POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney/Wings' "Band On The Run" album?

How one can Call several nr 1 and singles is beyond me . Don t really see anything low-fi in Backseat of my car, Uncle Albert , Live and Let die or My Love or ... Never mind
May I also remind that most of BOTR was recorded in a very primitive studio in Nigeria. BOTR was a momentum for Macca thats for sure

 

super good!

 

Dunno about others, but I hear no "entirely different era" in "BOTR". It followed an even more polished/glossy (IMO) album - "BOTR" sounds downright edgy compared to "RRS".

And I don't think Macca EVER did anything "low-profile". The closest he came was insisting that the band initially be called "Wings" and that he was just one of the band. When "Wild Life" and the other early stuff didn't sell, that changed - I don't know if the label made him go to "PM and Wings" or if it was his idea or both.

Whatever the case, PM wasn't trying to be "low profile" most of the time. He promoted "McCartney" in the most substantial way possible: by tying it to the end of the Beatles! And then he made "Ram", a conscious attempt to answer the critics who thought "McCartney" wasn't "produced enough". People now seem to view "Ram" as "the grandfather of indie rock", but at the time, it was criticized for being too slick and "produced".

"BOTR" was just Macca doing what Macca does. If anything, I'd argue it was the first album that came naturally to him. For once, he didn't seem to be writing for the critics or for the charts - I think he just made the album he wanted to make and it happened to become a hit...

 

The top rating.

Though I guess if there's a McCartney album that I'd have to say I suffer from a bit of fatigue of, it's this one. The frequency with which I play it now is disproportionately low compared to where it stands in his catalog in terms of quality.

 

Where's the option for "Perfect"?

 

This was the album that defined the wings sound.

 

If Band On The Run isn't a good album for someone who needs to be introduced to Paul, clearly that someone doesn't need Paul in his/her life. It's one of the great rock/pop albums of all time, and really the only Paul McCartney solo album a general music lover needs to have.

 

For me, it was a toss-up between "pretty solid" and "not bad". (Went with the former.)

It's worth recommending and has some weak tracks. There are at least 4 or 5 of his albums that I think are better than this one.

 

For me, one thing that Band On The Run has that was lacking from his previous post-Beatles albums is CONFIDENCE. Paul's first solo LP was an understated affair, meant to be a low-key homegrown affair. Ram (my personal favorite Paul album) is eclectic and seems like a brilliant synthesis of every sound in Paul's head. It's very true to who Paul is (or how I think he is with his guard down), and for that reason I regard it as a very personal album. It's almost like a Brian Wilson album, so there is a lot of emotional depth under the surface that doesn't necessarily remind me of a confident person. Wild Life was a tentative baby step to introduce a new band, and Paul definitely didn't have the vision (or the songs) of what he wanted his solo band to sound like. Red Rose Speedway was a more cohesive and structured album, but it often sounds like he was trying to craft a solid album---as opposed to someone who was so confident of his ability that he didn't even need to care. BUT on Band On The Run, Paul finally sounds like everything was in his command---song quality, sound, production, cover art, etc. He was confident, and maybe the themes of escape and freedom and flight were true reflections of Paul's inner feelings. The quality of the songs certainly helped to make this Paul's best-loved solo album for the public at large, but I think it is the underlying confidence that separates this album from all of his previous solo albums. I'd then even argue that the following albums of Venus & Mars, Speed Of Sound, and London Town all overly relied on his confidence and thus (to me) turned out to be lesser albums. It was almost like he was coasting on his confidence for those albums and was not really pushing himself.

So I voted "Clearly one of his best works - essential listening for Paul fans".

Arnie

 

Essential listening for anyone

 

Objectively one of his best. But if I never hear it again, I will be a happy man. McCartney, on the other hand, I will never get tired of.

 

One of the best!

 

It's definitely essential listening, but it is not my favourite McCartney album. I reach for Ram, Wild Life, Back to the Egg, and even Venus and Mars before Band on the Run. But that just goes to show how strong much of Macca's catalogue is.

 

Not bad at all. Jokingly refer to it as "Boils on the Bum."

 

Top marks. The US version with Helen Wheels is the superior version as I think HW injects some needed energy in the second half just before Picasso's Last Words and 1985 with their innovated use of reprises really tie the album together. There's usually something to love and hate in each McCartney album, but in BOTR it's all love. To me it was always the work that showed what Paul had the potential to produce: great melodies, great rockers, great vocals, good lyrics, and an album that is greater than the sum of some pretty spectacular parts.

 

It's up there, WAY up there, a true classic - There are several Beatles albums that aren't as good.

 

So far there seems to be some consensus that BOTR is one of Pauls greatest. That is hardly surprising. I always find rankings a bit difficult I frankly don t understand how one can claim that BOTR is an average or below average album. I can definively understand that people doesn t like it but that doesn t make the album any worse. Like the fact that I never got into liking Purple Rain by Prince. Still I would never claim it s a bad or average album given it s importance for many people. It s just that I don t get it. The same with BOTR. Noone can deny that albums importance , popularity and status. That doesn t mean everyone likes it.

 

I completely agree.
Still, though, even if it's not my favorite McCartney (I'm not really that big of a Macca fan, to be honest, except for some of his early 1970s stuff), I can't deny it's up there with his very best.

 

This.

 

A classic for all the reasons people have said but what the album has that other albums can lack is great editing;it has just nine songs.If New or Back to the egg or London Town had just the best nine songs that he had around at the time, their status would perhaps be elevated from great to classic.It's the edit button problem with Paul - he simply does not always choose the best tracks to place on albums and in the cd age can have too long a running time: Driving Rain, anyone?Tug of War is another case of the best songs and great edit decisions from all the songs he had at the time and that too is a classic.

 

Killer album. 1985 rules!

 

"Clearly one of his best works - essential listening for Paul fans" is not enough!

It oughta be:
"One of the best albums of all time"

 

I'm not an enormous Beatles or Wings/ Macca fan but this album is top drawer, a classic album.

 

I went with "a solid effort", because I think that Mamunia is one of the weakest side 2 openers ever, and that No Words is just filler. The rest of the (UK configuration) album is prime.