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

I like Driving Rain better. Truly.

I voted lower-tier. I remember thinking 'meh' when I first bought it in 1986. Every time I listened to it, meh. It finally hit me that it didn't sound like McCartney or a McCartney album. The voice didn't sound like his, the harmonies don't sound like his - nothing on this album sounds like the things that I like about other McCartney albums. I've revisited the album many times over the years and always come away feeling the same.

When I bought a bootleg CD called Pizza and Fairy Tales (iirc), most or all of these songs are included with a more 'typical' McCartney production. It was like I had found a long lost McCartney album! I'm not sure if the album would have had better sales like this or not, but to this fan these songs sound much more natural and McCartney like. I'm sure we'll get at least a scattering of these on an archive release (assuming this album has one) but any fan should really track down these tracks.


I do like the single 'Press', btw, just not the album.

 

I like this B side

 

A once per decade listen is about all I need. The goofy lyrics of the "Press" single sink it. Still there are some good songs elsewhere on the disc.

 

I loved it when it came out and still do. I just had it on yesterday. However Absurd never ceases to give me chills. Great players on the whole album: Marotta, Alomar, Townshend, Collins, Rayner, etc.. It also helps that I love that Hugh Padgham sound.

 

No great highs. No deep lows. It's a solid B album, through and through.

 

I have a really odd relationship with the album. When I first got into solo Macca, it was one of the first albums I checked out as everyone bitched about it everywhere. Add to that the fact that I had only heard Press and the single cut of Pretty Little Head from the McCartney Years set and loved them both so you could say I was curious.

I didn't like it much at all at first, but over the last few years it's grown on me a LOT and I can see that a lot of it is better than I thought. The album's not great, but it's definitely one of his most sonically interesting studio albums. I like that he wanted to be ambitious and keep up with the times and I admire him for trying.

Its flaws are balanced by its strengths and its become a personal "almost"-favorite.

 

I think when the Archive edition comes out, we'll all give it a second chance!

I felt a bit sorry for him at the time. Albums like Pipes Of Peace and Broad Street were slagged off for being bland as I said before, but when he tried to do something quite adventurous with PTP the critics said it was rubbish! No wonder he was confused!

It's not an album anyone will 'get' on first play. You have to work at it a bit, which is nice sometimes. Flowers In The Dirt is a much more typical McCartney album, yet I find myself playing PTP a lot more these days.

What is your favourite McCartney album, BTW?

 

The thing is, the critics didn't say it was rubbish: many reviews were very positive. It just didn't sell. Then, when 80s production became a thing of widespread ridicule all we had left was an album with production that no one liked that couldn't even be saved by its commercial popularity. Because it had none.

 

I remember a decent review in Q, but not so many in the weekly mags. I think it was just his time for a dip. Everyone wanted Phil Collins, Dire Straits etc. He had to take a back seat for a while.

 

What I could never understand was how Invisible Touch was such a huge album when Press To Play (which, in many ways, was McCartney does Genesis) flopped so utterly. I mean, it wasn't even mid ranking. It just sank.

 

Pretty much how I feel, same age as you & first new Macca release I bought when it came out, remember rushing out from my new YTS job on my 1/2 hour lunch break getting to WHSmiths picking up the LP & it playing in the shop, the day dragged till I got home & played it to death, loved it then, love it now.

 

Phil Collins career had been building since Face Value. He peaked with No Jacket Required and the Genesis album the following year. Just his time, I suppose. Invisible Touch is a very good album. For Genesis it was almost like an Abba album. The poppiest they ever got.

Something about PTP didn't click with the public. Wrong single choices? The lack of a tour to promote it? It's difficult to know why, but it was given the cold shoulder like few other McCartney albums before it.

 

While, I really like the majority of Paul's work, I just don't like this one.
Didn't like it when it came out and still don't like it.

 

I really enjoy the album, but voted "not bad." If you replaced some of the LP versions with the superior single versions that may have bumped it up a notch. One of my wife's favorite McCartney albums, by the way.

 

I wouldn't call it "essential" by any means, but I think it's one of his most enjoyable post-Wings albums. The 80's production is a bit dated, sure, but I also think it's one of his more interesting and experimental albums...trying some new things without going into full-on McCartney II territory, yet at the same time mostly not settling into a "McCartney by numbers" type of thing that some of his other solo albums fall into. I dig it.

 

Liked the title track and there are a couple of listenable numbers but not album I ever go back to, I guess that says it all for me. I really liked Once Upon a far Away or whatever that song is called. Can't find it anywhere, not on itunes Spotify or anything. NOt on any of his albums as far as I can see. Why is it so rare? Is a gem of a song.

 

It's perfectly alright that people do not like the album, but one thing Press to Play is not imho.

 

I think very highly of this album, though I can understand the criticisms thrown at it by those who like their Macca loose and off the cuff. This is the polar opposite of that! The cavernous 80's production does not bother me at all, and I feel actually add to the adventurous feel of the album as a whole; it does not sound like a typical PM album, but it is chock full of catchy McCartney melodies and performances. P2P is probably the last PM album that does not include a single track I feel compelled to skip (Flowers In The Dirt has "How Many People," Flaming Pie has a handful of boring, interchangeable Blooz Jamz, and New has "Hosanna.")

LOADS more enjoyable than Wild Life, Off The Ground, Driving Rain, and Electric Arguments, IMO.

 

Lower tier. I can't even remember what's on it.

 

How can you call it lower tier when you can't even remember what's on it?

 

I think Paul tried to be a bit experimental with this album, but by and large they were failed experiments or just not very good songs. The 80's production is tough to take at times. "Press" was a decent single, "Only Love Remains" is a good love song, and "Angry" is almost like a punk song, but most of the rest of the songs have at best some good parts, but go on too long. "Pretty Little Head" is the best (or worst if you prefer) example of Paul trying to be experimental, but just coming off as "weird". Sounds like 2nd rate Phil Collins. I give Paul credit for trying something different, but in the end this is simply not one of his better albums as the songs just are not very memorable.

 

I know I bought the record when it came out!

 

You do realize that the (rather clever) comment you were responding to was a quote from the album, yes?

 

I guess it is obvious that I was not. Does that fact make it true?

 

Well, I'm personally rather fond of Press to Play, so I wouldn't characterize the album as such. However, as the results and comments would show, it appears that many feel the songs are sub-standard for Paul and the production is wanting. To encapulate some of those same thoughts by quoting from one of the "half-talked" songs ("Talk More Talk") that exemplifies those very characteristics was quite clever, I thought. YMMV.