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

Thanks!

 

I would give it a C-/D+. I know people hate Press To Play but that is a far better album than Pipes. I would say only 3-4 songs are worth repeat listens. The rest is the typical McCartney weak leftovers.

 

It's Paul McCartney, so there are no bottom feeders. A solid effort to these ears o' mine.

 

I gave it another chance after not even owning it anymore. I eventually downloaded it from amazon just so I would have every regular pop/rock album from McCartney. It was better than I thought... maybe others can enjoy it if they give it one more listen.

 

Even worse than NEW. Ok NEW is a lot better than POP

 

Me too!

Can't vote in this one, however. I haven't heard it, and from the comments, sounds like it's not worth seeking out.

 

I did say in my comment that Paul spread himself out too thinly, but I still believe that any follow up that he released, even my playlist version, would not have been reviewed as well as Tug of War. I am basing this on the fact that almost every album he had ever released up to that point was badly reviewed by most critics, so I don't see why this would have been different, especially seeing as it contained dance-pop and songs with Michael Jackson.

 

There's stuff on PIPES OF PEACE I just love.

 

I voted for "not bad," though I disagree with the "usual throwaways" line in terms of Paul's catalog.

 

Voted "not bad" ... as usual: some throwaways - some good tracks and when he´s good he´s REALLY good.

 

It feels like it is... a collection of remnants from Tug of War. But... to me there are some really good things and some things that maybe should have been b-sides or an ep or something.

my rating...
"Pipes of Peace" - The song is ok. Nice melody and words. I like the weird sounding production quite a bit. - B

"Say Say Say" - It doesn't matter what I 'say say say' this song was a monster hit. And it should have been. - A

"The Other Me" - I like it when Paul gets weird and when he sounds 'intimate.' And this song is both. But it also feels incomplete too. Where a song like "Single Pigeon" is just great at the length it is, "The Other Me" just goes on and on. So... - B-

"Keep Under Cover" - the best song on the album to me. - A

"So Bad" - a decent single. Kind of out of place on the album to me. Not bad though. - B

"The Man" - side 2 is when things go 'bad' to me (similar to Press to Play). This song is awful. The lyrics... the music... oof. - F

"Sweetest Little Show"/"Average Person"/"Hey Hey"/"Tug of Peace" - to me these songs could have worked if they had been shortened greatly and welded together as a medley more cohesively. There is no reason on earth why average person should cross the 4 minute mark. None! These sounds like fragments and they should have been used as such as he did on Abbey Road or even Red Rose Speedway and Back to the Egg. Otherwise the songs get - C-

"Through Our Love" is kind of a sweet ballad. But... I hate the way it sounds. Geez Mr. Martin maybe you could have put more reverb on there (sarcasm). This is a case of where the song is good but the production is not (which seemed to start happening to Paul quite a bit from this point forward). - B

 

This was an album that even my little circle of Beatlefreaks didn't like when it came out. They tried to force feed it to themselves, but grimaced each and every time, as if taking castor oil. I was already at odds with them because I thought Tug of War wasn't the masterpiece they claimed it was. so when this came out they became almost resentful of me, like it was my fault it was so bad... All I could do was shrug my shoulders. I used to frequently wear a McCartney t-shirt in those days; I formally retired it when this album came out.

It is a very weird album. Macca claimed it was to be a companion piece to Tug of War (hence the presence of the execrable "Tug of Peace"). It was definitely his least "rock" album ever when it was released; it contained zero rockers unless the doofy "Keep Under Cover" counts. Cornball stuff abounds, with "Sweetest Little Show" being the most egregious, but "Average Person" comes close. I never really warmed up to Michael Jackson's showbizzy superstar persona, and found "Say Say Say" mildly catchy but utterly empty inside. "The Man" was unlistenable, and I couldn't decide what was worse, the awful lyrics or sappy arrangement. "So Bad" was a major annoyance, with its contrived bad grammar and falsetto. The maudlin "The Other Me" contained the immortal "I acted like a dustbin lid" line, and almost inspired me to start a no wave group called "The Dustbin Lids" (I actually got far enough along with this idea that the name got shortened to The Lids, but we never did get around to doing the deconstruction of "Uncle Albert" we had planned) The title track was inoffensive enough, but that was the best thing I could say about it. I don't know what Macca was thinking with this album. I suspect he was trying to make a "mature" sounding album, since the Tug of War claque called that one "mature". Yet, as is often the case, he couldn't bring himself to commit to it completely, so he brought in Jackson for the kids and potential sales. It's such a muddle from start to finish, and marked the beginning of my recovery from geekdom, which Give My Regards to Broad Street sealed.

All of that said, I will offer this. The album does feature one stunning track, the unabashedly gorgeous orchestral ballad "Through Our Love", which manages to have the prettiest melody, the best production, and the least wince-inducing lyrics on the whole album, all in one shot. I still consider that track one of McCartney's dozen or so best solo tunes, and probably George Martin's best work on any of his solo songs. It definitely didn't do enough to save the album for me, but it is one token reminder of those dark days that I can still hear and smile.

 

Probably not the best, but still enjoyable album. Typical Macca I know and love, miles better then a recent overproduced drivel ("New" 2013).

 

Lower tier. Couple of moments here and there.

 

I know I'm in the minority, but I voted 'Essential'. As 80s pop records go, this one is pretty exceptional!!

 

Combine both albums
make it a double
War&Peace
.....,you have a winner.

 

A couple people have commented on this one quite favorably. I think it sounds lush & majestic, but - again - the lyrics are definitely "wince-inducing" to me. He couldn't even write a FIRST VERSE that made sense!

We, wasted time and again
On things, things we already knew
Born to do, I give my love to you​

What the hell does that mean? Clearly "wasted time and again" was apropos, but I fail to see how it fits in a love song.

Whenever you get some time
Whenever you get some time
I'd like to roll it all
Up in ball
And spend it with you​

Good lord, Paulie, write something that doesn't sound like an 11-year old could do it better.

It actually makes sense and is romantic to say: "Through our love we can learn to do things that they said were
impossible". That's good. But it sounds idiotic to say "We're going through our love", or "here we go through our love".

 

Hmmm... Now that you mention it, you're right... Well, once again, I lose an argument sticking up for McC.

 

Some people say it is so bad...that it must actually be good on some level....I'm not one of them. It's bad, nuff said.

 

The shame is that he had the 3 Broad Street tracks - No Values, Not Such a Bad Boy, No More Lonely Nights, in the can before this release.

Remove the 3 weakest tracks and replace 'em and you have a much better album.

That said, this is a real divisive album - you either love some tracks or hate em-

LOVE
Pipes of Peace, Say Say Say, Keep Under Cover, So Bad, Sweetest Little Show, Through Our Love

HATE
The rest

 

I liked this album as a kid (along with Ode to a Koala Bear). Haven't revisited much of it, but the title track is quite nice. Do you have a source for the Dave Grohl quote? Kinda interesting.

 

This says it all. Doesn't rock at all. It's as if the guy who sang "Long Tall Sally" with such conviction had never existed.

 

I still hate the dustbin lid lyric in another song, but I love So Bad.

 

I would definitely give it another listen, especially if you liked it as a child.

I don't have the source for the Grohl comment, but I am sure that someone here will. I seem to remember Paul mentioning that Dave had praised the song.

 

I voted for "Lower-tier McCartney - only a couple songs worth revisiting", but...
I think McCartney has three albums that stand out as his poorest- "McCartney II", "Press To Play" & "Pipes Of Peace". Of these three "Pipes Of Peace" is the worst of the worst, his weakest album ever...and yet it still has 2 or 3 fine songs on it. It's hard to believe that the great "Tug Of War" preceded this.