POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney's "Chaos & Creation in the Backyard" album?

The next-to-last!

Album poll #24 (of 25) for McCartney's post-Beatle albums! "When love is all that stays, only Ram remains."

The ground rules: this poll, like the others, is designed for people familiar with the album in question and with at least some familiarity with some of his other post-Beatle catalog (for comparison purposes). If the poll doesn't interest you, please kindly move on to a thread that does. I intentionally don't name "comparison albums" on the best-to-worst scale, as some may think a particular album of his is awesome, while others may have a completely different take on the same album. Just consider how YOU would rate it in comparison with his other post-Beatles work.

For those who question/dislike the poll choices, I take full blame. My fullest attempt to explain the "logic" behind the rating options is explained here.

If you've missed a previous poll, feel free to vote below. Here's a recap of how the others have rated so far:
The "New" poll. 391 votes, with an average rating of 3.64 (edging slightly towards "solid effort").
The "Back To The Egg" poll. 359 votes, with an average rating of 3.60.
The "Wild Life" poll. 393 votes, with an average rating of 2.91 (just below "not bad").
The "Driving Rain" poll. 308 votes, with an average rating of 2.76.
The "Flowers in the Dirt" poll. 374 votes, with an average rating of 3.75.
The "Flaming Pie" poll. 344 votes, with a very favorable average rating of 4.11.
The "McCartney II" poll. 285 votes, with an average ratingof 3.12.
The "Red Rose Speedway" poll. 306 votes, with an average rating of 3.32.
The "Memory Almost Full" poll. 235 votes, with an average rating of 3.36.
The "Pipes of Peace" poll. 240 votes, with the lowest average rating to date of 2.46.
The "Band on the Run" poll. 423 votes, with the highest average rating of 4.64 (!!).
The "Give My Regards to Broad Street" poll. 226 votes, with an average rating of 2.53.
The "McCartney" poll. 345 votes, with an average rating of 4.03.
The "At The Speed Of Sound" poll. 343 votes, with an average rating of 3.14.
The "CHOBA B CCCP" poll. 181 votes, with an average rating of 3.03.
The "London Town" poll. 222 votes, with an average rating of 3.24.
The "Kisses on the Bottom" poll. 227 votes, with an average rating of 2.56.
The "Off The Ground" poll. 240 votes, with an average rating of 2.90.
The "Run Devil Run" poll. 142 votes, with an average rating of 3.70.
The "Tug of War" poll. 237 votes, with an average rating of 4.10.
The "Electric Arguments" poll. 205 votes, with an average rating of 3.70.
The "Press to Play" poll. 264 votes, with an average rating of 2.62.
The "Venus & Mars" poll. 259 votes, with the 2nd-best rating to-date of 4.26.

Thanks to all those who continue to take place in the voting! We've managed to get an average of 284 votes/album to-date (and an average rating of 3.37), so that's a pretty good sampling of opinions. We just need some of you to bust out his "oldies" albums (CCCP & Run Devil Run) and rate those two, so they can both get over the 200-vote threshold!

 

Clearly one of his best! A consistent listen from start to finish.

 

+1

 

The best album he's made since The Beatles for me. Stone cold classic.

 

At his worst, for me anyway, Paul sounds very self-conscious, a quality that mars a lot of his solo work (and virtually all of his interviews). On Chaos and Creation, I don't hear very much of that at all. I rate the album as one of his best for sure.

 

I went with the "Pretty good, solid effort". It is a good album. Strong lyrically, but perhaps too many piano based slower/mid tempo songs. The single "Fine Line" is the only one that rocks at all. It is borderline top 10 of Paul's albums.

 

Simply the very best album he's been involved in since Abbey Road IMHO.

 

Pretty solid. I thought it was great for a time but the last time I played it I didn't like it as much as I had previously. There were several tracks I was underwhelmed by.

I really like "Friends To Go" and "English Tea".

It's a good record.

 

One of his best. He sounds inspired & comfortable with his aging voice, some self referential stuff & some risks too. Subtly tuneful, not pound you on the head catchy like 'New.' I get the sense that these songs really meant something to him at the time & that feeling translates to the listener. One of his most personal & rewarding albums.

 

It was a breath of fresh air after the centuries long Driving Rain. It felt like old school McCartney, and he's really been on a winning streak ever since.

However, I prefer New to C&C, though it's a great album.

 

Haven't played it much, seemed OK, but I filed it away after a few listens. Would probably have to listen again to properly judge.

 

I remember Nigel Godrich saying how he wanted Paul to 'get his hands dirty' and go back to the 1970 debut basics. To me, it's McCartney III, with a raw and rare honesty in the lyrics, rich melodies and perhaps enhanced by his more vulnerable 'older voice'.

I love it.

 

A great, great album.

 

One of my favorite Paul McCartney albums...........and agree with those saying it might be his best since any Beatles albums.

He's on almost a great streak between this, Electric Arguments, and New.......(though I don't like Memory Almost Full)

 

McCartney, Ram, Band on the Run, and Chaos are the four McCartney albums I can listen to in their entirety as a cohesive piece with very few weak links.

 

"Clearly one of his best works"

Can you believe this album is now 10 years old? (well, it will be in September) Seems like it just came out a while ago.

 

One of his best. For me, it jumps from Back to the Egg to Chaos. I love Macca, but Chaos is the only "modern" album of his I listen to.

Edit: Geez, I forgot about Electric Arguments! Thanks Arnold Grove for reminding me.

 

A great album. My two favorites of the 2000s are Chaos and Electric Arguments. (Yep, despite my jokes to the contrary, I don't place Driving Rain anywhere near these 2 albums).

I also like the type design of Paul's name on the cover slipcase. Whoever was responsible for designing the letters of his name so that it would appear correct whether right-side up or upside-down did a brilliant thing:

 

I am interested in who the 4 people who have voted it as 'clearly one of his worst' efforts are? Do they really think that it should be avoided at all costs?

 

Pretty solid effort. I can understand why people view this as a late period highlight. I think it has it's merits, but Memory Almost Full improves upon the Macca formula by rockin' out a bit more. If I have one criticism about C&C, it's that it could do with some more upbeat numbers.

 

I quite like it though two of the b-sides 'This Loving Game' and 'Comfort Of Love' I favour over 'Promise To You Girl' which has my least favourite McCartney guitar work. The mastering on the cd I find appalling which prevents me from listening to it more. I have never heard the vinyl. But it is still quite a good record. I do prefer 'Memory Almost Full' by a large margin, especially listening to the Dutch vinyl pressing.

 

A pretty solid effort. I've always felt if Paul had dropped a couple of the weaker songs from the album and added the strongest songs from MAF, he would have had an album that ranks way up there with his best 70s work.

 

Clearly one of his best works - essential listening for Paul fans. Probably my favorite of all his albums.

 

Chaos nearly takes Paul's top album for me. I think RAM is just a bit better. I really wish that Paul would work with Nigel again.

 

This is an album that I want to love, but I just can't. On paper this looked (and still looks) really good to me — and yet every time I spin this it just seems to be lacking something fundamental. I think one thing that Godrich did (to his credit) was to make the whole affair a lot more "upscale" and really reigned in the typical cringeworthy moments that many people (even die-hard fans) hear in most of his albums. (Many claim "Afternoon Tea" is one of those moments on this album, but for me this piece of off-hand whimsy is a delight and Paul is one of the few people who can get away with it.)
The songwriting on this album is very good ... and yet it doesn't feel "inspired". In its own way, it is far too calculated ... feeling sterile and academic.
The good thing about this album is that Paul had something to prove, and he showed up to do it. He really pushed himself out of his comfort zone and that is to be applauded (and another reason why I want to love this album).
The bad thing about this album is that Paul had something to prove, and he showed up to do it. It is almost as though he wanted to get through this as a way of satisfying critics and just gritted his teeth and got through it. Even though he is singing about really personal stuff it feels dispassionate to me.
All of that being said, I do like this album and it is always a pleasant listen. It just isn't the masterpiece that I had hoped that time would reveal it to me. I much prefer the "follow-up" Memory Almost Full ... which on paper seemed like a huge step backward (and since a lot of it was an aborted earlier album this was true) and yet to me this thing has only gotten better with time.