Paul McCartney - Egypt Station appreciation thread

Two were really good and another was Fuh You. While Paul’s voice is not as strong as it used to be, the songs are pretty damn good, enjoyable late period McCartney.

 

After first concentrated listen, like many, I love Dominoes, and feel a shortened version might get traction on Adult Alternative radio stations. Hand in Hand is really affecting and actually quite lovely. There were several other highlights as well. I thought Naked was really well written (I'd love to hear it pulled from the medley.)

Overall, as a listening experience I think the album is sequenced and mastered well (two biggies for me.)

Proud to be a fan.

 

Any feedback on the quality of the mastering for the LP?

 

Alright new thread for discussion, haven't heard the album yet. Still got about 7 minutes to go over here, but I'm pumped

 

It's on Spotify US now! Hope you all enjoy it!

 

Taking my first listen as whole. Opening Station was nice so far. I'm on I Don't Know now.

 

Paul I like your introductions of all the tracks, but it's great hearing it the way you intended us to hear it tonight.

 

It’s great, just ear buds , Spotify on a phone.

A lot of musical amd lyrical depth.

 

It's an action packed, highly entertaining, thrilling album, liking it a lot

 

Roughly graded as it compares to the rest of the solo McCartney oeuvre.

Opening Station - N/A
I Don't Know - Nice enough. No melody to speak of, at least not as far as one being sung. Words are above average and not all awkwardly run together as he is wont to do when he tires to write "good" lyrics. Not really my kind of music since I'm not depressed at the moment, but fine for what it tries to do. 6/10
Come On To Me - First spark of energy. He sounds more menacing than hopeful about the prospect of this relationship, but all in all a fun if inconsequential, trite ride. Hate "YesIWillYesIWill" but the rest is fine. Well produced. 6/10.
Happy With You - Talk singing. Not my thing at all. Is he saying he wasn't really happy before when he used to do those things? Should I doubt all that came before? 3/10
Who Cares - I like this better now than I did on SiriusXM. Not as much as some seem to, but I like it enough. Again, a lot of talk singing. 7/10
Fuh You - This is going to come as a surprise to some I think, but I am not horrified by this as an album track. I don't like it at all. But absent the act of blatant and sad desperation of reaching for something that just isn't there for him and won't be again (a hit single) and placed among the other tracks, it's not offensively bad, just regular bad. 1/10
Confidante - Boring, awkward and tuneless. 3/10
People Want Peace - Terrible. Kurstin tries every trick in the book to try to make this epic (thundering drums? We have those! Hand Claps and McCartney made to sound like a chorus of people, shouting over himself to the end like Hey Jude? Pile it on!), but they all fall flat. Like someone told someone without talent to write a parody McCartney song. One bonus point to Kurstin for realizing he needed to try to do something to save it 2/10
Hand In Hand - Not horrible, but not good. I don't like the voice he affects here. It's annoying. He sounds out of breath and it makes me slightly uncomfortable. Back off the mic bro. 5/10
Dominoes - This is the Paul McCartney I know. Sounds like Traveling Paulburys. I like the rhythmic invention at "And like the dominoes who are falling." Nice bass part. Too much acoustic guitar for me but it stops shy of Young Boy deafening thunder. I like the lead guitar part. It all clicks. Tasteful and elegant. All the little Paulisms are there and used to great effect. 7.5/10
Back In Brazil - Should have been left off for something better. Nothing redeeming. 1/10
Do It Now - Interesting chord changes. Kind of like someone ripping off their misconception of what the Beatles sound like. It's charming and he sings it well. They realized they needed a big build up section to make it go somewhere and they provided it. I wish the end cello thing there was longer because that sounds really good. 7/10
Caesar Rock - I want to love it but I don't. Another lap dance - no pay off. Acoustic guitars here really harm it. Could have been made better without that riff being hammered out on wishy washy acoustics. 5/10
Despite Repeated Warnings - Now I don't even like that musical section that I liked the other night. Sounds like when Broadway composers who have no business writing "pop/rock" decide they're going to write a rock musical. Like a cheesy 70s rock opera by people who look down on rock music and think they can do it better than people who actually do rock music. Forget Fuh You, the real embarrassment of Egypt Station is that they tried to promote this as anything like Live and Let Die or Band on the Run. That's a worse misrepresentation than saying OTG was his best since the White Album. 1/10
Station II - Should have just been part of the following suite. What's the point?
Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link - A complete triumph. Rock McCartney, Pop McCartney, guitar God McCartney. Everything you need to know about what the man can do in a 6.5 minute package. It's not a career best, but it's a late career highlight for sure. 9/10

Overall: 4.54/10

 

People Want Peace is growing on me like crazy! Love the orchestral instumentation. The message is very John, and I like to hear that.

 

Who Cares- the last two mornings, at breakfast I have randomly had the chorus pop up in my head. I had heard it once on low volume, it was a miracle I remembered it.
Great vocals!

 

My first time hearing “Fuh You”. It’s SO much better than Nothing’s For Free.
Also, I find Back To Brazil a perfectly enjoyable song.
I don’t know why people expect so much from Paul. We know what he does. He writes perfect pop songs. He’s not Frank Zappa. He’s a guy who writes a song that when you hear it for the first time, it’s like you’ve known it forever. He’s the guy who writes a song that when you hear it you say, eh it’s not great, but then you wake up with it in your head and hearing it all day until you finally come home and put it on your stereo. Then you love the song. That’s Paul.

 

Perfect explanation!

 

Well said. Touche.

Yes, he should do that more.

 

My initial reaction is that you are spot on with Despite Repeated Warnings. I am very disappointed as the buildup was so high and I was really looking forward to it.

 

The singles, included on the album on Spotify sound a little dfferent -as in better!

 

How do folks not start moving around to Back To Brazil. Might be Paul's best dancing around song ever!

 

The production of the first two songs was hard to get used to.

I have to admit I am not fond of the production and transitions upon first listens.

Love Dominoes.

 

Man almost midnight and the Falcon-Eagles game coverage is still ongoing! At this rate i'll fall asleep before McCartney's Fallon appearance.

 

I’m definitely a fan.

 

I'm a stupid old man who know close to nothing about ordering and listening to music on line. Still waiting to get the album my daughter ordered for me, but it's been so much fun reading reviews and comments here. Apart from the three singles, I've only heard Happy with You, a cover version by a young guy on Youtube. It sounds very nice. While waiting, I'm hoping to hear more (covers of other songs) today.