Not an awful vocal at all. It's definitely not the young, bouncy Paul of BOTR, but it fits the song perfectly. Frankly, I've never understood the dislike for Driving Rain overall. No, it's not top tier Paul, but it has plenty of good moments.
It's a good song but I can't bear the video. It's so painfully obvious they've electronically taken out his wrinkles I just can't stand it.
I love Off The Ground, every track except two. As for Macca III I've managed to avoid hearing any of it yet. I'm really looking forward to hearing it without already being familiar with a single.
For me, when New came out, I was just starting to get into solo Beatle music. I kept listening to the album over and over again stunned by it. Egypt Station was the first Paul album I truly got to anticipate. As I’ve said before, I was disappointed with it. Seemed bland and less “out there” and experimental than his last several records, more straight forward and basic. It also wasn’t as replayable to me. I didn’t have the urge to listen to it over and over again. Only recently have I started appreciating it for what it is. With McCartney III- I’ve told myself not to keep listening to the lo-fi version anymore until December 18 but I just love the tunes so much I keep wanting to listen to it. I wouldn’t say that this record is particularly “out there” or experimental (at least not in the same way that New and Electric Arguments are) but it definitely has that replayability that New had. I keep listening to what I’ve got over and over again!!! I love this album! These are songs I’d cover to impress people if I could play. Not many of those were on Egypt Station for me, with the songs being more basic. I love how Paul’s later albums take you on an evolving musical journey of emotions, building to a finale. Something his albums weren’t doing for quite a while until the so-called “Renaissance era”... McCartney III has excellent flow and variety and feels like a fairly quick record to listen to, which is always a good thing because it leaves me wanting more when it’s over. I DO think it could have had a bigger finale before When Winter Comes, but that’s my only nitpick. Maybe one of the outtakes will fit that bill. This album feels like one I’m satisfied enough with to not want to change anything about the track list, something I couldn’t really say about Egypt Station. I’m probably due to make a full on track-by-track. I know it’s too early to say anything definitive (especially having not heard a high def version) but if I were to rank Paul 2005- present albums, here it would be: 1. Chaos And Creation In The Backyard 2. Electric Arguments 3. McCartney III (tied with New right now) 4. New 5. Egypt Station 6. Memory Almost Full (it hasn’t been my favorite lately although I usually prefer it to Egypt Station) Wow, I didn’t realize I’d written a whole book.... Congrats if you made it this far. If you didn’t, then what’s even the purpose of this sentence? Thank You for coming to my Ted Talk.
There’s also the outtake, In Private Fluid. Should have been on the album. A bit naughty, though. Ok I’m done
Just listened attentively to "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard" and "New" with my best headphones. Man, how I love these two albums!
I’m gonna do a 97-present album marathon soon. I even have the Spotify playlist ready! Renaissance Paul, a playlist by diarheafaceonastick on Spotify
Thank you for your review and commentary. I love your comparisons of a few songs to late 70’s Wings/Back To The Egg - a great album in my opinion. I hear the similarities too...
Great write up and agree with your top 3. New is a fine album which starts of brilliantly, but tails off 2nd half where the bonus tracks would have improved it. Agree with you regarding the sequencing, Deep Down is growing on me, but maybe swap it with Seize the Day or Deep Deep Feeling for the flow of the album
First time I heard Deep Down I though Well-a bit of a jam. Nothing special After that the track has uncovered itself in listening after listening to be a-IMO-very good, perhaps even great track. The way Paul stretches out on vocals here are something else. There is something dark, haunting almost creepy feelings here-a bit like Darkroom. When I sequenced this one directly after Deep,Deep Feeling there was 15 minutes of Paul doin all kinds of voices in a way I can t remember I ever experienced from the man When Paul at the end of Deep,Deep Down singing Talk to me it seems like he really mean it. It s also a feel of solitaire most of us has experienced this year Can t wait to hear this stuff in real hi-fidelity
I think it’s definitely worth saying that if you’re listening on the low quality leak, the released version will be a pleasure. Lots of things that will benefit from actually hearing the album properly.
Can somebody at least guide me towards where I can find the leak? Been searching for hours and seem to be getting nowhere :/
I absolutely love his sort of breathy, almost taunting falsetto at the end of this. It's a very subtle difference from the way he sang the same line earlier in the song. His vocals on this song and Deep Deep Feeling are better than anything he's done in decades.
I'm getting off-topic, but having just done a 1980s Bowie marathon, it's "87 and Cry" from that album that should have been dropped down a black hole.
Okay, it's really late and I'm on my phone, so this will be brief. This appeared in my Spotify recommendations just now: Paul McCartney presents McCartney III, the Enhanced Playlist, a playlist by Spotify It appears to be a McCartney III playlist that isn't filled out yet. However, on mobile, there's a video where he gives a quick overview of the tracks of McCartney and McCartney II. Not sure if that works on the desktop or not. Again, apologies for the terseness - but I wanted to share this quickly from the phone. Cheers, Paul
I agree with you in that I like "MAF" much better than Driving Rain, "MAF" is a great album! That's why I do not think it would be sensible to try to blame "Driving Rain" on Kahne. You can still debate whether each production decision on "MAF" is great, but I think that it is obvious that the reason for Driving Rain's problems lies in the lack of care and work that went into it, whereas "MAF" has clearly been carefully produced. This difference surely doesn't come down to Kahne. I am certain that Paul's wishes were obeyed in both cases. Some pages ago, MaccaMaga discussed whether Godrich (or other producers) could bring Paul to do something he does not really want to do. My mental image of Paul is someone who takes full responsibility for the artistic decisions in his solo career, not someone who is easily manipulated. He may not have made "Chaos" the way it was made without the collaboration with Godrich (and imho "Chaos" is his best solo work), but he decided to go with it. Maybe he did not like the process that lead there, but he signed off on a slow, hypnotic "Vanity Fair", and I suppose he stands behind that artistic decision. On the down side, it was also his decision to rush "Driving Rain" and spoil some very good song material on the way imo.
I think mr Goodrich made a great work producing the masterpiece that I believe Chaos and Creation is. He might have been a bit on the un-diplomatic side in his communication with Paul but the final result is staggering. Chaos is up there with Band On the Run, Ram, Tug of War as few others as fully realised masterpieces. Flaming Pie and Egypt Station are imo close contenders. McCartney I and II with their flaws might be up there to The Doublealbum-version of Red Rose Speedway also is a real good one All of these albums-at least for me-represents Pure McCartney We ll see were McCartney III fits into this There are other albums that I enjoy listening to as much as the above but when it comes to pure songcraft and arranging/producing skills the one mentioned certanely represents various side of McCartney at his very best
I haven't heard Slidin' (if that's even what it's called) but I get the impression it may not have fitted on Off The Ground very well?
I think that’s right. I can imagine it on Electric Arguments or, at a stretch and produced differently, on NEW.
