McCartney: Favourite 80’s Studio Album

I’m still enjoying Pipes Of Peace, inordinately so...and getting into all the 80’s stuff at the moment.

What is your favourite 80’s album by Macca?

And while we’re at it, what order do you rank the albums and what are your favourite Top 5 (excluding single A-sides) songs. My ranking:

• Pipes Of Peace
• Flowers In The Dirt
• McCartney II
• Tug Of War
• Press To Play

Top 5 tunes (no single A-sides, and in no order):

1. What’s That You’re Doing?
2. Check My Machine
3. Sweetest Little Show
4. The Pound Is Sinking
5. Frozen Jap

Honorable mention: The Man

 

I like a couple of songs on POP better than most people but overall, it's a very inconsistent album...and while the inconsistency worked a little better for him in the 70's (it was a different time and Paul was in a different/better "place" with the public in terms of his ex-Beatleness), the "magic" had well worn off by now. That said, his best 80's moment for me-which in itself is a bit of an overrated one-is Tug Of War. While the individual songs were not all that great, it was a very strongly sequenced Lp...pretty good to very good songs sequenced well made for a solid album, in my opinion.

Favorite 80's songs:
-This One
-Bad Boy
-The Other me
-Ballroom dancing
-My Brave Face

 

McCartney 2 - 7/10
Tug of War - 8/10
Pipes of Peace - 7/10
Press to Play - 7/10
Flowers in the Dirt - 7.5/10

 

Great though they are, My Brave Fave and This One (UK only) were both singles..

Funny, I think the same if POP as you think of Tug Of War: They’re both patchy but I like the sequencing (especially the first 6 songs) on Pipes.

 

Flowers in the Dirt, with Tug of War in second place. McCartney II's good, but overrated by a certain kind of indie music fan. Press to Play and Pipes of Peace have a couple of good songs on them but I'd rank them pretty low in terms of the entire discography.

 

I think 'McCartney II' and 'Press to Play' are probably the ones I listen to the most. The latter I think is a strong album filled with underrated songs. The former is a bit more hit and miss but has an overall mood (extending to the great bonus tracks like 'Check My Machine', 'Secret Friend' and 'Blue Sway') that makes up for the filler, and should ideally be listened to in the winter.

 

This is a very tough choice for me to make, because I find both 'Tug Of War' and 'Flowers In The Dirt' to be such strong albums; I have gone for 'Tug' because it is slightly more consistent from start to finish (it helps that I love 'Ebony And Ivory', which I believe to be a great pop duet and a good finish to the album). If 'FITD' had swapped out the inoffensive but average 'How Many People' for the wonderful 'Back On My Feet' then it may have edged into first place.

Choosing third place is also very difficult, because I am a big fan of both 'McCartney 2' and 'Press To Play'; both flawed but interesting experimental albums with their own unique feel. I am going with 'McCartney 2' because it is just so bursting with lovely melodies (One Of These Days, Summer's Day Song, Waterfalls, Frozen Jap, etc), but I would have chosen 'PTP' had it contained the single edit of 'Pretty Little Head' and 'Tough On A Tightrope'.

I have to put 'Pipes Of Peace' in last place, but I say that as a big fan of Paul's vocals on that album, and also of many of the melodies. The big let down is the production, which sucks the life out of a song like 'Sweetest Little Show' in comparison to the wonderful demo of that song. Still, I rate 'Say Say Say', 'The Man', 'Pipes of Peace', 'Keep Under Cover' and 'Through Our Love' highly, and like the soul influence apparent on some of them.

Here are 5 of my top tunes :

However Absurd - Great Neo-psychedelica that proves Paul wasn't a dinosaur, too late now for change

Wanderlust - Arguably my favourite post - Beatles ballad from Paul, and that is saying something considering how many beautiful ballads he has composed since 1970

That Day Is Done - An underrated song that should be a classic

Here Today - The most beautiful of the many tributes written to John

Distractions - A wonderful acoustic throwback that wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-60's Beatle album

Special mention - Temporary Secretary

 

I couldn't agree with you more!

 

McCartney II by a fair margin for me, followed by Tug of War.

 

and I guess Give My Regards doesn't count due to low original content?

 

That was the plan- feel free to include it in your album rankings and/or song selection.

I can only think of the awful saxophone(!) on Long and Winding Road when I think of that album. And a less than inspired Silly Love Songs..

 

I'm not familiar with press to play, and only vagely familiar with Flowers in the Dirt.
I enjoy Mccartney 2 a lot, in spite of, or perhaps because of its weirdness.
I actually think Pipes Of Peace is a great album, though it seems to really cop a lot of flak from folks.
Tug of War would be my favourite though. Its just a really strong album that manages to convey some of Mccartney's idiosyncrasies well, while still being very catchy and well written etc

 

Also- is it just me that finds Pipes, Flowers and Off The Ground to be cut from the same cloth.

I find they have a similar mix of rockers, poppers, ballads, collaborations and also production aesthetic to the point where I almost find the tracks interchangeable.

And on the other hand, Tug, McCartney II and Press To Play are all very much having their own distinct flavors which were not to be repeated in his career.

That’s why I enjoy Macca: so much variety to delve into at every step in his career.

 

Paul's best of the 80s, according to me:

Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)
Temporary Secretary
Waterfalls
One of These Days
Take it Away
Here Today
Ballroom Dancing
Wanderlust
My Brave Face
We Got Married
Put it There
Distractions
That Day is Done
Figure of Eight
This One
Flying to My Home

 

I suppose we could also consider the 1988 Band demos with Elvis Costello to be in contention; I feel many would rate that collection as his best 80's work, especially those not as keen on 80's production sounds.

 

what happened to Broadway Street?

 

I certainly don't think they sound anywhere near cut from the same cloth.

 

Excellent list, apart from "Ballroom Dancing", which I find a bit cringeworthy. I'd swap it out for either "Once Upon a Long Ago" or "Only Love Remains" and add "No More Lonely Nights" ...

 

Well it’s 98.9% a covers album, so that rules it out.

But by all means folks if you wanna list that album and his ‘88 band demos with Elvis Costello in the rankings, be my guest.

And also gimme your Top 5 non-singles, including whatever you want

 

I like Press for...
Stranglehold - A snare pounding rocker with excellent vocals and harmonies, one of McCartney's best! He should have performed it live!
Footprints - One of those acoustic songs that only McCartney can do.
Only Love Remains - A beautiful ballad!
Angry - An aggressive rocker with McCartney telling whoever exactly what he thinks! Another that he should be performing live!
Write Away - Absolutely love the jazz feel and vocals of this track, and the piano solo is great!
It's Not True - This is one of my fave McCartney songs! Love the blue eyed soul, the single version is the best.
Tough On A Tightrope - Love the vocals.

Flowers...
Roughride - Love the soulful r&b groove of this song, one of my faves!
Dsitractions - Another one of those acoustics songs.
We Got Married - It's the guitars!
Put It There - Another acoustic gem.
Figure of Eight - Love the groove.
This One - Love the vocals
How Many People - McCartney's best raggae song! Absolutely love the dynamic opening!
Motor Of Love - One of McCartney's absolute best ballads! The change in the middle is awesome!

Broadstreet...
No More Lonely Nights - Absolutely love both versions! McCartney takes the song from one extreme to the other, from very romantic ballad to dancefloor funk, just awesome!
Not Such A Bad Boy - This is one of my fave McCartney rockers, always wished he would perform it live!
So Bad - Blue eyed soul that Smokey Robinson covered, just wish he had used his own band and really given the song his signature treatment.
The Long And Winding Road - My absolute fave version of this song! This soulful jazzy treatment with McCartney's excellent vocals is the way I always wanted this song to sound, love it!
Eleanor's Dream - I absolutely love the musical changes, it sounds majestic!

All these albums are better than they've ever been given credit for!

 

I find them all high-sheen/slick, poppy, bordering on MOR, with excellent singles (-and collaborations)- no?

 

My McCartney album I choose is McCartney II

I won't rate them in order since I haven't listened to any other albums completely

5. Footprints
4. Hey Hey
3. We Got Married
2. One of These Days
1. On The Way

 

Kinda. I mean, it's not hard to see that McCartney changed his approach to making albums after the Wings period and after Lennon's death. Where previous solo albums like McCartney and McCartney II were relatively humble outings, and Wings essentially grew up in public as its own entity, albums like Tug of War and Flowers in the Dirt (and you could also say this of Press to Play given that McCartney had hired one of the world's hottest producers at the time to work on it with him) were very much conscious attempts to make polished, blockbuster types of albums with high profile collaborations. At that point, throughout the '80s, McCartney seemed very keen to re-establish himself as a major artistic force and an elder statesman of pop. But even with that kind of thread running throughout McCartney's '80s work, I can still tell which track belongs on which album. The material from Press to Play doesn't sound anything like the material from Tug of War, which doesn't sound much like Flowers in the Dirt. They're all very different records, even if McCartney was expecting similar things from them.

 

Flowers
In second place McCartney II.

 

Tug of War is the only one I always listen to beginning to end. I really like parts of II and FITD. Not really a fan of the other two.