great albums numero dos
Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970)Sir Paul's life's work has ranged from extraordinary (The Beatles) to decent (Wings) and to downright awful ("Freedom", anyone??)
In the past ten years, he's sort of had a career renaissance, releasing four albums to high critical acclaim. His latest, Chaos and Creation In The Backyard, is an exceptional piece for someone of his age. While many artists of his age were getting their kicks recording the same standards over and over again - McCartney was in the studio with one of the most respected producers of the decade, Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame), creating a no-frills rock record that deserved to be on many top ten lists last year.
What was special about Chaos was the fact that McCartney basically played every instrument on the record by himself. It was something he hadn't done in almost 35 years - which brings us to today's pick, 1970's McCartney.
Recorded mostly at his farm on a portable four track recorder at the end of 1969 to early 1970, during the dissolution of the Beatles, McCartney crafted an album that was not expected to come off the heels of one of the bandmembers of the most popular bands of all time.
Compared to the bombast and complexity of Beatles recordings, the simple, delicate and organic songs that fill this album are shocking.
Whether it's the love ditty to his wife "That Lovely Linda" or the throwaway "Valentines Day" to the Beatles outtakes "Teddy Boy" and "Junk" (they were demoed...see Anthology 3 for early versions), or the science experiment of "Kreen-Akore", Sir Paul put together a collection of songs that didn't take themselves too seriously - but certainly weren't a parody either.
The centerpiece of this album is "Maybe I'm Amazed", a ballad that ranks among one of McCartney's finest moments. I still try to figure out how he made a song that powerful and uplifting on a four track recorder.
Anyways, it's definately an album to check out. You'll be doing yourself a favor - especially if you're tired of hearing "Yesterday" every time he's on TV. I know I am.
Paul McCartney - That Would Be Something (2.48 MB, m4a)
