| Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full Deluxe Edition |
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| Posted by Bert Saraco |
02:03 PM Tuesday, 25 December 2007 |
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 When Paul McCartney released his sophomore solo project, Ram, in 1971, the title referred to an animal with big horns, and ‘memory' was a mental process that would become less reliable as a person got a bit older. All these years later, in the computer age, those words have new meanings, but the prospect of new music from a Beatle (alright - a former Beatle) still generates the same old interest and excitement. Paul McCartney's latest release, the wonderfully-titled Memory Almost Full (how is it that nobody else thought of that title yet?) shows the master pop-smith getting more experimental, and somewhat introspective in his sixties. McCartney has always been a commercially viable artist (he was ‘the cute one' of the Beatles, remember) and a skilled singer/songwriter/instrumentalist. In many ways this has worked against his creative credentials, as he seemed always able to reliably whip up ‘silly love songs' that would climb right up the charts practically upon release - and do so with relative ease and little blood, sweat or tears. McCartney suffered the fate of the terrifically talented - he was so good at his craft that it often seemed more like craft than art. Through the post-Beatle years, it became more and more apparent that the parts, which added up to the sum of the Beatles, would further be defined by the body of solo work: John being the flawed but brilliant artist; George, the thoughtful, spiritual musician; Ringo, the affable entertainer, and Paul; the camera-ready, audience-pleasing showman. Paul's role served him in good stead financially, although his solo work has often (and not without reason) been thought of as artistically weak in light of some of his classics like "Yesterday," or even his earliest solo pieces, like "Maybe I'm Amazed."
On Memory Almost Full, we get to see McCartney branching out more creatively than he has in a while, resulting in a collection of tracks that range from "Dance Tonight," the trite throw-away single, which starts the album off (and it will no-doubt be a hit), to the ambitious and complex "Only Mama Knows," to the introspective "The End of the End." Six of the thirteen tracks feature McCartney on all vocals and instruments, as he did on his very first solo album, while on the remaining tracks he's aided by Paul Wickens on keys, Rusty Anderson on guitar, Brian Ray on bass and guitar, and, Abe Laboriel, Jr. on drums. The CD starts out in a purely pop mode, with the bouncy, catchy "Ever Present Past" following on the heels of "Dance Tonight," and here I have to mention that I'm starting to get a bit uncomfortable hearing McCartney in his mid-sixties singing lyrics like, "Oooh, what you do to me, Bay-bee," as he does in "See Your Sunshine," complete with very Wings-like vocal harmony. Paul dramatically vindicates himself as a ‘string' introduction starts the powerful "Only Mama Knows," with its complex rhythms and interesting structure - this is the first real ‘band' track on the project and it comes across as a very powerful, driving song with a great vocal by McCartney. "You Tell Me" follows, with Paul stretching his vocal range to good effect on a wistful song about days past. Things get more interesting (and less commercial) with "Mr. Bellamy," a whimsical story-song that uses piano and orchestration to good, and refreshingly quirky, effect. The songs from this point to the end of the project vary in style, often featuring bits of distinctly Beatle-esque harmony and chord changes (and why not?). The last song, "Nod Your Head," is a straight -out rocker that sounds like a distant cousin to "Helter Skelter," and is preceded by what many people will consider the most heartfelt and mature song in Paul's repertoire: "The End of the End" has McCartney reflecting on his own mortality, singing, "At the end of the end / it's the start of a journey, to a much better place ...and this wasn't bad." Perhaps Paul has really learned that the love you take is equal to the love you make - or maybe he's learned that love isn't an equal equation at all, but a journey toward contentment. Whatever he's learning, a reflective McCartney produces more interesting music. The Deluxe Edition contains three more songs, one of them being one of the best on the CD - "222." I have no idea what the title means, but this is Paul playing at some Vince Guaraldi inspired jazz riffs on the piano, and building an interesting mostly-instrumental piece punctuated by Prince-like falsetto vocal phrases: also included are "Why So Blue," and the very good instrumental track, "In Private," which, along with "222" certainly deserves more than ‘bonus track' status. The DVD disc included in the Deluxe Edition contains two concept videos (the lackluster, poorly conceived "Dance," and the interestingly-choreographed, well shot "Ever Present Past") and live concert footage featuring the Beatles' "Drive My Car," and McCartney's "Only Mama Knows," "Dance Tonight," "House of Wax," and "Nod Your Head," from Memory Almost Full. All in all, it seems that McCartney has done well to look deeper inside - he's produced some very meaningful work on this project. There's some good memory there, Paul... thankfully, the delete key must've malfunctioned. ‘Memory' is better than ‘Ram.' |
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