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

No question that it's one of his best!

 

Some great songs: Hope of Deliverance, Golden Earth Girl and Mistress and Maid are excellent master songs and enjoy a lot individually. The rest of the album is Ok but no thrill. Of that era I absolutely love beside the aforementioned, So Like Candy, which McCartney Co-wrote with McManus and was published in Costello's album Mighty like a Rose. It's a pity he did not take it for this album. However I adore Costello's version. There is on you tube a live version a bearded Costello did for TV which is astounding.

 

I haven't heard this album in its entirety so I will abstain from voting, but what I heard did not inspire me to dig deeper on this one.

 

Try digging deeper.

 

Is there a particular song that stands out for you? If "Hope For Deliverance" is the answer, it didn't do much for me. Pleasant enough but forgettable.

 

That's one, but also "I Owe It All To You", "Come On People", "Off The Ground". But I guess there are people who don't like those.

 

This was Paul's first album to be released after I became a "more-than-casual" fan, so it was the first I was able to anticipate in advance and enjoy the build up, so for that reason alone it will always have a special place in my heart, but also means it's difficult for me to listen to it subjectively.

I'm an unashamed fan of Biker Like An Icon, if that means expulsion from this website then I'll take that on the chin! Golden Earth Girl is a lovely song, despite it being a fairly obvious rehash of Warm & Beautiful, and when you're learning to play guitar (as I was at the time), then Winedark Open Sea is a perfect song to practice noodling a major scale in the key of E over the top of.

Peace In The Neighbourhood, and perhaps controversially the Elvis C collaborations, I can gladly do without.

Overall, very happy memories of this album, very precious to me.

 

I like "Peace in the Neighbourhood" a lot, and also "Looking for Changes". I just love the sound of him and his band on this album. Plus, of course, the "Complete Works" CD has all the collected B-sides, Sweet Sweet Memory, Style Style, Big Boys Bickering which do make one wonder how they missed the cut? Or why didn't he just do a double LP to start?

 

This is an album, along with Flowers, that I just can't get into as much. A handful of great tracks, some mediocre stuff, and some garbage. I didn't truly LOVE a Paul album after Tug of War until Flaming Pie.

 

I voted pretty solid effort - worth recommending.

An old friend of mine (big McCartney fan) and I, got together last night and listened to the Hope of Deliverance EP and a good portion of this album. Still holds up...for us.

 

Lower-tier McCartney for me. It contains a couple of good songs but as others have noted the the B-sides from this era are mostly better than the album tracks. If only...

 

I actually like this album, maybe far from his best, but at the same time by far not as bad as some people think. And the band that was playing with Paul at the time IMO was much better then the current one. And I like the way it was recorded/produced, much better than the latest drivel ("New" 2013).

 

Here's an interesting thing: I've been collecting Macca for decades. I religiously hunted down the various radio promos of the Off The Ground single, I even checked Eight Arms to make sure I had everything.

And then today, a fellow Forumite sent me a version of the title track I'd never heard before. And it turns out to have been issued on a Dutch CD single back in 1993 that even @lennonology and Mark Easter missed. Who'da thought? You learn something new every day.

You guys are gonna tell me you've known of this all along and couldn't be bothered to update me, aren't you?

 

Those "OTG" promo mixes are SO much better than the released opener. I've swapped it out on CD-R. Everyone here could make an Off the Ground mix album that basically contains none of the original tracks except remixes and superior b-sides. Maybe the two Costello ones.. those are great as-is.

Jeff

 

Mistress & Maid, Lovers that never were, title track, all great numbers.

 

So what does that make the OTG mix count now? For those (like you) who keep score?

 

I've got the "Keith Cohen Radio Remix" and "Bob Clearmountain Radio Mix", is this different to those?

 

Yep. Clocks in at 3'51". The intro sounds like the Cohen mix but it isn't the same.

 

This was his worst. There isn't a song on it I like, except "Winedark Open Sea," which I find just okay. A lot of clunker lyrics and pandering hooks. A must to avoid, unless you are a completist like me, in which case I see it as my punishment for eating meat.

So sad because the band (except for the drummer) is the same as Paul's prior album, Flowers In The Dirt, which is one of my favorites.

 

one of his worst! if it wasn't signed macca it will finished in the bins

 

Interesting, cheers! I shall have to try and locate a copy of this....

 

One of McCartney's best efforts. "C'Mon People", "Winedark Open Sea", "Mistress & Maid", "Get Out of My Way", "Golden Earth Girl" - All great songs. And I've always loved that band he had in the nineties.

 

I really like this album, and it would be nice to see what Paul would do for it in his Archives series... even though I know it's going to be a long time before we see this one.

 

That would just be the second disc of the Complete Works set. As it happens, I don't agree with you. I think that most of the B sides are B sides. The exception being Kicked Around No More which I think is one of his best songs period, let alone best B sides. Most of the rest are utterly underwhelming and lack the charm of the album tracks. Sure, the sessions produced a large number of genuinely releasable songs but I think it's part of human nature to look at the underdog (ie, a B side) with a less critical eye. Personally, I don't think that Style Style, Sweet Sweet Memories or Cosmically Conscious are album quality, Down To The River is fun but the definition of B side, Long Leather Coat is the poor relation to Looking For Changes and Big Boys Bickering is just too controversial lyrically.