How Long Must This Continue?
I'm sure that everyone, like me, had assumed this event could never come again, but it appears that Paul McCartney is releasing another new album. I know, the world cries out, "Why?" but apparently Lord Paul hasn't noticed. This is the first one in four years, and just like every time, it's being touted as the one that recaptures Paul's former glory. I'm certainly not going out on a limb to say this one's got the goods, but it's possible that it does have the potential.
Behind the producing desk for this go round is Nigel Godrich, who's previously produced Radiohead, Pavement, and Beck. Apparently he wasn't afraid to give Paul a kick in the ass when necessary. The former Beatle described the recording process to NME:
I've produced a lot of records, been on a lot of Beatles records, Wings records, on my own, I've had a lot of hits. [Godrich] said "I just want to make a great album, and for the album to be you." Once we got in the studio, and we're playing head to head on a couple of songs that I thought as good and he didn't, I thought of immediately firing him. I just thought, "I don't have to take this." But the point is, "This is why you're working with him."
. . .
He'd be like "Look, I've got to tell you that I don't like this," and I said "What don't you like about it?" He'd say "You've done better than that." In the end I started to value that more, it's what I need. We kept the standard up that way, but we had our moments.
Paul has needed someone to ride herd on him for decades. Will this record start turning things around for him? Who can say. I've only got one friend who's virtually certain to buy this album, and if he tells me it's as good as Band on the Run--heck, even if it's another Venus and Mars--I may get around to hearing it.
In the meantime, I'm much more interested in the new Franz Ferdinand single, which is due out a week after Paul's new album. The day after the single comes out, they open a new North American tour here in Chicago at the Aragon ballroom, and then the new album (like the first one, it's also self-titled) follows a couple of weeks later. That's where you'll be able to find my interest in the weeks ahead.
posted by Doug @ 11:56 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I find it encouraging that Macca is considering the idea of actually listening to someone else. Such a strategy might have helped avoid "Biker Like an Icon," "Morse Moose and the Grey Goose" (hell, the entire 'London Town' album), and everything he did between 1982 and 1988. The man needs a bullshit detector...like Lennon was.
I agree. I especially liked the part when Paul said, "This is good," and Nigel said, "No, it's not, come up with something better." Do you pick up everything Paul does to keep up? I've got a friend in Texas who does so unfailingly and then puts the best face on it that he can. I thought you might, but I wasn't certain.
I have never purchased a single McCartney live album, although he's released...what? Four of them? Kee-rist.
I stopped buying McCartney's solo stuff after "Pipes of Peace," started again at "Flowers in the Dirt," then stopped again after "Run Devil Run." Wasn't impressed by waht I heard from "Driving Rain."
If you count the Unplugged album, he's got five live ones. I got the first all those years ago, but I don't think I've bought a new McCartney album when it was new since London Town. I got the Russian album at some point, and then I've picked up Flowers in the Dirt and Run Devil Run in the last couple of years. I'd forgotten all about Driving Rain, but my friend played it for me the last time I visited, and needless to say, I haven't picked it up on my own.
I'm a bit surprised that I'm even paying attention at this point. I guess I've mellowed a bit in the 25 years since I rained scorn on friends who bought Back to the Egg.
You have to pay some attention because it's Paul McCartney, and there's always at least a little hope that he'll turn out something decent. Don't know how much my opinion's worth though--the latest post-Beatles thing I own is Band on the Run (which I've been able to sing from memory since I was 3). I was also able to sing many of his eighties singles, Pipes of Peace, Ebony & Ivory, Say Say Say, but admittedly don't own any of them.
I really liked "Back to the Egg" at the time. People were always bitching that he wasn't rocking enough, and he puts that album out, and it's full of aggressive rock stuff, and he got critical brickbats anyway.
In all honesty, I must admit that I never listened to Back to the Egg. I was way into punk and new wave in those days, and I saw Paul as a dinosaur who'd simply outlived his usefulness. Since I'd found London Town to be particularly empty, I didn't think I needed anything new from the man at the time. Under those circumstances, I'm not sure what he could've released that I would've respected.
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