Customer Reviews

Mccartney

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

When Paul McCartney released his first solo album and the first true solo studio album by a Beatle in 1970, it was almost universally panned. While it certainly doesn't matchup with any of the Beatles albums, it has aged better than alot of the music of the time. Mr. McCartney recorded the album at his farm and its greatest asset is the simple, down-home feel that permeates it. You can almost picture the newly married and new father just tooling around the house and living the country life and whenever the mood struck him, laying down a new track. He plays all the instruments and other than some backing vocals by Linda, sings all the songs. There are several instrumentals on the album and a couple of songs like "Man We Was Lonely" that are basically just a couple of lines sung over and over, but "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a true gem. The song ranks up there with anything he's done in his solo career and a wouldn't be slighted by songs in the Beatles catalog. Other standout tracks include the sweet "Every Night", "Singalong Junk" & "That Would Be Something".

There tend to be two prevailing views of this album, as there are with the Beatles album "Let it Be." One is that this is a bunch of amateurish noodlings done at home, with one or two good songs thrown in to give it credibility, and released out of sheer arrogance that everyone would want to hear it because it's by a famous person. The other view is that this is a classic album, displaying McCartney's viruosity as an all-around musician, as well as a funky kind of devil-may-care experimentation. In truth, there is validity to both points of view. Only two tracks are really polished or radio-ready: "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Every Night." Then there are the Beatle leftovers, "Junk" and "Teddy Boy," which feature excellent melodies. Then there are weird one-offs like "Kreen Akrore" that aren't worth listening to every time. Yet the album does stand as an important testament to the man's mindset at this crucial pivot in his career, and in some ways it stands as a portrait of domestic bliss rather like Lennon's "Double Fantasy" did ten years later. If you are a Paul fan, you will love this album's intimacy.

This is a McCartney solo album in every way. Not only did he write all the songs himself, but he also did every instrument on the album. This is probably still my favourite McCartney solo album just for the loving simplicity of the songs. Here is a man who has just found not only the love of his life and every single song on this album reflects that. Highlights on the album are "Every Night" (my favourite track), "OO You", "Momma Miss America", "Man We Was Lonely", "That Would Be Something" and "Maybe I'm Amazed". This is a terrific album from a man who embraces love songs that I feel are far from being "Silly". And I would take this album over "Imagine" anyday.

This album is so comforting. I don't know what's up with people who rate this album with 3 stars. The instrumentals are very good. The bass lines was very melodical. Very well played instruments. What struck me about this album what how it's feel and sound was very different than the Beatles. Do this: plug in the white album. And listen..... can't you feel the tension and the pain that is expressed through the music. And Abbey Road....you can still feel it. John's yokoish lyrics and music. McCartney is beatiful. It is so laid back, but not to laid back to filter out the quality of his music. Buy this album.

Paul McCartney's 1970 solo debut is a groundbreaking masterpiece of home recording. With The Beatles facing their ultimate demise, Paul began recording this album in the privacy of his own home using a four-track tape machine and playing all the instruments himself. With the exception of some backing harmonies from Linda McCartney, this album is entirely a Paul effort from the music all the way down to the cover artwork.
The music itself is an eclectic mix of Paul's melodic pop, acoustic folk, heavy rockers and experimental instrumentals. The opening track, the short love song "The Lovely Linda" was recorded by Paul to test his four-track. If you listen carefully, there is a door squeaking in the background.
"That Would Be Something", "Every Night" and "Man We Was Lonely" are fun simple songs with childlike 'sing-along' choruses.
"Junk" and "Teddy Boy" are leftovers from previous Beatles albums. Both of these tracks stem from the "White Album" and "Let It Be" periods. Because these two tracks were vetoed by the other three Beatles, Paul made fresh recordings of these songs for this album. "Singalong Junk" is an instrumental reprise of "Junk" and shows off the songs exquisite and simple melody.
"Oo You" is a solid heavy blues rocker which has a sound that crosses between Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin. Paul gives heavy vocal delivery on this track recalling his musical heroes Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
"Maybe I'm Amazed" is consider by many to be the hit off this album. Although it was not released as a single until 1976, this song is truly a standout and is still one of Paul's all-time best songs. Definitely a classic piece of pop songwriting.
The instrumental tracks on this album are quite varied and show Paul's willingness to experiment with new and unusual sounds. "Valentine Day" is a short improvised piece with a slight blues influence. "Hot As Sun" is also short and has a bright pleasant melody harmonized with two lead guitars. "Glasses" is probably Paul's most experimental piece released at the time. It consists soley of the sound of water glasses being rubbed at the tops creating eerie ghost-like tones. The track ends with a fragment of an unfinished song which was initially called "Suicide". "Momma Miss America" sounds as if it were two different pieces put together. The first part features Paul's steady drumbeat and has a heavily piano-based motiff. The second part is more bluesy and features Paul delivering some stellar lead guitar.
The closing track "Kreen-Akrore" is also quite experimental and features a tribal drumbeat, jungle sounds, odd harmonized vocals, solid guitar work and even a drum solo. Quite a finale to an adventerous album.
Although it garnered some negative criticism when it was first released, "McCartney" has gone on to be one of the most revolutionary albums ever made, one of the first to be made entirely at an artist's home as opposed to a recording studio. It is definitely a work of genius. Paul's talents as a multi-instrumentalist are at the forefront here.
This album definitely can be used as a guide for musicians who would like to make their own record at home. If Paul McCartney can do it, anyone can.
A highly recommended CD.

I first picked this LP up back in 81 just after McCartney II came out and Columbia records reissued it on LP. I was not very impressed. I listed to it every now and then and found myself starting to like some of songs that at first I considered boring. I just replaced the Columbia LP due to the demise of my record player with the EMI CD and listened to it for the first time in years. Wow, what a great record, very personal, raw, and telling of the current state of mind that Paul was in. Perhaps John and George started their Post Beatle career with better releases, but any fan of the Beatles will see the quality of the songs and understand it in the context it should be taken in. Paul doing it all with some vocal help from Linda, having fun, and releasing a few songs that to this day hold up as well as any Beatle tunes.

Those who attack this album because of its laid back feel, instrumentals and "unfinished" feel are attacking exactly what makes this album so charming. Those who say that this is McCartney's "Plastic Ono Band" might have a point. McCartney was determined to avoid the grandiosity of the Pepper/Abbey Road productions and went for an honest, homespun feel. It allows the melodies and McCartney's instinctual musicianship to come to the fore. This album has a lot of charm, and is still one of my favorite McCartney albums to listen to. I wouldn't want to listen to Maybe I'm Amazed in any other context. It works so well here.

This is a fantastic, raw, and intimate disc made during turbulent times for Paul, the rest of the Beatles, and their fans. There are several strong tracks on this such as "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Every Night"(an all too often overlooked McCartney classic), and "That Would Be Something". I'd also like to point out that the review further down the page from a supposed "music fan from New York" has a lot of false facts in it-it's perfectly fine to not like an album, but get your facts straight first. This album sold extremely well, as it should have, and eventually knocked "Let It Be" out of the number one spot on the charts. It's a great Cd and well worth the money.

When McCartney appeared in May 1970 it was roundly savaged for not being Son Of Abbey Road. Two decades later we can accept it for what it is: a low-key, homemade album of considerable charm. Paul plays pretty much all the instruments, with the accent being on acoustic guitars, and there's a kind of folkish air about it that's immediately appealing. If I have a criticism, it's that there's not a lot of truly great *songs* here (exception: the five-star classic Maybe I'm Amazed). Then again, maybe that's not the point. Like Dylan's Nashville Skyline or The Kinks' Village Green, it's the *mood* of the album that casts a magic spell over you, rather than any individual track. Terribly underrated. Several of the songs -- Teddy Boy, Every Night, Junk -- began life as Beatles cast-offs, and one -- Hot As Sun -- dates back to the early days of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team. Fittingly enough, Paul included a fair whack of this album in his 1991 Unplugged set.

Great expectations killed this album. I was a teenager when this album was first released in 1970 and can tell you that people wanted a major Beatle-type production from him at that time. Obviously, there was no way he could have lived up to the publics' expectation. However, 'McCartney' is a great album and was not appreciated like it should have been at the time. I like every song on the album, and after recently listening to it again a few times, I find Paul is still very much a "Beatle" on both 'McCartney' AND 'Ram'. While the tracks sound a bit raw and have Linda on background vocals, both 'McCartney" AND 'Ram' have a Beatle feel to them. Very different than his Wings' sound. I find both Albums interesting for their Beatle-istic sound alone. Basically, if you like the Beatles, you'll like 'McCartney' and 'Ram'. They both sound great! P.S. I'm not a McCartney fanatic. I believe he began his downslide with his 'Wings at the Speed of Sound' album. With the exceptions of of a few tracks on that album, he really hasn't been the same since.