. "Appreciate" Martin 4:28
12. "Road" 7:39

Strong
3. "On My Way to Work" Giles Martin 3:43
5. "Early Days" Ethan Johns 4:07
6. "New" Ronson 2:53
13. "Turned Out" Johns, additional work by Martin 2:59
15. "Scared" Martin 6:15

Solid
9. "Hosanna" Johns 3:29
10. "I Can Bet" Martin 3:21
11. "Looking at Her" Martin 3:05
14. "Get Me Out of Here"
2. "Hell to Pay" 4:00
3. "Demons Dance"

Weak
1. "Save Us" Paul Epworth 2:39
4. "Queenie Eye" Epworth 3:41
8. "Everybody Out There" Martin 3:21
15. "Struggle"

 

My thoughts as of 11-17-14 7:55 PM - Still NOT my favorite McCartney album!

Great
Alligator
Appreciate
New
Hosanna
I Can Bet
Looking At Her
Hell To Pay
Demons Dance

Not Great
On My Way to Work
Early Days
Turned Out
Scared
Get Me Out of Here
Save Us
Everybody Out There
Struggle
Queenie Eye


Hope ya don't mind me copying & pasting some of your work, Doc - Thanks.

 

Btw, ebay now has a (legit?) promo cd for "Hope".

Perhaps a release of some sort is truly imminent.

 

God, I hope it's legit!

I was just thinking they should hurry up on release

 

You're welcome!

 

They would have sold a lot more copies if the single had been released when the game came out!

 

I really like NEW. Of all the albums Paul's released since Driving Rain, NEW is the one I keep coming back to. That's not to say those other albums aren't good, but they all took some time to grow on me, with NEW I really enjoyed it on my first listen and still like it, seems like I listen to it at least once a every couple of weeks, ever since it's original release last year. I don't know, something about the album just really clicked with me, I enjoy all the songs on the album. Really love "On My Way To Work", "Queenie Eye", and "Early Days", that 3 4 5 track list punch. "New" is another great song IMO.

Also liked the bonus tracks that came in the Collectors Edition set. I can see others not digging it as much though, the production on songs like "Save Us" might turn some people off, and it may not age well, who knows? I'm enjoying it, and as I said it's an album that holds up to multiple listens, so I guess that's all that really matters for me.

As far as Grammy talk, I kinda felt like the whole reason (besides getting us all to buy it again) for the re-release of NEW was to get it back in people's minds, especially the people who vote for the Grammys. I am probably wrong, but that was my take on it.

 

Does anyone else agree that "Hell to Pay" is the best song from the New sessions? It's got a better mix, a really good bass sound (is that the Rickenbacker?), and a vocal range that Paul can actually handle at his age (no goofy falsetto). The chorus isn't great, but the "times are tough" hook is better than anything on New in my opinion.

 

http://www.paulmccartney.com/news-b...discussing-hope-for-the-future-with-lily-cole

 

I guess he's hoping the new song will be a Xmas hit, and that would be nice indeed.

 

I love "Alligator" too. Lots of interesting changes in the format.

 

"Hosanna" is a favorite with me! And I think "I Can Bet" is really overlooked, and it's also one of my very favorites. They can dispense with "Appreciate", though.

Naturally, this goes without saying. I was just voicing my subjective opinions!

 

Hmm, well, a couple thoughts:

(1) I do sometimes wonder if what you say is especially true of McCartney's music and fans. It's really such a reliable thing around here, it's become a bit of a joke for me: as soon as someone says "Surely everyone can agree that (Rudolph, Spies Like Us, PS Love Me Do, Simple As That, Freedom...) is a weak song," someone will pipe up to say they like it very much, thank you (note: those of you who lump Biker into this category are just mistaken). If this is particular to McCartney, I would guess that it's because Paul's music is in itself so varied and cuts across so many generations and generational tastes. He's arguably the most stylistically-variable songwriter and recording artist in history (classic example: Yesterday/I'm Down)--and then he's been at it for half a century.

On the other hand, while I love other artists too, I don't know the catalogue of any other artist so well as I know McCartney's and I don't care to follow the ins-and-outs of fan favorites with any other artist, so maybe some (many?) other artists have this phenomenon of extremely variable fan appreciation.

One way or the other, it means that people come to a McCartney recording with an unusually broad range of expectations and standards for music enjoyment--and this can hold true, even though they may all consider themselves to be fans (especially the Beatley stuff, or especially the rockers, or especially the Wingsy stuff, or especially the ballady stuff, or especially...). Which also means that in the reception of McCartney's work, there are always going to be disappointed fans.

(2) On the other hand, even though there can be great variation at the level of one fan to another, I think the SHMF polls that people run here show that audience appreciation for McCartney's work does show some clear tendencies: generally speaking, music fans who care about and follow McCartney's work appreciate Chaos & Creation more than Driving Rain, Band on the Run more than Venus and Mars, Tug of War more than Pipes of Peace, Ram more than Wild Life, Flowers in the Dirt more than Off the Ground. So, yes, it's subjective, but it may not be absolutely subjective. In fact, I would wager, that if you polled people's top ten post-Beatle McCartney albums (out of what, 30?), you would very reliably get the bolded titles included among those top ten. Which makes it look like there's something like a consensus, to which people will add or subtract according to individual tastes.

Just thinking.

 

My thoughts on Chaos as of 11-18-14 - Still my second favorite McCartney album!

Great
"Jenny Wren" – 3:47
"English Tea" – 2:12
"Too Much Rain" – 3:24
"Summer of '59" 2:11 (Really, between Strong and Great somewhere)

Strong
"Fine Line" – 3:05
"At the Mercy" – 2:38
"A Certain Softness" – 2:42
"Riding to Vanity Fair" – 5:07
"This Loving Game" 3:15
"She Is So Beautiful" 3:01

Solid
"How Kind of You" – 4:47
"Friends to Go" – 2:43
"Follow Me" – 2:31
"Promise to You Girl" – 3:10
"This Never Happened Before" – 3:24
"Anyway" – 7:22
"Comfort of Love" 3:12
"Growing Up Falling Down" 3:27
"I Want You to Fly" 5:03

Weak
"I've Only Got Two Hands"

 

... and then there is McCartney II?

 

Jeez, what a great album that is.

 

That promo cd of "Hope" went for $336!

 

HOLY @#$%!!

 

BTW, reading the story on paulmccartney.com today, it seems the song is officially titled "Hope for the Future"?

 

But, but.. I like Wildlife more than Ram , Venus and Mars more than Band on the Run and Driving Rain more than Pathos and Cremation in the Backyard and I'm about as big of a McCartney fanboy as possible, so I'm put here on earth for the express purpose of goofing up your theory.

 

You and I are so alone on this tiny island.

 

You, Glenn and Knarf!!