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

I like it quite a bit. Can't understand the voters.

 

Funny - in 1986, I thought the opening single wasn't that great but liked the rest of the album way more!

 

Never understood the bashing of this album?

The only songs I really don't like are...

Pretty Little Head
However Absurd

The rest I like with Stranglehold being one of the absolute best, McCartney should be performing it live!

 

Is it me or does this album sound dated?... even in 1986.

 

Footprints is really a great song and pretty much the only one from this record that I listen to on a consistent basis. With respect to the rest of the songs some are based on good ideas that have some interesting parts but just ultimately don't go anywhere like Stranglehold, However Absurd and Pretty Little Head. Others are just simply awful, e.g. Press, Angry, or forgettable, Move Over Busker, Talk More Talk. The cover photo, however, as others have mentioned, is pretty great.

 

I like this album, liked it when it was released. I wavered between giving it a 3 or a 4 - went with 3. I'm probably more tolerant of "80s production" sound than many, but it doesn't seem fully realized.

My favorite song is "Pretty Little Head". "Press" is a fun if under-charting single. I also enjoy "Only Love Remains" and "Write Away".

 

Another well-thought out, reasoned, and riveting response!
I will never forget it, and it will forever influence my opinion of this album.

 

Not quite ... you're thinking of DRIVING RAIN!

 

I've warmed up to it more as of late, but it's still lower tier McCartney to me.

 

Dreadful with a few enjoyable moments, including Press and Footprints. Periodically I pull this one out and try to like it ... and just can't.

 

It's a nice picture, but I've always thought the sleeve didn't 'fit' the album. Wonder if it worked against it a little?

 

I paid a quid for it second hand. It didn't take long to find out why its previous owner wanted to get shut of it.

 

I like it.
Does that make me a bad person?

 

Lower-tier. Just garbage with a couple of bright spots thrown in.

 

Interesting to read comments concerning this- somewhat-ill- fated album. Another proof that the one-thing Macca-fans can agree on is that we don t agree.
Take Footprints as an example. Some poster here claim to hate the song some claim they love it. Personally I think it s one of the songs from the album that-if not being particulary good -ain t bad either.
Or Angry- some find it a great-rocker. I find it to be a wanna-be angry rocker that doesn t sound a bit angry or exiting.
It s funny how different we hear things.

 

Lower-tier McCartney - only a couple songs worth revisiting

I think McCartney himself called this one one of his stinkers; but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I read it from an unreliable source but in any case it's a stinker.

Though, the album art is nice.

 

I just bought this on cd (had the vinyl since release). It's as bad as I remember. I do like side one for the most part. Stranglehold, Good Times Coming, Footprints and Only Love Remains are nice. Press is an embarrassment. The rest is like filler.

 

Agreed. Perhaps it would've been a better promo shot or something. I always thought it odd that he wanted to make such a contemporary album yet put a 30's-styled cover on it. Interesting.

 

Once you remove the 3 bonus tracks, ensuring you finish on "However Absurd" then you have a nice little album that saw McCartney, to varying degrees of success, at least try and put some creativity back in to his albums after a few years of playing it relatively safe.

So I'd rate it as "not bad", although I'd still also regard it as "lower tier McCartney".

 

Weakest of his first 2 decades as a solo artist. Not awful. But I just never loved it.

 

It could have done with a brighter, more eye catching sleeve. It's too late now though! I don't think it's an album Paul is over fond of himself.. I've heard him describe the material as weak more than once. What does he know?!

 

It's very weak, I would agree. Don't count on Paul's placing PTP on the front burner for his 'Archives' series!

 

I've had this discussion before about this album, but I find it hard to rationalise the contradictory notions that Sgt Pepper (for example) can be a fabulous album because it so perfectly captured the times (ie, is dated) and yet Press To Play is an awful album for exactly the same reason. In the end, the only conclusion I can draw is that "dated" is just a euphemism for saying that one doesn't like the sound. And that's fine of course. But I'd argue that much of McCartney's music sounds dated: Wild Life is straight out of 1971, Venus and Mars and Speed of Sound are classic mid-70's sounds, Tug of War has that early 1980s feel and so on.

Personally, I find it hard to be objective about this album. I was 16 when it came out and it was the first Beatle product I bought as a new contemporary release (as opposed to back catalogue). I recall the car ride home, me in the back seat reading the liner notes and looking at the stereo panning drawings in the gatefold and wondering just what it would all sound like.

Being a "child of the 80s" I find much of that 80s sound far more palatable than I think most do here, and I adore the production of this record. So, for what it's worth, here's my take/defence of Press To Play:

Stranglehold: a surprising introduction, somewhat understated as openers go. A little unusual, a little different. The hook isn't immediate but I found myself enjoying the song more and more as I played it. Not the strongest thing he ever did but a very effective "sleeper".

Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun: fabulous. It has a really sunny vibe that always, to me, seemed to have strangely dark overtones. Almost eerie. But I love the lyrics, I love the melody and I love the production.

Talk More Talk: I know this song has been subject of much abuse here but again, I love it. It has a terrific energy and groove. And I love the clattering percussion that's all over it. The lyrics? I think they're fabulous stream of conscience mumbo jumbo. If one can forgive McCartney for Mumbo then I think it's hypocritical to lambast this. Of course, YMMV. But I love the randomness of it all. And the chorus just took hold. I remember not being able to get it out of my head in classes. There's a superb remix on the Only Love Remains that rocks this up even more and I find it impossible not to play loud. I'm usually bouncing 'round the room playing air drums.

Footprints: a lovely, whistful ballad. Something more reflective, talking about loneliness. Perhaps its a little cloying and sentimental, but I think it's beautiful and the icy 80s production fits it perfectly.

Only Love Remains: I know many here consider this to be the only worthwhile track on the album, possibly because it's the closest the album comes to "normal" McCartney, and that's posisble why I don't like it so much. Don't get me wrong, it's fine, he's done worse but it's just so, well, bog-standard ordinary. I remember reading a review of McCartney's performance of this at the Royal Variety Show. The reviewer said as much: just another McCartney ballad. Same old, same old. It made me really wish he'd played Pretty Little Head (see below).

Press: in it's 7" form (the Padgham mix) it was a strange combination of straight-ahead commercial pop song and unusual under-production. That count in just sounded odd. The remix (used on the 12" and most copies of the album) was much slicker and probably much more commercial. Press is lightweight (but so is Let 'Em In, Silly Love Songs, Pipes of Peace, Coming Up, Another Day...) and none the worse for it. Again, super hook. And if we can forgive him "my salamander" again, I think there's a place in the world for "Oklahoma was never like this".

Pretty Little Head: the album's centerpiece, for me. Five minutes of bizarre. McCartney's voice treated so that it doesn't even sound like him. Obscure lyrics and some unusual instrumentation. What's not to like? I love it when McCartney doesn't sound like McCartney. I jsut wish there were more of it in his catalogue. And then it was issued as a single! I remember waiting and waiting for news of a second single (this was before I'd discovered The Beatles Monthly Book) and then - in mid -December, I heard that McCartney would be playing his new single on the Royal Variety Show. I raced out to my local record store (which had a singles section) and found Pretty Little Head. I couldn't believe it! Raced home to hear it and was blown away. Seriously, this is my favourite McCartney single of all time. Sounds nothing like the man. I couldn't wait to hear THIS on the Royal Variety Show. An absolute stormer of a dance track, it was bound to confound his critics. Imagine my surprise when McCartney appeared, sat at piano and played that same old-same old ballad! Where was Pretty Little Head? Even today I can't help but wonder how things might have been...

Move Over Busker: the album's one dud. A straight-ahead, uninspiring rock song with a naff lyric. Can't believe he picked this in preference to It's Not True.

Angry: WHAT THE HELL GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE? These words resonate when you're 16 and you have your dad banging on about what he wants you to do with your future. Sure, some of the lyrics are lame, but this song sounds angry. And when I want to vent, it's the song I turn to. I prefer the remix (the saxes fill out the riffs nicely) but this song has all the anger, energy and passion many wish McCartney would display more often.

However Absurd: a strange thing. McCartney trying to channel Lennon, only partially successfully. For me, it's too long. It's one of those songs I always want to skip but am pleasantly surprised about when I hear it. Not bad but not brilliant.

So there you have it. One's man's defence of an album that, among all McCartney's albums, perhaps means the most to him. And also, unfortunately, happens to be the one album most other McCartney fans can't stand.

I wish it had more love. I wish there was a Press To Play Army shouting it's merits from the rooftops. I wish people could see that, in it's own way, it was McCartney experimenting with a studio in the same way that he did during Sgt Pepper, McCartney II and Electric Arguments. Most of all, I wish this album was a shoe-in for a Deluxe Edition Archive Collection multi-disc set.

And this afternoon, when I'm home from work, this album is going on the stereo - on vinyl - and I'm turning it UP. And all the haters can just s0d off

 

Yes. He once said that, after some years he checked the list of song titles (I think he was preparing some compilation) and could not remember many of the songs.

 

He's said that about most of his solo catalogue. I think he said something similar about Venus and Mars.