Paul McCartney Archive Collection - 'Forthcoming Releases' [2019+]

Well, hope lies in the fact that the Speed Of Sound deluxe was the best that album has ever sounded. Not the best Wings album, but the improved sound moved it up a notch in my book.

 

Just realised my comment may come across a touch passive aggressive, sorry that wasn’t my intention!

That’s a fair point, we do know the sets being worked on and there was Back to the Egg merchandise on Paul’s most recent tour so there is some evidence to suggest this may be linked to a release. You’re probably right to be cautious.

 

I felt the same with McCartney II.

 

I was thinking recently about this announcement back in 2010 which is when I first heard McCartney had switched labels.

BBC News - Sir Paul McCartney to reissue solo material

As we know, the Archive series started in November of that year with Band on the Run, continued 7 months later with McCartney and McCartney II; and then there was a gap of a full 12 months before Ram was reissues in 2012. That was when the scope of the Archive series shifted, from book sets to more lavish box sets with more ephemera etc.

If the Archive series had stuck to the book format in 6-7 month intervals, it could have looked something like this:

June 2011 - McCartney and McCartney II
December 2011 - Tug of War and Pipes of Peace
June 2012: Ram and Wildlife
December 2012: Give My Regards To Broadstreet and Press to Play
June 2013: Venus and Mars and Speed of sound
December 2013: Flowers in the dirt and Off the ground
June 2014: London Town and Back to the Egg
December 2014: Red Rose Speedway and Wings Over America
June 2015: Flaming Pie and Run Devil Run
June 2016 - End of contract with label, Pure McCartney is final release

The above are not necessarily the order of releases, but my point is there would have been enough time with 6-7 month intervals to reissue all the studio albums up to Run Devil Run (personally I'm not expecting Archive editions of anything post Flaming Pie).

As it stands, McCartney signed with Capitol in 2017 with the following out of print on physical media and / or ripe for an Archive release:

Wildlife
Red rose Speedway
London Town
Back To The Egg
Broadstreet
Press To Play
Flowers In The Dirt
Off The Ground

It may well have been a condition of the Capitol deal that the Archive series continues with Flowers in the Dirt, but as McCartney's manager commented in 2017 to superdeluxeedition.com McCartney’s manager reaches out to explain Flowers in the Dirt downloads – SuperDeluxeEdition

Paul’s team work on one project at a time because there may come a point where the record label says there is no demand anymore.

So one of the reasons we are now here in 2022 with no Archive editions of London Town, Back to the Egg, Broadstreet, Press To Play and Off The Ground, 12 years after the commencement of the reissue campaign with Band on the Run, arguably relates to the key decision a year into the campaign to switch from the book sets to more lavish box sets.

It could be argued that had this not have been done, by the time the contact with Concord ended, those remasters would be complete and reissued, as illustrated in the list above.

 

Holy smokes. I had no idea this existed. Welcome to my new favorite Wings music video!

 

McCartney II archive is one generation lower than any previous version of the album, hence the improvement.

My vote for best sounding archive remaster is Pipes Of Peace.

 

I like how Paul decided to get an 80s haircut early, everyone else still firmly in the 70s.

 

I just read it on the Beatlefan Facebook page:

Another unconfirmed rumor claims that all of McCartney's work as a solo artist and with Wings to be re-released with upgraded audio/visuals and packaging. This exclusive global arrangement will cover both physical and digital distribution of McCartney’s post-Beatles catalog, the report claims.

 

Did someone read my suggestion of a box of all McCartney and Wings albums?

 

I don't see the post. Is it from Beatlefan directly?

 

Beatlefan posted it in the replies to the post about the Revolver / Sometime in NYC rumour.

 

Any statement that starts with "another unconfirmed rumor" is exactly that: an unconfirmed rumor. It is not even a REAL rumor, so I would disregard it.

Check back in 6 months, though, and then we will see if there is any traction here.

 

Let me dream!

 

Isn't it from 2010?

 

Yeah, that second sentence is almost word for word from the 2010 announcement that launched the Archive series: "This exclusive global arrangement, will cover both physical and digital distribution of McCartney’s treasured post Beatles catalog..."

 

Sounds like that Beatlefan post is 12 years too late.

 

It was posted on Friday, and sounds similar to the 2010 announcement but makes no reference to that.

The announcement in 2017 regarding signing to Capitol also used similar wording. As I recall.

 

And I'm sure you can dig up an even earlier announcement from 2007 when his music was added to iTunes. I can't find anything however since searching for "McCartney 2007 iTunes" mainly brings up stuff about the iTunes festival performance and subsequent EP release. But I definitely recall an email with similar enough wording for me to misinterpret and get way too excited over.

 

I think we're missing the point. The wording doesn't matter. What matters is this:

It's being done already. Since 2010.

 

Not "muddy". "Swampy".

New Orleans...

 

The (still) muddy sound of Venus And Mars is the only thing keeping me from ranking it as Paul's best solo album. If it had the amazing clarity of Speed Of Sound, it would be hands down my all-time favorite. Close but no cigar.

 

Have you seen the entire film? "Getting Closer," "Again And Again And Again,""Spin It On," "Old Siam Sir," "Winter Rose/Love Awake" and "Baby's Request" are nice videos that, with "Goodnight Tonight" and "Wonderful Christmastime" offer a chance to see what charm the last iteration of Wings had.
To me, it's like a Magical Mystery Tour for the underrated band that never got a chance to reach its heights: the Glasgow show from 79, despite the weak set list choices (weak meaning not fan-favourite in many ways) demonstrates that they could rock quite well.

 

Not that I am giving any credibility to this rumor, but the recent Atmos release of McCartney and McCartney II may be a clue in this direction. I don’t think MPL would take the trouble of hiring Giles to remix both those classic albums just for a streaming release (when they could’ve easily added them on the physical release and maximized sales). It costs good amount to remix albums and so why leave $$ on the table?

Moreover, whenever Giles works on a remix, he also does a stereo remix alongside the surround mix. Again, maximizing the value of the remix project. But no stereo remixes of these albums have been released, either on physical or streaming.

So my guess is that Giles wasn’t just hired to create Atmos streaming remixes on McCartney and McCartney II for streaming. He’s likely remixing more of the classic catalog and there would likely be plans to monetize it again using that work. The 50th anniversary of Band On The Run could be a good opportunity to unleash a another reissue campaign, this time with remixes.

 

Call it what you want, even as a non-audiophile, the sound quality on that album has always bothered me -- even though it's easily the Wings album I've played most in my life.

 

It desperately needs a remix. Why Macca agrees to Tug Of War or Abbey Road getting remixed (which they mostly certainly didn’t need) and not V & M (which most certainly does) is beyond me.

Edit: Yes, I know T O W was remixed to give it higher resolution, but that’s no reason to change the sonic character of the album IMO. It sounded fantastic as it was.