Poll: Perhaps Paul pulls penta of possibly perfect platters

Paul has the longest and strongest run of artistically successful albums of his solo career!

2005 Chaos And Creation In The Backyard

2007 Memory Almost Full

2008 Electric Arguments

2012 Kisses on the Bottom

2013 New

An absolutely stunning quintet of albums with amazing variety! I enjoy all of them! What do you think of them and which are your favorites?

 

Penta?

 

In that case that would make this his strongest album run since:

1965- Rubber Soul
1966- Revolver
1967- Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1968- The Beatles (White Album)
1969- Abbey Road

 

Penta means five and it starts with a "p" unlike quintet!

 

Just one more thing... I said his solo career, but yes I guess it would qualify as his most artistically successful 5 album run since he was 1/4th of the most incredible band in history, The Beatles! Oh and one more thing... the five consecutive Beatle album run you listed above is the best 5 album run in the history of music, IMHO!

 

Was nit those albums made by à group . Don t really remember but I think so anyway

 

I have given each one a try but I only bought "Electric Arguments".

 

Well yes, you could probably use the same example for even Ringo but it makes sense for Paul considering after he generally wrote close to or around half the album tracks.

 

I'm not really that fond of KOTB or EA, and only about half of MAF really appeals to me. I'm a huge McCartney fan and I absolutely love New but I don't think he's ever had five great albums in a row, but the stretch from Ram - Venus and Mars is a pretty strong group of four consecutive albums. (Yep, I like Red Rose Speedway a lot.)

 

I'd say that yes, this is by far and away his best run of albums. For my money, this run actually goes as far back as Press To Play. I find his Wings/early 80's period to be far less rewarding than the period in which, ironically, the hits dried up.

For my taste, the run from '86 was pretty infallible:

Press To Play/Flowers In The Dirt/Off The Ground/Flaming Pie/Run Devil Run.

And, while I think Driving Rain makes a single album of high quality, as a longer set it doesn't maintain the consistency. So, for me, it's a toss up between the run I've listed above and the penta highlighted by the OP.

And, while it's a bit like choosing your favourite ice cream, I think I'd have to go with the most recent five as the better.

My favourite of the bunch? Chaos And Creation. Why? Well, in the final analysis, no album can be considered "the greatest" if it contains Gratitude, so that rules MAF out. Electric Arguments runs out of steam a little towards the end and Kisses - while a lovely overall listen - contains too many songs I don't truly care for. As to New, it's just too, well, new to be seriously considered as the best of the bunch. (And besides, there are too many songs I'm just not getting into at the moment.)

 

Yes, that's a nice run, probably his second strongest 5 album run. Ram, Wildlife, Red Rose Speedway, Band on The a Run, Venus and Mars, but most folks think Wildlife was a disaster even though it was an experiment in fast album creation. If you throw out Wildlife as an experiment and throw in Paul's debut solo album, then you might have an equal 5 album run to his current run, but it's really not fair to throw out an album in the middle of the run and Red Rose Speedway is arguably weaker than any album in his current 5 album run.

 

I had not thought of that run, and it is a pretty solid run, but I would argue that Off The Ground is the weak link here and certainly was not as artistically successful as any of the five albums in Paul's current 5 album run.

 

It's a good stretch, nothing more. And, for instance, you are (deliberately or not) forgetting Ocean's Kingdom.

For me CACITB is a good sounding and produced album, but some songs lack life. MAF is just the contrary, better songs, not so good souns. I think KOTB is not a very good one indeed.

In fact, I think that Driving Rain (especially the edition without the awful Freedom) is better than thre or four of the albums you listed.

Sir Paul don't have any inmaculate batch of records in his discography. You have Wildlife in the begginings (good but not great) Wings At the Speed of Sound after Venus and Mars (BIG mistake), after McCartney II and Tug of War stinkers like Pipes of Peace and GMRTBS and, the middle of that great sequence that goes from Flowers In the Dirt to Flaming Pie the not-so-great Liverpool Oratorio and The Fireman debut. And we can't forget all that perfunctory live albums that, aside from Wings over America (and maybe, ONLY maybe Tripping the Live Fantastic) have nothing to say.

Given this, I also think that his best batch of studio creations is (cutting the first or the last according to each one's preferences):

· McCartney
· RAM
· Red Rose Speedway
· Wild Life
· Band On The Run
· Venus and Mars

The other strong one for me, excluding the sound collages, could be

· Flowers In The Dirt
(...)
· Off the Ground
· Flaming Pie
· Rushes
(...)
· Driving Rain

 

I left out 2011's Ocean's Kingdom because it is an Orchestral Ballet, and most don't consider it part of McCartney's pop music canon and many wouldn't even know of it's existence. For my money, I'd throw it in and argue that with it included it makes Paul's now six album run the most artistically successful six album run in Paul's solo career. I have no idea how anyone could possibly say that Paul expanding his artistic horizons to include an Orchestral Ballet anything other than an artistic success, and it's my personal favorite Orchestral work by Paul, especially the whimsical Second Movement - Hall Of Dance! I would further suggest that in my opinion that 6 album run is the most musically diverse and artistically successful of any solo artist in history!

 

Rating and ranking the albums:

1. NEW - 10/10
2. Electric Arguments - 10/10
3. Chaos & Creation - 10/10
4. Kisses On The Bottom 9/10
5. Memory Almost Full - 8.5/10

 

No, and I mean "no" in the sense that there can't even be a discussion about this.

John Cage 50's works, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane Atlantic recordins, Beatles from Rubber Soul to Abbey Road, CCR until Pendulum, Dylan 1965-1975, Bruce Springsteen from the second to Nebraska albums, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye in the mid-seventies, Diamanda Galás from her trilogy until The Singer, Wu Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and the first batch os solo albums, John Zorn Masada Project...

I mean, we all like to overrate our favorite artists, but we should know when it has been too much overrating.

 

Oh I don't know, love a lot of these artists that you have mentioned. Where are Dylan's or Gaye's orchestral albums? Cage's Yesterday or Hey Jude? For that mater where is Aaron Copland's or Gershwin's pop albums or experimental works? Don't recall a lot of CCR Jazz standards albums, do you? I'm not saying that Paul is more brilliant than any of these other folks, or that his work in others musical domains is anything more than rudimentary. I'm just saying that as far as I can tell he is the only individual that has ever been artistically successful in so many different genres. He can communicate musically through all of these genres. I mean look at Garth Brooks attempt to jump from country to pop with his Chris Gaines debacle. Jumping genres is hard to do, and Paul has won grammy's for it and been #1 on the Jazz album charts.

The only person that I can even think of coming close to him in successfully navigating a wide diversity of genres is probably Joni Mitchell in the 70s jumping seemingly effortlessly from Folk to Pop to Jazz and fusing them together.

 

Why stop at Nebraska? Born in the USA could of been the third record on The River, and Tunnel of Love is a masterpiece.

 

Macca's regular pop/rock albums have all been great since Flaming Pie. (I think Off the Ground is good, but it's uneven compared to the fine Flowers in the Dirt, so my stretch starts at Flaming Pie.)
I love Driving Rain and think it's better than Chaos.

 

I don't particularly rate Kisses on the Bottom, so to me the strongest five album run is Band on the Run/Venus and Mars/Wings at the Speed of Sound/London Town/Back to the Egg. SOS is a bit soso (pun intended), but better than KOTB.

It's also possible to substitute Red Rose Speedway for Back to the Egg and still have a stronger five album run, IMO.

 

I've never really understood why Off The Ground is so disliked. I mean, there are a couple of weak songs on it and the production is a bit flat but, you know, I'd say the songs on it were significantly better than those on Speed of Sound and Back To The Egg.

I can understand why something like Wild Life isn't well liked: the songs just aren't there and the performances are ragged but Off The Ground? I remain baffled. Of course, that's not to say that I think anyone is wrong. I'm not picking an argument; just saying that I find it to be a solid, enjoyable record.

 

I think consistency isn't one of Paul's bigger strenghts. For this reason there will always be a "Bottom" or "Wild Life" popping up if you look at his solo output. I'd say the first 5 albums he did are stronger. You have Ram and BOR. Hard to argue with this.

Chaos: Good album, nice flow and then comes "English Tea". I liked the production and the songwriting.
Memory: Too uneven. Some nice songs, some not so nice ones.
Electric arguments: Good record. I think it liberates him artistically when he doesn't have to be Paul.
Kisses: Artistically successful or cliche move for aging rockers, you choose.
New: Very good album. And no real cluncker on it.

 

I love Chaos, EA, and New. Dislike Memory and Kisses.

He's on a big every other album is great streak. Those 3 are among his best ever post-Beatles.....including his 1970s stuff.

 

That's about how I would rate them as well! By current enjoyment only, mine would be.

1. NEW - 11/10
2. Chaos & Creation - 10/10
3. Kisses On The Bottom 1o/10
4. Memory Almost Full - 8.5/10
5. Electric Arguments - 8.5/10

 

That would be interesting to look at his catalog with your every other album idea, kind of like quality of Star Trek movies - the even numbered ones are good!