POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney/Wings' "Wild Life" album?

I'll take FOUR "Wild Life"'s over one "Broadstreet"!!
I think the record itself was solely based on the 'idea' he heard that Dylan put an album out so 'lickety-split', that HE wanted to do the same thing!
Truth be told, I LONG for the day when someone could just put out an album, good or bad, in the course of a year...
"New" is nearly three years old now.... and, I know it's a dream to think someone like Paul would just let an album go like this again!
So..... I like it!
PLUS, I think "Some People Never Know" is his answer to John's "How DO You Sleep?"!

 

It is really only 2/3 of an album.
Just 8 songs and two nonsense songs. One horrible in every way ("Bip Bop") thought the other is fun ("Mumbo").
Several of the songs are decent 3 minute songs that are padded to 5 minute plus length in order to make it long enough to be an album ("Some People Never Know", "Wild Life", "Dear Friend"). And "Love Is Strange" and the earlier mentioned "Bip Bop" are also over 4 minutes long and neither needs to be.
"I Am Your Singer" is OK. At least it is short.
The one true gem is "Tomorrow", one of Paul's best overlooked songs.
The album was savagely panned upon release. It wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, but the recent push to call WILD LIFE some sort of lost McCartney classic is just as much off base.
Had WILD LIFE been released as some kind of "maxi EP" or discount album it might have worked. As an actual full album it comes off as "half-assed" and was a bit of a rip-off to the music buying consumer of 1971.

 

A "go to" album for me since its purchase in the mid 70s (I wasn't quite old enough to buy it upon release).

Absolutely LOVE it.

 

Best audition and rehearsal album ever.

 

"Wild Life" has a couple of nice songs and another couple of entertaining (but not truly good) songs. Not really up to McCartney's standards.

I would recommend anyone checking McCartney's output to check almost any other record first.

 

Funny, I only ever play Ram and Back to the Egg.

But the question was actually what did I think of Wild Life, which is Mumbo and Bip Bop are the most enjoyable things on the original album. The bonus tracks are the most enjoyable things on the expanded album.

 

One of his best!

 

I really enjoy Wild Life; always have. And I'd rather listen to Mumbo or Bip Bop than Mr. Moonlight!

 

I'm no McCartney scholar, but I wonder if this was meant as a concept album- the career of a band.
Primitive rehearsals, cover songs, then fully realized compositions.
Tomorrow is one of Paul's brilliant songs and should be played at grocery stores hourly.

 

I didn't, and don't, feel ripped off! I still enjoy this album.

 

Here is a good one: POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney/Wings' "Wild Life" album? »

 

We have talked about this album plenty previously, so i'll just cut and paste my thoughts from a previous thread, where I cut and pasted my thoughts from a previous thread.

I put Wildlife at or near the toppermost of my Paul McCartney poppermost. Like Mazzy, easily top five for me. I've defended the album a zillion times here, so here's a cut and paste from one of the otherWildlife discussions, plus a few added thoughts:

I bought Wildlife when it was first released. I was pretty disappointed that "Beatle Paul"would release an album with things like "Bip Bop", out of tune harmony singing from Linda and out of tune guitars in places. This from the guy who's work was previously pretty immaculate and professional sounding, harmony vocal-wise, etc.
As I mentioned in a different thread, it was almost as if Paul was thumbing his nose at me/us..saying , "I'm "Paul McCartney" like this or lump it". I was tepid about the album originally . I liked about half of it when it was released. Abbey Road this ain't, and that album was only about 18 months earlier, so for this Beatles fan a little attitude adjustment was in order I guess.
Now, all these years later, Wildlife is one of my favorite's of Paul's, except for the song "Wildlife" itself, which still annoys me.

I've learned to enjoy it's low key nature and the CD bonus tracks really ARE a bonus on this release, rather than just filler. It's a refreshing listen for me. Plus it really sounds immediate and full. Nice fat bass, and not much studio sheen/over production except for "Dear Friend" which I've always liked. I've always loved "Oh Woman Oh Why" and "Mumbo" sounds like it's musical brother or something. And, as I mentioned in yet another previous thread , I'll bet John would have loved to have joined Paul working on "Mumbo", gleefully adding more chaos to the track.

 

Quite a polarizing album. For me I loved it right from the first needle drop. Don't have to read too much into it, not going to complain about a couple of light weight songs it's just a day in the life of Paul at a particularly good point in his life.

I always thought he was brave putting it out but I'm always glad he did. Wildlife, Tomorrow, Dear Friend classics in my opinion. Wildlife - two thumbs up.

 

I've posted this before in another Wildlife thread. Add on Give Ireland Back to the Irish, Oh Woman Oh Why and Mary Had a Little Lamb and now it's a very very good album

 

It's mediocre for me, though I do like it (especially Mumbo, Bip Bop, Some People Never Know, Tomorrow, I am Your Singer and the link tracks) and it has a really nice sound.

,

 

Thanks to @mrjinks' tireless efforts, this is (as close as you can get to) a data-based forum consensus on the OP question:

POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney/Wings' "Wild Life" album? »

(SPOILER ALERT: Almost the definition of middling)

 

If I had to choose, I'd go for the Stones' Black & Blue in that category.

 

oh woman oh why is a great paul rocker

 

"Some People Never Know" was actually written & recorded prior to the release of "How Do You Sleep" in the fall of 1971, though I suppose it's possible that Macca got wind of the Lennon tune (or at least its subject matter) prior to its release.

 

It's a fun album. Not many of those around today. It makes me smile when I hear it. I'm happy with that.

 

Musically it's average, but does have a certain charm about it. The raw, unpolished feel was IMO a knee-jerk reaction from Paul, shocked and confused by the critical battering of Ram. He took months to perfect Ram and for the first time, his musical judgement was questioned by the all-cool critics. So he turned around and went the other way with WL...

Some decent tracks on there and an underrated classic named Tomorrow. Absolutely puzzling that MPL left it off recent Pure McCartney release! One thing I've never figured is why Paul didn't use more leftover tracks from Ram sessions for this album. There was A Love For You, Get On a The Right Thing, etc. which could've certainly made it a stronger album.

Anyways, it is what is and I eagerly wait to see it get Archive Collection reissue!

 

Always liked it when I had the vinyl in the 70's. Would listen to it regularly if I had it again. Love its charm and innocence.

 

My favorite Stones album. I agree it is even better than Wild Life.

 

It's actually one of my favorite Paul albums (really). If I go to my shelf and pull a Paul album to listen to, more often then not, I'll pull Wild Life.

 

It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Wild Life Album, shut up