Driving Rain has good songs on it. I for one really likes Your Way a lot. problem with that album is that it drags on a bit And Freedom is on it Otherwise it s not bad.
That's what I always thought, too: DR is about half a good album, such is FP. And I was happy and thankful for that, then along came Chaos, Arguments and all the others until now, all greats to me, with Chaos, Arguments and Egypt being my favourite MacCa albums. And that's tge interesting bit, we come to the same conclusion, but from very different angles. I set out to reevaluate DR yesterday. I thought it was quite nice up to good and fun. To me some sobgs need to be helped a bit over the fence of enjoyment. The title track being one of them. But yesterday I thought that it could really work as what I call a "long distance song", i.e. where I turn off my critical mind, am on the move and just ket the music flow. My favourites are in the order of appearance She's given Up Talking I Do Your Way Heather Your Loving Flame Riding Into Jaipur Rinse The Raindrop The rest is ok, except for Magic. I was almost hit with boredom when that track came on. It has got nothing for me that grabs my attention, not to mention emotions. Rather boring and default melodic movements, with a default arrangement by numbers ... And I won't mention that track that got attached to the album on short notice. Even when I am bored by McCartney, I am not as emotionally repelled as here for the lack of ... anything that makes a decent song, except for good intentions. Give Peace A Chance this is surely not. Writing this does sound harsh, and I am truly torn. Putting these feelings into words sounds mean, which I don't intend. Those songs just don't make me feel as good as others do, don't touch me, and this is a deeply personal thing, i.e. it's just me showing my limitations. We all are flawed. But luckily we all are flawed differently. And as with people, it's good to know and accept that there is such a thing as incompability. That's not being mean, it's just better to accept fornthe sake of everyone. At least I hope so.
I cannot bring myself to like Driving Rain, though I have tried many times. I think that many songs on the album are ok or even good as compositions, but the production and delivery drag them down immensely. "From a Lover to A Friend" has wonderful melodic moments but certain vocal passages (the pain-ridden "All I wanted is..." and the following) do not fit and are practically unsingable. "I Do" could amount to an impressive love song, but have you listened to the synth strings? So wavery, pure kitsch, complete with christmas-y bells! "Your way" - a good song, but the high vocal is so strained that I cannot stand to hear it. At that time Paul could have pulled of a much better vocal, had he invested the time and labor. "Spinning on An Axis" also had great potential, but then the dreadful ad-libbed "oo-oohs" that drag it down... and so forth... In my view, Driving Rain is a missed opportunity, recorded in a fast and sloppy manner, with too much cheap-sounding synths, made without the necessary care. The wasted potential pains me each time I listen to it. Because of this, it might be only every two years or so.
Driving Rain has two or three decent tracks for me. I must admit that I quite like I Do, but it's an album that tends to slip under the radar. It is a better album than the woeful Off the Ground which I own but have never played since the year it was released. If I catch any of the tracks they sound terribly dated. Even Press to Play has better highlights, and that album has also dated badly.
Though I think the rockers are the strongest point of the album, that's one of my favorites as well. No skippable songs on the album. Probably my least favorite would be Riding To Jaipur.
Second flying Paul video (after Off the Ground). I can see him making a third one (Slidin'... glidin' through the air...).
I was thinking yesterday what a shame it was that Paul didn't have 'Slidin'' written and ready in 1993; it would have made a much better single than 'Off The Ground' and would have suited the grunge era in a similar way to Neil Young's late 80's return to harder rock. I would be very happy for it to receive a video.
I personally am a big fan of my trimmed down playlist of the album but I completely agree with you that the production and performances let down the songs in many cases. I don't rate Kahne highly at all, but I do feel that at least the shimmer he helped add on 'MAF' did that album justice. I think that rushing the sessions was definitely the wrong approach; the vocals could have been greatly improved with a bit more effort and 'Oh Woman, Oh Why', although a great track, hardly makes sense as production inspiration for songs like 'Your Loving Flame' and 'Magic'.
Is that what it is? Since (not including) Flaming Pie I’ve detected a change in his sound - it seems colder, harsher, more up front - but perhaps that’s it, maybe the sound is just too dry. The vocals and instruments just don’t seem as well mixed together - sort of like the Sgt Pepper remix, everything is competing too much with everything else.
Do we know yet if the polaroid like poster that comes with the 333 version will be available with the other limited vinyl releases?
I don’t find Memory Almost Full too dry—there is plenty of reverb and efx on instruments and vocals. The album with really dry, naked vocals is Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. The issue with both albums is that they have limiting set to stun. All the dynamics are crushed against the ceiling and every single instrument and vocal sounds like it’s at the same volume. No depth, no nuance. Both Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full are really bad victims of the Loudness Wars.
So basically the "Holidays" EP + People Want Peace, Frozen Jap and Let It Be. They really are running out of ideas.
I'm glad you're finally really enjoying Driving Rain. It's actually one of the Paul albums I enjoyed greatly upon first release and it wasn't until joining this forum that I found out other Paul fans are generally less keen on it. For me, it's just a very interesting sounding album, with excellent guitar parts, very good drumming thanks to Abe (which sadly isn't true of many of Paul's recent albums) and some awesome sounding bass playing. Plus, Paul's vocals were still mostly pretty good. The songs themselves are an interesting mix of upbeat / joyous / playful Paul and sad / reflective Paul. Like most of his albums from Flaming Pie onwards, many of the songs seem quite personal. I tend not to view Freedom as part of the real album but rather as a weak bonus track. With this in mind, it's probably my third favourite Paul album after Ram and Flaming Pie. Anyhow, as one of those who has heard hardly any of Mc3, I'm enjoying reading the various member reviews that have been posted and look forward to hearing the album in full in just two and half weeks' time.
