This week Paul McCartney released his latest album but can you call it his latest if it was recorded 50 years ago? I really thought going into this review that it would be hard to get thru listening to the album, I mean I’ve heard some of these songs maybe 1000 times but surprisingly the freshness of the arrangements make this album is a must for any Paul McCartney or Beatles fan.
When I gave it the first listen, I thought “this is like a concert without an audience”. You know what I mean, you go see a show and the artist changes that hit song just slightly to whatever whim they ae feeling that night and it throws off the song. I’m not saying it in a bad way, it’s just different and that is what listening to this album is like, you know the songs by heart but they are now fresh and new again.
The songs feel “lighter” and the band and especially Paul sounds like they are having fun playing them. Not all of the songs are “great” there’s no way that can happen in the freeform style this was recorded and the fact out of 26 tracks (or 32 with the bonus tracks) some are not going to be as good as other ones or the version we know. “C Moon” / “Little Woman Love” is a track that definitely comes to mind. At the end of the song Paul says “I thought that was great I thought”. I have to disagree with Paul on that and even though it’s just a snippet of the song, “The Long And Winding Road” should never be played around with, it’s almost “sacrilegious” to change it.
Listening to “Live And Let Live” and this stripped-down version is great considering I don’t really like the version released in 1973. The version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” is simply put, amazing. Some other highlights for me are “Bluebird” which I think I like better than the version off of the “Band On The Run” album. “Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five”, “Hi, Hi, Hi”, “Juniors Farm” and “Jet” with it’s faster pace are all versions that are going on my playlist.
Memories fade over time and sometimes you forget what was really good at the time. Listening to this album it made me realize just how good Paul McCartney And Wings really were. Forgotten after all this time was that right after this album was recorded and shelved Wings went out on their “Wings Over the World” tour and played to over a million fans. Over time Wings has kind of been pushed as just a footnote in McCartney’s amazing career but this album shows what a great band it really was.
