first comment

What happened to the third record? Did Bob beat up Joe?

Chris cornell and manson have cds out today, yet they do reviews of who cares bands like long blondes

I listened to the new McCartney cd once today and on first listen I’m not sure it comes close to being as good as the last one(”Chaos and Creation In The Backyard”).I do have to take issue,however,with Mr.Christgau’s assertion that McCartney is not as intelligent a songwriter as two other heroes of mine,Lennon and Dylan.Isn’t this the man who came up with the “Sgt.Pepper” concept and half of it’s greatest material,as well as “Yesterday”,”Hey Jude”,”Let It Be”,”Helter Skelter”,”Maybe I’m Amazed”,”Get Back”,”Band On The Run”and a hundred other great tunes?This is where some critics lose me with their flippant and blanket condemnations.I admire Lou Reed but to say Paul isn’t in HIS class says to me that maybe the intelligence meter might be reading low when “applied” to these thoughts of Christgau’s.Glad he liked most of “Memory Almost Full”,though his thoughts can’t possibly be as insightful as those of Robert Hilburn’s or David Fricke’s.

I’ve just listened to it. It’s a very personal record. I like this better than Chaos and Creation. But I loved Flaming Pie and Driving Rain. If you’re a Paul fan and liked those records, you’ll like this one.

Screw Christgua. History has proven and continues to prove you wrong on McCartney. Greatest mind of the last 400 years. Really.

Paul is as good as Lennon and Dylan. He is the man who wrote Let It Be, Hey Jude, Helter Skelter, Yesterday(The most coverd son in history), Get Back. His success proves this guy is wrong.

Paul is as good as Lennon and Dylan. He is the man who wrote Let It Be, Hey Jude, Helter Skelter, Yesterday(The most coverd son in history), Get Back. His success proves this guy is wrong.

Paul McCartney is the MAN!!!! And I listen to what the man said. It really is a shame that the albums that Paul has put out since Flowers In The Dirt are better than alot of Wings albums and get no where near the attention. Anyway, this one is up with Chaos & Flaming Pie. Thnks, Paul.

That guy really seems to be off base with that denouncement of McCartney as a songwriter. There seems to be a bit of bitterness motivating that statement.

RS critics are failed musicians who’s bitterness stems from the fact that they’re all uncool, nerdy hacks making a living off someone else’s life.Pathetic!

This album ALMOST rocks sometimes.Hope he lowers ticket prices if he tours again.

Paul’s new album is better than 3 and a half stars…psh. Nod Your Head isnt as good as That Was Me, or even See Your Sunshine…
I like this album just as much as Chaos and Creation, just as much as I like Band On The Run…it’s a great album.

Old man is just jealous that Paul still has it!

I have an old RS album review book from 1969 and they slammed Abbey Road at the time. They of course came around (yrs. later) but critics make $ from readers like us hating their review and than commenting on it (like I am now!)

Paul McCartney’s strength is pop songcraft, and he more than admirably accomplished that on this CD. Christgau mentions that Mac doesn’t have “great ideas” or “the level of sophistication” or “instincts” of some of his fellow contemporary songwriters. Let’s look at the latest CDs of three of those artists: Bob Dylan’s latest is really good but relies on blues structures and shows little melodic contruction; Neil Young’s is hard-edged, politically driven rock/folk with little melodic inventiveness; and Lou Reed’s is four new-agey cuts to meditate to or do tai chi to–no melodic structure or inventiveness at all.

McCartney on the other hand is well ensconced in the milieu he knows well: pop song craft. This CD is his strongest piece of work since Band on the Run and even the last Beatles albums. The songs are catchy and memorable–while he may not have the deepest lyrics (he never has, by the way), his songs touch on some of the facets of life we all experience: love, remorse, and memories–albeit in his own simplistic pop fashion.

This is a solid 4 1/2 star effort.

lou reed in the same sentence with McCartney?
Put down the crack pipe and move away from the computer.
Adults don’t children write reviews…this set of songs stands up with anything Mccartney has done from start to finish…
forget about his age, forget about his money, forget about his number ones…
this album is train smoke!

I’ve been a fan of McCartney, Beatles, Wings etc from all the way back. Sometimes sacrificing to buy, but……Paul’s(with “Memory Almost Full” has disappointed me for the last time. Paul, please retire.

So anyway, the Long Blondes album is pretty good

Paul McCartney wrote, or co-wrote, in his first year or two of success, more good songs than most any songwriter writes in a career considered good — I Saw Her Standing There, All My Loving, I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, There’s a Place, etc. His prodigious early work set an impossible standard for him or anyone else to meet, let along exceed, yet he often has — Here, There and Everywhere, Penny Lane, Get Back, Eleanor Rigby, Back in the USSR, as well as later solo songs — Junk, Maybe I’m Amazed, If You Were Here Today, etc.
His body of work is simply amazing. Yes, I’ve often been disappointed with the content of many of his albums, but the fact that he can still put out quality work 40 plus years after he began writing is remarkable, and anyone who reads Geoff Emerick’s book on working with the Beatles will realize that the true musical genius in the Beatles was McCartney.

Kate Jackson not Kate Chapman.
If you’re going get on your high horse and spout off at least get the girl’s name right…

Its scary to think these chaps are actually involved at any level with music journalism. rolling stone is a god awful music magazine.