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

I'm not well versed in McCartney's solo career, but I think the album has never quite grabbed me. I've heard it here and there and finally bought a copy on vinyl (old U.S. pressing, I think) last year. Haven't played it much, but I agree with the sentiment that it sounds like a bunch of unfinished sketches at times. I also have to admit that I prefer McCartney as a pop songwriter rather than doing some of the bluesy, jugband-ish type stuff that I hear on that album.

My current impression is that it's nowhere near as good as Plastic Ono Band or All Things Must Pass.

 

It's amazing how many people in the UK including Beatle people 'discovered' this album circa the 90's 'Britpop' era. I'm one of them. Although I'd heard it before, I'm not sure if I explored it further than needle-dropping across the vinyl and going 'Yeah, Nah, Nah, Hmmm, Yeah, Nah' etc. But suddenly out of nowhere circa 92-94, it became a post-ecstasy 'chill out' album that would recur in articles and parties throughout the land.
I've several times attempted to trace the original DJ and Mixmag articles that triggered this (those that triggered a similar ascendancy for 'McCartney II' are easier to find) as I can't see how this could have happened other than via a couple of biggish names recommending it.
I was fairly amazed when this album would just keep popping up in unlikely record collections. It definitely is a 'Sunday afternoon' album for me and I can definitely see why a lot of people going to Glastonbury for the first time would add this as some kind of souvenir as he really managed to encapsulate and universalise in its grooves something of his own 'getting out of the city' experience (as does 'Ram')

 

Better heard front to back, but there is a very clear sense of Paul scrambling to get out of The Beatles implosion. Perhaps that's one of it's many good points. Always dug it myself.

 

Bumping to postpone thread closure...

NOTE: Sorry if this annoys anyone, but there are "New Members" here daily, many of whom have an interest in McCartney. It seems a shame to have thousands and thousands of votes for his solo work locked for good, just because the activity slows!

 

The "McCartney" album... CLASSIC !
I simply can't explain how much I love it.
AAA +

 

The "McCartney" album is my favorite thing he has ever done. I really love this record. I like that it is sloppy and unfinished and homemade and full of instrumentals. I love minimalism and imperfection and sweetness without syrup. I love everything about it. I have listened to it more than anything else done by Beatles in or out of the band. It just makes me feel wonderful.

Also: my favorite movie is Jerry Maguire and the very romantic porch scene between Jerry and Dorothy uses "Singalong Junk" to masterful effect. "Momma Miss America" is also used in the film.

 

I have always thought "Junk" sounded like a very "reflective" track. Would you say so as well?

 

I went with the "Not Bad" rating
Two great songs in "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Every Night".
"Junk" is pretty good too.
Lots of half-finished easy going semi-songs.
Only real crap is "Kreen-Akrore" and "Valentine Day", though "Singalong Junk" is completely unnecessary.

The album is good for what it was: a home-made demo type introductory solo album. It just doesn't have enough quality material to rate as a top tier album.

 

My favorite.

 

Interesting timing for the bump of this topic.

I was big on the Beatles and followed their solo careers. However, for some reason I missed getting this album, which I recognised as an omission given it was recorded so close to the Beatles final days. In some ways I saw it, and ATMP, as being the best indicator of what may have been the next Beatles album. I it wasn't until decades later that I finally added it to the collection (a cassette copy). My memory of it was that it was unsubstantial, and I didn't play it much. It didn't even stack up against the tedium of the Let It Be rehearsal bootlegs.

Now jump a few more decades. A friend indicated in an email that he had been playing McCartney, and he loved the simplicity of it. Maybe it's time for me to reassess it. By coincidence, I came across the 1993 CD remaster cheap, and although wary of a remaster I picked it up so I can reacquaint myself with it.

So what was my new reaction? No much different to my original assessment. Essentially, had the majority of these tracks been released on a bootleg in the late 70's I would have thought that it was an interesting insight into McCartney's creative process, and not much more. In the 2000's these tracks could have made a nice bonus CD in a deluxe edition, but I would have understood why they were not officially released.

So the tracks. The instrumentals feel as if they are there for padding. I can't see the point of releasing Kreen-Ackrore, it certainly is a poor choice to finish the album, especially after the power of Maybe I'm Amazed. Momma Miss America certainly gives the album more energy (which is very welcome), however if it were not for the lack of energy elsewhere on the album I don't think it would hold it's own among better company.

Teddy Boy doesn't feel any more developed than the run-throughs in the Let It Be rehearsals. As a song, it rings with the tweeness of Maxwell's Hammer. It has the potential to be developed into a reasonable McCartney album song. I have always felt that Maybe I'm Amazed is very over-rated, perhaps because it is the only song which has been fully developed and recorded on the album. In comparison to the other under-developed demo's, it is indeed a very strong track. Don't get me wrong, it could still be a strong track on another fully-realised McCartney album. But I don't feel it's his best. And the standout track on the album? I feel it's Every Night. Perhaps it's because I'm familiar with (and like) Phoebe Snow's hit with it. On the album, McCartney has a well-developed song, delivered with confidence. It is him showing that despite the album of filler, he still had the ability to deliver songs equal to his great Beatles output.

Now I will say that this is my reaction based on revisiting the album once for the first time in decades. I intend to play it some more to give it a fairer appraisal. My overall impression is that these should have stayed in the drawer, if McCartney was wanting to assert himself as a solo Beatle it was a mistake to do it by being the first to release a solo album. Harrison proved it was better to release quality (with ATMP). Now I love listening to demo recordings. I love to hear how songs were first conceived, and how they developed into later masterpieces. In many cases I find the demos to be superior to great albums (eg. Richard Thompson's Dream Attic). But I don't find these demos to be great or intrinsically interesting.

McCartney has the potential to be a good, or even great album. It is disappointing that after the Beatles breakup that Paul wasn't in good mental health and didn't have the strength to produce an album worthy of his name. I know many here will (and have) see this album very differently. This is how I see it.

 

Bit late to the party here. But....I think this is his most charming and intimate album. Yet, song for song, it's also his weakest. Maybe I'm Amazed and Every Night are among his very best songs, and there's some other good material....but not enough. Too much of it is sketchy and half-baked. So I have mixed feelings about this. Can see why some love it and others are completely underwhelmed. I'm somewhere in the middle.

 

As a young boy I got Let it Be and McCartney on 8-track cartridges at the same time, and enjoyed them both for many years.

I may have already posted in this thread, as it's an older one.

 

I thought it was great as a reveal of what Paul could do without the Beatles Machine with him. We found out, and he clearly subsequently grew into a solo artist, as he developed his own musical identity. But this was the first tracks in the snow.

 

While I'd definitely classify it as essential, I don't think it's one of McCartney's all-time greatest moments, overall. But this is one of those albums I can't rank based strictly on musical brilliance or lack thereof. The fact that it was the first proper Paul McCartney solo album (with surrounding circumstances) made it extremely special in and of itself. The music sounds like Paul just having stepped out of a 7 year storm which took him places he couldn't have begun to dream of as a young kid just picking up the guitar. Unlike John's first proper solo album, Plastic Ono Band it's calm, quiet, content but *like* POB, it's also very personal (more so atmospherically than lyrically).

Also like POB, it's clearly one of those albums which can best be appreciated when placed in context with the artist's life at that specific point in time. As a collection of songs, it's "average" with a couple of above average moments and one which is generally regarded as superb. But as Paul McCartney's first album having just turned his back on his previous life, I regard it essential.

 

It's funny - there are clearly throwaways on this album, but no one really thinks of them as such, because the general vibe is so enjoyable.

 

I changed my vote from lower tier to Not bad. I still think it's two or three great tracks and a lot of half finished ideas, but I now can live with the concept of a low-fi, personal recording.

 

The two best songs on this album "Every Night, Maybe I'm Amazed" are arguably his two best solo songs, the rest aren't as bad as some of the dreck found on most of his other albums. I'd say it's one of his better efforts, and certainly one of his better sounding ones.

 

Clearly one of his best works - essential listening for Paul fans. Love the combination of masterful songs and sheer playfulness with sounds and music.

 

His best album by a distance - just lovely, melodic, offhand songs withut any clutter on the production, arrangements or even lyrics. Perfect album for a Sunday morning I should say, with a good book and a punnet of blueberries, it has that sort of vibe.

 

I can understand your comment here but for me I cannot agree. After the onslaught of all of the Beatles albums from the previous years this simple little album was to me the most personal of all their works and I love it for it stripped back simplicity. Other than Band On The Run I took little interest in his other solo work

 

It's pretty good, but - as a Beatles album - could have been much, much better. Here's how it would have worked:

Paul's songs, with of course other Beatles on them and George Martin:

- That Would Be Something
- Maybe I'm Amazed
- Lovely Linda, expanded to full length with John's help
- Every Night.

And then, four songs by John (with of course other Beatles on them and George Martin).

Two or three by George (with of course other Beatles on them and George Martin).

And maybe a cover or something.

You would have had a worthy next album after Abbey Road.

As it is, we got a CD that is, in terms of the Beatles' legacy, good and won't be remembered.

 

Let me understand this. It is 2017 and the album was released in 1970 and we are discussing it yet again here and it has been forgotten. Was it forgotten then, now or are we talking 50 years from now?

 

It's one of my favourite Paul McCartney albums I think. I like it's sort of self made roughness and there is a reasonably good flow to it. I've only got a sort of battered NZ pressing but it's still enjoyable to listen to. Tried to get an Archive Edition last year but after about a year JB HiFi gave up trying to find a copy to sell me and canceled the order.

 

My answer would actually be "It's excellent, just like the vast majority of McCartney and Wings albums."

Because you didn't really have an option that matches that, I went with the second choice, as that's closest to my opinion, since I don't feel that it's better than most of his albums.

 

MCCARTNEY is one of those albums that for so many years was considered "underrated" that it has now become "overrated". It is a decent debut. Simple, much of it half-finished, and nowhere near Paul's best work (RAM, BAND ON THE RUN, TUG OF WAR, FLAMING PIE).