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

But still the album is hardly half-baked. People often call it overproduced an it seems that McCartney himself spent (unusually) too much time on it. So the use of the quotation still seems wrong to me. I just do not get the joke - my fault I guess.

 

Maybe it's a language thing? Your location is Germany, is that correct? Are you a native English speaker (you certainly sound like one from your posts)?

"Half-baked", according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, means:

a: poorly developed or carried out <a half–baked idea> <half–baked research>
b: lacking adequate planning or forethought <a half–baked scheme for getting rich>
c: lacking in judgment, intelligence, or common sense​

It can also mean "underdone", which certainly would be a contradiction to "overproduced", but - if someone doesn't like the album - the prior definitions certainly could apply. Throw in "sleazy instruments", which could reference the 80s drums & synthesizers, and "half-talked" which could refer to several of the songs ... does that make any more sense?

Not trying to be obnoxious about this, btw - hope it doesn't come across that way! Just thought it was an interesting turn of phrase. Curse you, @pantofis!

 

Not a bad album, but not a good Paul McCartney album.

 

He spent a lot of time making the album but according to people who were there he spent a fair share of Tat time on the upper-floor smoking weed

 

One more proof that it's not half-baked - rather over-baked. ;-)

 

You must be right. And it sure is a language thing. My location is Czech Republic - completely different laguage group.

 

My favorite is definitely Chaos and Creation very, very, very closely followed by Tug Of War and Flaming Pie.

It's pretty much a 3-way tie between the three.

I get what you mean about FITD - that's one of my favorites as well, but I've been playing PTP a lot more than other albums just because of how unique it is

 

Over-baked definitively is the right way to describe this album
Sort of wonder how Flaming Pie was baked.

 

I Didin't care for the way the voting options were phrased so I skipped voting

Out of about 25 post beatle McCartney studio albums. I would rate it somewhere around 17th or so.

 

Lower tier w/only a few songs worth revisiting. I admire what he was going for on this album, but it's a sprawling mess and the production dates the album so bad. I don't hate the album, but I don't love it either.

 

Probably true, but this is one album that, for me, would be amongst the most eagerly-anticipated reissues. I like the album to begin with, aside from some major animosity towards Press and a couple of other minor quibbles. Unlike many other members here, I rarely ever "resequence" an album, but PtP is one album that I did burn myself an alternate copy of, just because it makes a fascinating listen, IMO. So many of the songs exist in (released!) radically remixed versions and several others that DIDN'T get released remixes nevertheless have interesting alternate bootlegged versions.

It wouldn't convert someone who doesn't like the SONGS themselves, but it does show there's a lot of ways to dress up their appearance.

 

This would be a great AF SACD!!

 

I think that it failed commercially due to several reasons.

I personally think that Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun should have been the lead single; as others have said, it had a classic McCartney melody and it also had a nice 80's feel/sound. I love Press, but the lyrics were not as 'universal' as they should have been for a lead single.

Secondly, not touring the album did hurt the album IMO (I did start a thread on this very subject). One member here pointed out that by the mid-80's, if you wanted a hit album, you had to do a lot of touring and promotion across America in most cases, and Paul certainly did not do that, which is a shame, because the album did actually get quite a lot of positive acclaim from rock critics.

Thirdly, I think that it was just not what most casual fans expected from Paul, or what many of Paul's fans thought that his music should be like.

 

I'd agree with all of this.

Sometimes projects just miss. It's a shame, but the best artists just move on. Flowers In The Dirt was the most 'McCartney' album since Tug Of War, and was a far more successful album than PTP. He was back on track in the public's eyes at this point.

Actually, I remember Once Upon A Long Ago from 1987 being touted as one of his strongest singles for years!

The fact that Paul turfed out one of his best ever solo albums with New at the age of 71 is astounding to me. As is the fact that he seems to be more active now than at anytime since the 1970s!

 

Just right....

 

It was nice and moist!

 

Lower-tier for Paul. I like "However Absurd" and a couple others. Much prefer the single mix of "Pretty Little Head" to the album version.

 

I do find it mystifying that with the song 'Angry' you had this fantasy power trio in McCartney, Collins and Townshend and virtually nothing was mentioned. I know Linda took some photos that ended up in the fan club newsletter but I would have filmed those sessions and made a big deal about it. Even in interviews of the time, McCartney talked about the theme of the lyric but downplayed the recording. Of course, I say all this because I love the song and those three guys are my favourite musicians ever.

 

This is a very difficult album for me to judge, because I like so many of the songs and mixes from the sessions that did not make the album, and because I don't often listen to the album as it was released. Still, judging the album proper, and not my own playlist, leads me to voting it 'A pretty solid effort'.

I love the ambition of the album, and the fact that for the first time since McCartney 2, Paul was aiming for an experimental and contemporary sound. I agree with those that say that it points ahead to his Fireman albums (especially Hanglide, a brilliant instrumental from the sessions that should have been on the album IMO).

I think that the album closest to it in his catalogue in some ways is Wild Life, in that it is very divisive amongst his fans; it seems that many dislike PTP, but that it also has a group of supporters, somewhat similar to the 'Ram army'.

Unlike Wild Life, PTP could not be considered underproduced, in fact I would go as far as to say that it was 'overbaked' and worked on for too long.
Many of the early mixes are potentially superior to what was released on the album, making the idea of a Deluxe reissue even more exciting. The reissue could in fact change opinions on the album amongst his fans who do consider it to be overproduced, in a similar way that recent Dylan and Costello reissues changed opinions about some of their more divisive albums.
One example of a song that I consider to be superior with the earlier mix is However Absurd, which, although still enjoyable on the album, goes up a level in quality due to the differences in production.

I personally think that Press is a very catchy song, but agree that the lyrics are too unusual for it to have ever become a bigger hit. Had Paul worked on them a bit longer, I think that it would have done well on the charts. Still, I enjoy the song as it is, and can't stop humming it for days after listening to it.

I am also a big fan of Pretty Little Head, which I would rate as my favourite ever McCartney single in many ways, and I especially love the single version of the song. Had someone like Peter Gabriel released it, I can see it having become a big hit, because it does tap into that 80's 'world music' sound that was popular at the time. It is one of Paul's most experimental and interesting 80's songs, and I think that it is a shame that he didn't write more songs along similar lines. I have no idea why it wasn't a bigger hit, and can only think that maybe it should have been the first single released from the album, and that he should have promoted it more.

Another favourite of mine is Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun, which would have been another good choice as the lead single. It has a classic, catchy McCartney melody, I love the way that he merged the two song fragments, and it would have worked nicely as a summer hit.

When positively re-evaluating the album, The Stylus called Stranglehold the 'almost 'Jet' of the 1980's', a term that I agree with. This is definitely an underrated rocker IMO, with a good chugging groove, and it definitely sticks in your head after the first few listens. I think that Paul should have played it live back in the late 80's.

One of my favourite songs from the album is the beautiful and delicate 'Footprints', which is a good example of how well Eric Stewart could work with Paul. It doesn't sound like a typical McCartney ballad, but in this case that is a good thing. I think that the lyrics are very strong, and that the production really compliments the song well. I wish that Paul would have written more songs in this style, because I also enjoy the cousin of Footprints that is the wonderful 'Distractions' from FITD.

I am also a fan of the lovely Only Love Remains, especially the live version that he performed at a British TV awards show. This is the more 'McCartney' style ballad on the album, which is probably why it is normally mentioned even by those not keen on the rest of the album. I personally think that it is a wonderful song, one which gets better the more that I hear it, and I see it as a beautiful ode to Linda.

Finally, as I said above, I am also a fan of the Beatlesque 'However Absurd', which does have a Lennon feel to it. I think that the lyrics work very well, especially the line: 'Custom made dinosaurs, Too late now, for a change'. Ironically, with this album and his later experimental work, Paul was directly contradicting these lyrics, and proving that 'rock dinosaurs' could still make exciting and contemporary music.

I have mixed feelings about the remaining songs. I admire Talk More Talk because of the oddness and experimental edge that it has, and I do sometimes enjoy listening to it, but I agree with the previous comment that the version available on one of the singles is superior.

The same thing can be said of Angry; I personally do hear genuine anger in the song, but I don't feel that the album version was the best mix of the song.

Finally, I actually really like the Move Over Busker lyrics, but I am not a fan of the studio recording. I much prefer the stripped down and simpler earlier version of the song, and I feel that the more understated production helps to show the humour in the lyrics. Hopefully it will be included on the reissue, if we get one.

Overall, I think that most of the album works, which is quite an achievement considering that Paul was a huge Pot-head at the time, even by his standards.
It is a frustrating album though, because it could have been even better, especially had Paul clarified and cleared-up Stewart's role in the making of the album, because doing that would have removed some of the tension that existed during the recording of the album.

I am really hoping that we do get a Deluxe reissue of the album, because I feel that it could change the minds of those that feel that there are no good songs hidden behind the 80's production.

For those interested, my playlist version of the album includes both Tough On A Tightrope and the B-Side mix of It's Not True, both of which should definitely have been on the album originally, and I have also included Hanglide, which works really nicely alongside songs like Pretty Little Head and Press. I have also included Yvonne's The One, a song far too good to just give to 10cc IMO.

 

You are completely right; far more should have been said about the 'supergroup' that featured on the song. It would certainly have helped with promotion of the album.

 

You are completely correct; the fact that Paul has been able to release a contemporary sounding and brilliant album this late into his career is remarkable. He has had more successful artistic come-backs than it is fair to have.

I actually think that New is his most 'current' sounding record since PTP.

 

New is packed with melodic, highly commercial songs. I don't know how he keeps coming up with them...

 

As Howard Goodall said about him and John: 'In Western music, perhaps only Mozart had more original melodies'.

I genuinely think that he has the greatest melodic gift of any songwriter; even his seemingly 'throwaway' ditties like Bip Bop, Hey Diddle, Great Day, etc, get stuck in your head.

His wonderful melodies have saved quite a few songs from his marijuana influenced lyrics.

 

I've never really had a problem with his lyrics.. Some are daft, many are plain weird, but they usually sing well and sound good. He has the occasional decent turn of phrase!

I don't like the 'dustbin lid' line in The Other Me. Even after he explained it, it didn't make it right!

 

For the purpose of full disclosure, it should be pointed out that the very same marijuana that influenced his lyrics also influenced the music. You can't separate the two. As Paul sang in his love song to pot: "What can I do? What can I be? When I'm with you, I want to stay there / If I am true, I will never leave and if I do, I'll know the way there."