POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney's "Driving Rain" album?

It's been a couple weeks since the last round of voting on the merits of a McCartney album, so here's round 4.

The ground rules: this poll, like the others, is DESIGNED for people familiar with the album in question and at least some familiarity with some of his other post-Beatle catalog (for comparison purposes). If the poll doesn't interest you, please kindly move on to a thread that does. I've intentionally not named "comparison albums" on the best-to-worst scale, as some may think a particular album of his is awesome, while others have a completely different take on the same album. Just consider how YOU would rate it in comparison with his other post-Beatles work.

If you've missed a previous poll, feel free to vote below. Here's a recap of where the other three have rated so far:
The "New" album poll 251 votes, with a weighted average of 3.58 (edging slightly towards "solid effort").
The "Back To The Egg" album poll. 114 votes, also with an identical (!) weighted average of 3.58.
The "Wild Life" album poll. 194 votes, with a weighted average of 2.90 (just below "not bad").

Suggestions for a mid-June poll are welcome via the thread or a PM. Probably should pick an 80s/90s release next...

 

I did "Not Bad." There are some great tracks but a lot of dross. This is really the only subpar album from his great late-career run that began with Flaming Pie and continued up to NEW last year.

 

The first option.
Driving Rain is part of a trilogy starting with Flaming Pie and ending with Chaos.

 

Plenty of good stuff in there. It's mostly just too long.

 

Horrible. There's not a single song I enjoy on it.

 

It's only real crime is to be too long. Cut out some of the dross and one has a very, very good album.

 

Lonely Road (radio mix)
From A Lover To A Friend (cut out the last dragging notes)
Driving Rain (Don't care for the studio version but LOVE the BITUS arrangement, so it stays)
I Do
Magic (real great, underrated track)
Your Way
About You
Your Loving Flame (this is McCartney at his finest, LOVE this track. My favorite from the record for sure)

The rest falls between b-side material and CRAP.

 

^add Rinse the Raindrops to your list and I'm with you.

 

Voted "Not Bad" - loved it when it first came out - rarely listen to it now. I appreciated where he was coming from at the time - it's got material that's a departure from "the usual McCartney" so makes it certainly worth a listen but it has not aged well...at all. (YMMV, of course.)

As noted earlier, it's considered part of the trilogy consisting of "Flaming Pie" and "Chaos and Creation..." but imo honestly does not warrant it because it's just nowhere near as good (especially when compared against Chaos). Credit where it's due though because to rebound from Driving Rain with Chaos is yet another huge testament to the genius of the man for me.

 

You can also add...

Tiny Bubble
Back In The Sunshine Again - This is one of my absolute faves from the album!
Rinse The Raindrops - This song would be awesome performed live!

Driving Rain has grown on me over the years, Lonely Road, Your Loving Flame and the title song are McCartney classics!

 

Voted "Not Bad." I used to think this was one of his worst, but have given it another chance lately & it has some songs I really like. Rinse the Raindrops is one of my favorite deep cuts of his.

 

It was by far his longest solo album ever (about 70 minutes). And I don't think there were any B-sides or extra tracks that came out at the time (except for some remixes, right?). It's like he just put EVERYTHING on the album, as opposed to holding stuff back. Arnie

 

I dig this one out about once a year, thinking it will finally click. It never does. There are some interesting ideas and melodies here and there but I wouldn't say that a single song totally works for me. I can't say that it's horrible but even the stinkers (like "Pipes of Peace", "Press", IMHO, hate mail to the usual address) are a little more memorable to me.

 

Except, of course, he did hold back AT LEAST four cuts (that we know of). And who knows how many we know nothing of?

 

I should of said something like "holding stuff back for other releases, like B-sides or CD singles". As for those 4 other rumored songs, those will likely turn up for the 2030 Driving Rain Archive Deluxe set. Arnie

 

2030? Are you mad? What makes you think they're going to speed up the schedule they've been on!?

 

From what has been said about those 4 songs, the album may have been at the level of Flaming Pie and Chaos had they been included, they really were praised by the band.

I think that the album as it was released was half good-to-great (Lonely Road, About You, Your Way, Your Loving Flame, Magic, Heather, From A Lover To A Friend), and half not so good, mainly due to the excessive length of the songs or due to the way that they were rush recorded. I think that songs like Tiny Bubble would have been much better had he spent some more time on them in the studio.

I also agree with Heatherly that the title song was great when performed live in 2002, and my version of the album contains that version of the song.

 

Actually you should have said "I should HAVE said". Sorry, it's the English teacher in me.

 

Ohh, I hate making a mistake like that. To misquote the Nerk Twins: "I Should Of Known Better..." Arnie

 

Driving Rain does nothing for me.

 

Mediocre album, so I went with "Lower-tier". It's in my collection somewhere for the two nice tracks "Heather" and "Riding Into Jaipur".

 

Lower tier.

 

A pretty solid effort. (Although I would probably say that about most of his albums ... so it might be a pointless vote.)

I do think that often McCartney lyrics suffer when they are "made up" or "written" in the studio. And I think that's mostly where this album suffers. Musically it is a strong, creative and interesting album.

 

Anyone know:

Wikipedia says this about the album: "Driving Rain—except for two songs—was cut with David Kahne co-producing in two weeks, starting in February 2001...". However, they do NOT tell which 2 songs were recorded later on. Of course, "Freedom" was recorded after 9/11, but does anyone know what the other song is?

ALSO: Was "Vanilla Sky" or "I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra" recorded during the sessions for the Driving Rain album? Or were they recorded before or afterwards?

Arnie

 

Low tier. I never play it and there aren't many if any songs on it beckoning me to do so.