Paul McCartney - Egypt Station (#1 album in US) Appreciation Thread 2.0 - New and Improved

Oh awesome! I didnt know that - thats cool.

 

While I’m rooting for a great Macca-Emma Stone video, experience with Paul videos has me being a bit cautious.

In the meantime, I reccomend playing the great video below , featuring Ms. Stone, just turn it’s sound down and play the songs of your choice from Egypt Station over it!

 

I turned down the sound and said rude things ...

 

It looks like the Egypt Station discussion finally starts to fade away
It s been a long and winfing way-with the very, very long wait, all the unearthing and finally the release
It seems that -even with the long waiting bound fot disapointnent-the quality of Egypt Station was a surprise
And it still hold up very well
It s been a great McCartney monent

 

So you want more of my ramblings? I can oblige . . .

 

More randomish ramblings and flights of fancy:

• Worth repeating that “Dominoes” is kind of “perfect” in the way it all comes together, so cohesively—words, vocal, harmonies, melody, sound, length.
• Even the tumbling, repetitive chords (that feel they could keep on going) in the break perfectly echo the theme of the song—falling in line, one after the other.

• “Despite Repeated Warnings”: Musically, perhaps I expect something a little more full-bodied and gutsy—a little more oomph—befitting an “epic.” But this is a story-song that warrants attention to the lyrics—as the story unfolds the music makes a lot more sense, growing in grandeur with repeated listenings.
• The vocal is pretty lonely at the start, and the engineer is equally alone and ineffective at giving warning (that’s why the captain won’t be listening). By the time we get to the second bridge, “what can we do?” the backing begins to echo the line, growing in support—slowly but surely voices come together in protest; “what can we do?” transitions to “yes we can do it” to the confident “it’s the will of the people,” with a certain amount of chaos and cacophony in-between as befits a mutiny (the outro harmonies put me in mind of Supertramp).
• Not to harp on, but the “Planet,” “Plan It,” “Janet,” is a felicitous little rhyme, combining the global (“Planet”) and a key album theme (“Plan It”) with the individual, the personal. “Back in Brazil” is lovely for the same reason. It presents the macro theme of the album and paints it within the canvas of the micro, an everyman/woman, and a personal vignette.

 

Keep em coming

 

Ok
A month after the release I still honestly thing Egypt Station is one of Pauls most satisfactory and condistent album ever
Comparisons with Ram, Band on the Run or other past glories are understandable-ecspecially given the seventies, Wingsy vibes on many tracks
But still-it s a lifetime between the early classics and Egypt Station that also shows
One of the great things is that Egypt Station sort of runs full circle. Many rewiews and opinions compare it more with Wings or early solo-works than the Beatles. A very good thing if one like me feel Pauls post-Beatles deserves more attention than it normally gets
Don t have any real favorites on the album since all songs ranks from good to great

 

You have no favourites?
I disliked Come Onto Me but I love the "Yes I Will" bit at the end now.
I still think the album drags in the middle and Who Cares & Back In Brazil still suck but overall I really like the album. It has an old fashioned vibe which somehow elevates it from 3/5 to 4/5 for me.

 

I like the album as a whole and the favorites have changed. Guess I don t know, Happy with you and Dominoes are favorites. But also Despite repeated warnings or Back in Brazil
Or.....
No I can t really pick favorites here

 

My favorites are I Don't know, Happy With You, Confidante, Dominoes, Do it Now, Ceasar Rock, and Hunt You DOwn, etc..

Next tier are People want Peace, Despite Repeated Warnings, Back in Brazil

Lower tier is come on to Me, Who Cares, Fuh You, and Hand in Hand

But, I like the lower tier too. No skippers.

 

After about a month, i found that i’ve listened to ES more that any other of his post 2000 albums. One possible exception is Chaos & Creation which still ranks on top on my list of McCartney’s recent output (of course “recent” actually means 15-20 years).

I do skip Fuh You every single time even if i’m not intending to - it just stands out as a much inferior track compared with everything else. Even a couple of other weak tracks always get played (e.g. Happy With You, Confidante, People Want Peace, which i find boring but innofensive and work well with the rest in the album). Usually it is rare for me to skip tracks from an otherwise good album.

All the other tracks, to me, range from very good to outstanding

 

Very interesting comparison based on emotional/heart first vs critical/brain first criteria. As for @Dr. Pepper ‘s note on McCartney’s late career renaissance beginning in 2005 instead of 1997 I can totally see where that’s coming from. For me, however, the quality and definite maturity of Flaming Pie is so profound I really see it as the take off point of this brilliant run of albums he’s done.

For me Driving Rain is the odd man out for sure (I tried to explain it in my career retrospective review in the other “Paul’s career overview” thread), but I can objectively see that my view of it (which I admit was totally tempered by huge expectations) isn’t the only one and several contemporary reviews of the album (Rolling Stone gave 4 stars, etc.) and many fans are really fond of it. For that reason I don’t see his string of quality albums being broken by Driving Rain. While not as good as the other renaissance albums it is better than many of his earlier works by far.

 

Here is something I would be interested in, rate all of Paul's post Wings albums.

For me:

Egypt Station
New
Chaos
Tug of War
Complete Kisses
Run Devil Run
MAF
Flaming Pie
Press To Play
Flowers In The Dirt
Pipes of Peace
EA
McCartney II
Choba
Of The Ground
Driving Rain
Broad Street

 

Paul McCartney on Twitter:

#EgyptStation

 

But "Despite Repeated Warnings" has a skipper... or is it "captain":

 

Here's mine, but actual rankings would probably vary slightly if i had to write the list again tomorrow (especially tier 2). Instead, i classify them in tiers:

Tier 1 (i've played them frequently since release)
Chaos & Creation
Egypt Station

Tier 1.5 (i really really appreciate and play these two, but not quite T1)
Electric Arguments
Complete Kisses

Tier 2 (i find all these albums more or less equally good and play them often)
New
Tug of War
Flaming Pie
Flowers in the Dirt
Off the Ground
Run Devil Run
Memory Almost Full

Tier 3 (still get played but nowhere near as often)
Driving Rain
McCartney II
CHOBA B CCCP

Tier 4 (can't remember the last time i played these three)
Press to Play
Pipes of Peace
Broad Street

 

I think this is being done on the solo McCartney thread. (I get this feeling we'll be back to dueling threads with double posts.)

 

• 
  
  
• “OK, we agree the Captain’s Crazy - but which of us is Janet?”

 

Seems like they're teasing something in Paul's Instagram's story
EDIT: On Twitter as well

 

I like the album OK, maybe it will grow on me. I have listened to it about 3 times and enjoy roughty half the tracks. I decided to buy the Target CD version with the 2 extra tracks.

 

Have we done this with the album tracks?

Tier 1 - stone cold classics
"Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link" 6:22
"Dominoes" 5:02
"People Want Peace" 2:59
"Back in Brazil" 3:21 - best guity pleasure since Obla or Silly Love Songs

Tier 2 - still ridiculously awesome
"I Don't Know" 4:27
"Who Cares" 3:13
"Caesar Rock" 3:29
"Despite Repeated Warnings" 6:58

Tier 3 - great songs
"Hand in Hand" 2:35
"Get Started" 3:41
"Confidante" 3:04
"Do It Now" 3:17

Tier 4 - not my faves, but still wonderful in their own way
"Come On to Me" 4:11
"Happy with You" 3:34

Tier 5 - still love these!
"Nothing for Free" 3:15
"Fuh You" 3:23

Tierless - yes, Love these too!
"Opening Station" 0:42
"Station II" 0:46

 

Tier 1
I Don't Know
Hand in Hand
Dominoes
Despite Repeated Warnings
Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link

Tier 2
Come On to Me
Who Cares
Back in Brazil
Do It Now
Caesar Rock

Tier 3
Happy With You
Confidante
People Want Peace

Tier 4
Fuh You

 

Interesting @Glenn Christense life size Mary Ann doll has that same facial expression!

 

The five years wait, the zillions of posts spread over countless threads for this album, and it was all worth it just for the above post.