POLL: How do you rate Paul McCartney's "McCartney" album?

I feel it is essential.

 

I must have missed this when it was first posted, so apologies for posting so long after everyone else.

I voted for 'Clearly one of his best works'. I absolutely love the whole ambiance and feel of this album, and think that it was one of the most cutting edge releases of his solo career.

It was very brave for a rock singer, let alone a Beatle, to start their solo career off by releasing a very 'handmade/DIY' album; one that was intentionally left a bit 'rough around the edges'.

Maybe I'm Amazed is arguably his most beautiful ever ballad, and I also consider Junk and Every Night to be McCartney classics.

Much of his genius shone through on what initially seem to be throwaway songs like That Would Be Something, Oo You and Man We Was Lonely. At first they seem unfinished and you wish that they were longer, but the more you listen to them, the more perfect they become, and the melodies become ingrained in your head. In many ways adding anything to them would simply be adding 'padding' or 'fat' to the songs.

The instrumentals are mainly very strong in my opinion, from the lovely Instrumental Junk, through to the catchy Hot As Sun/Glasses and the magnificent Momma Miss America, which has been sampled on many Hip/Hop songs, and I can see why; the groove and drum part are fantastic. I really like how Glasses almost points ahead to his second eponymous album.

Songs like Kreen Akrore may not be perfect, but I consider the McCartney album to be similar to the White Album in that the little fragments and seemingly half-finished songs all add to the character of the album (for instance, The Lovely Linda reminds me of Can You Take Me Back).

If you listen to this album expecting a big statement, like All Things Must Pass or POB, then you will be disappointed. The Beatles hadn't officially ended when Paul recorded this album, so he did not know that it would be his first release after their official break-up; the album was more of a 'dip your toe in the water' solo music experiment than anything else.
But if you go in with no expectations and with open ears, and you give the album a chance, then I think that you will be won over by the beauty and the melody and the ragged charm of it.

Paul was down, depressed, scared and confused when the Beatles were splitting up, and he wallowed in self-pity and alcohol until Linda shook him out of it and encouraged him to continue on, and thank God that she did, because without her, we wouldn't have this brilliant album, much of which is a tribute to her and her help.

When Paul realised that the Beatles were definitely over, he recorded the wonderful and lusciously produced Ram, to prove that he could recreate some of the amazing productions and arrangements that he released with the Beatles, but on his own. Although I love the Ram album, maybe more than any of his other albums, I still think that it is a shame that he didn't return to the McCartney way of doing things more often. He eventually released McCartney 2, which I also love, but I think that it is a shame that there are not 4 or 5 'McCartney' albums, and I hope that in future we may see a McCartney 3.

 

Damn, that's nice. Thanks.

 

Thanks.

 

I had to go with "A pretty solid effort - worth recommending".
It's at the tale end of the albums I think are amongst Paul's better efforts, & is back there at the end only because it's operationally kind of like a long EP of better regular songs & then some fine & less fine experimental/looser often instrumental things. The great things are great with "Maybe I'm Amazcd", "Every Night" & "Junk" heading up the pack & then"Teddy Boy" & "Man We Was Lonely" not far behind... but after that while it's got it charms to be sure, it starts to feel somewhere between down home & half baked & that said I enjoy "That Would Be Something", "Oo You", "Hot As Sun" & "The Lovely Linda" the most, & after that the returns just continue to diminish for me...

 

Paul's great lost EP. It has three terrific songs in "Junk," "Every Night," and "Maybe I'm Amazed," and "Man We Was Lonely" is solid filler representing Paul well in that period. The rest of the songs just feel unfinished, I think because they are. I put it in the middle because the first three tracks are very good, and it's interesting material. But it's not the lost masterpiece it gets credited for being.

I feel like some critics are overcompensating for ignoring/belittling Ram for so long, now they are bending too much the other way.

 

Love it.
Love it.
Love it.

 

Nice piece of writing, even though I'm a little less enthusiastic than you are about it...
As far as more "McCartney" albums, I'd argue that both "Chaos & Creation In The Backyard" and even more so "Electric Arguments" are operationally pretty close to that indeed.

 

I think it is the best solo album he has done, by far. That he was so creative and did it so simplistically at a time when growing technology was begging for big and lush production he was able to say more than anyone else in the Beatles or anyone else period had been able to up to that point.
The album was all Paul. Not Paul and production trick #42 combines with production trick #12 with some icing on song #3. It is just him playing instruments and singing without the need to hide behind a lot of frill.

 

Clearly One Of His Best. IMO. But I like MO.

On first listen (only about 5 years ago - though I knew a lot of his albums like the back of my hand... curious expression, is that!) I was wondering what he was trying to achieve and if he basically had very few ideas and decided to throw a load of home-made bits on, in among some nice songs including the classic Maybe I'm Amazed (which I've loved since a long, long, time ago - I had the single of the WOA version when I was little.) The next few listens weren't much better, but then it suddenly 'clicked' and I found it to be one of his most enjoyable albums.

I could say the same about Ram and Wings' Back To The Egg, as well.

 

Great summary!

And all I would add is that - like me - stick with the thing if you are in any doubt (entirely different matter if you don't his music at all, of course) as it would surely be worth it.

 

Very poor, like most of his solo efforts.

 

Voted "clearly one of his best". Too close to Beatles spirit and era for me not to even be THE best, so I am biased...
A wonderful mix of experimental collage and some slick, finished songs with thought-out, precise arrangements... I even came to dig "Kreen-Akrore" over the years... I used to think it was just the drums solo of the album. Now I appreciate the structure, the theme, even some of the performance on the drums... A very cool closer! I was surprised the other day of hearing what could perhaps be the inspiration (conscious or not) of the opening drum figure: the very beginning of the 2nd movement of Bartok's Concerto for 2 pianos, percussion and orchestra. It may seem far-fetched to some, but wasn't McCartney a bit into that kind of music, in the 60s at least?

 

I say Only a Couple of Good Songs...
The album is Maybe I'm Amazed and Every Night surrounded by a bunch of throwaway half-baked ideas. Although it's charming and an interesting and very personal look into McCartney's creative process, as an album it's definitely lower tier for me.

 

I originally voted "solid effort" because I can enjoy the whole thing for what it is; but I should have voted a little lower, since really this is an album of doodles and half-baked ideas, when you get right down to it. The album is quite interesting now in retrospect as an offbeat experiment, but at the time was completely unworthy of Paul's best work from his Beatles days. It's no wonder that this LP confounded a lot of people at the time. "Maybe I'm Amazed" may be Paul's greatest solo song, though -- and there are other nuggets here too, like "Every Night" and "Man We Was Lonely".

 

Better than "Ram".

 

Now wait a minute. Self indulgent? You're overlooking a few albums. Like Harrisons Electronic Sounds and Lennons Wedding Album and Life With The Lions. If you compare McCartney's 'self-indulgent' album with Lennon and Harrisons 'self-indulgent' albums I don't think it's any contest as to which is most listenable.

And I don't think that the McCartney album was ever meant to be released as a statement of "my first solo album". It worked out that way of course, but at the time I think it was intended to be a 'low-key' release. Well, as low-key as a solo Beatles release could be. It didn't have McCartney's picture or name on the front cover and he didn't release anything as a single - including Maybe I'm Amazed, which surely would have been a #1 hit.

I started to go with Pretty Solid Effort but upgraded it to Clearly One of His Best Works. Yeah, I get that many of the songs are fragments, or instrumentals, or maybe even half baked, and blah blah blah. But that's exactly the charm of it. You want polished albums then listen to Abbey Road or Ram, the albums that bookend it.

On first listen all those years ago I thought the same thing as many of the responses here. "Meh. Maybe I'm Amazed is great, the rest is just okay." But to look at the album that way is missing the point. Comparing to the greatness of Abbey Road is missing the point. The McCartney album invites you to come and sit on the porch with Paul and Linda. It lets you into their home and it casually lets you peak behind the curtain while Paul is in the studio. I love Abbey Road, but it doesn't do that.

At the time of my first listening I wasn't much of a fan on instrumental tracks. "Too bad there's no words" I thought. For many it might be easy to dismiss the instrumentals as "unfinished". Maybe they are but listen to those wonderful melodies. Momma Miss America is amazing - it makes my foot tap AND makes me play air guitar and air bass. It truly sounds like a band playing. Singalong Junk shimmers and is beautiful in it's own right. Valentines Day just bounces along with a carnival feel and is infectious.

I think Every Night, Junk and of course MIA are classics.

For me the weak songs are Teddy Boy and Kreen Akrore. As time goes by I seem to like Teddy Boy less and Kreen has actually grown on me. Play Kreen Akrore as loud as you can and tell me it's not a fun, or at least interesting, song.

I love this album.

 

Nice that you enjoy it. It is not for me.
If it was to be what you say about sitting on the porch, it would be an acoustic album.
And it is not a legitimate comparison to compare McCartney to Electronic Sounds, Wedding Album and Life with the Lions. Those were clearly avant-garde, experimental albums not intended to be musical mainstream. Electronic Sounds and Life with the Lions were even on Zapple, which was the paperback/throwaway label whose idea it was to issue lesser works. If McCartney was really to be a low key release as you state, then why wasn't it on the Zapple label? And why did Paul draw HUGE attention to the release by using his "interview" about leaving the Beatles as a promotion for releasing the album. Undoubtedly he knew that would bring worldwide attention to his album's release. Certainly not low-key. (As we know, Paul continues to promote even his recent albums with rumours of releasing unheard Beatle tracks.)

When I want to hear a truly inspiring and well done effort where one guy sings and plays all the instruments I listen to Emitt Rhodes debut effort.

 

Oh come on, it became a major event but that wasn't the intent while McCartney was recording it. It was still a side project. Ringo was sent as a messenger to tell (not ask) McCartney to push back his release date so that it wouldn't compete with Let It Be...and then we all know what happened. But at the time of recording it was not meant to be a big production number.

 

One of his best.

 

Just as an aside, as far as I can remember, there was never any "flag" around that such and such album by one of the solo Beatles was supposed to be experimental or not... Or was there?... Nobody in the general record buying public, to begin with, knew what the Zapple label was supposed to come down to, perhaps not even who Yoko Ono was (as an artist)... I repeat as far as I can recall, there was no connection between a weird album cover and how avant-garde its content was supposed to be... Certainly not from The Beatles camp anyway, at that point in time...

 

John Lennon did say in an audio interview at this time that "it's on 'Zapple', so when you see it you know you're getting a surprise". I don't know how many fans caught the memo, but they were thinking of the "Zapple" label in an avant garde way in the '60s.

 

There are a couple of stinkers here but overall it's a great album.

 

I agree. I don't remember anything about it being issued along with the albums. If it was released by one of the Beatles, we assumed it would be great. But word of mouth on Lennon's stuff got out pretty quick, and after the Two Virgin's debacle, I think many fans took the "caveat emptor" approach to his releases, or at least waited to see a review on what the album contained. At least I did.

 

"McCartney" is a typical McCartney collection of new songs.

When he was in the Beatles during the later years, he could be absolutely brilliant, and on the same record, give us mindless pap (Mawell's Hammer anyone? How about Wild Honey Pie, and Honey Pie, Obla Di, Martha My Dear White Album)

I really like the album a lot, but it's clear that Maybe I'm Amazed, Junk, and Every Night are so good that they make up for pap!