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David Dixon (June 5, 2014)
You can chart McCartney's deterioration as a songwriting force by the decline in people willing to take time out of their days to submit these free reviews.
The older he's gotten the less able he has to become to disguise what Ringo accurately described as his "pleasantly insincere" personality. No Beatle ever showed quite as instinctive an attraction to public relations as Paul did. He continued with this quality decades after the group and half of it's members were gone. It's no longer cute to see a 72 year old man trying to come off as the cute Beatle. It's a trifle embarrassing to watch.
As for this album, it becomes ever more clear that McCartney lost the muse years ago. In its place, he has truly emerged as a real musical craftsman. The positive side of this is that most of his songs are carefully constructed to fit within accepted musical forms and virtually all would pass muster in classes dedicated to musical composition (no small feat for a man who still cannot really read music).
The negative side is that most of his recent work is joyless and artificial. Really, when Paul writes about riding the green bus home from work how can anyone continue to give him any credence as a lyricist? One of the reasons Lennon's music endured (and I personally never rated Lennon as high as I rated McCartney as a talent) was because his lyrics seemed not only more personal but also more real (except ironically for Imagine - it's fun to take advice on socialism from the only multi-millionaire in the room).
The closest Paul ever seems to have gotten was the line from the song London Town: "People pass me by on my imaginary street
Ordinary people it's impossible to meet. Holding conversations that are always incomplete, well I don't know...."
As for the album, New is an okay song except Paul's voice is past its prime and pretty much lets the song down. Beyond this, only Appreciate seems to hold any real spark or hope of promise. The rest of the album is close to unlistenable.
The older he's gotten the less able he has to become to disguise what Ringo accurately described as his "pleasantly insincere" personality. No Beatle ever showed quite as instinctive an attraction to public relations as Paul did. He continued with this quality decades after the group and half of it's members were gone. It's no longer cute to see a 72 year old man trying to come off as the cute Beatle. It's a trifle embarrassing to watch.
As for this album, it becomes ever more clear that McCartney lost the muse years ago. In its place, he has truly emerged as a real musical craftsman. The positive side of this is that most of his songs are carefully constructed to fit within accepted musical forms and virtually all would pass muster in classes dedicated to musical composition (no small feat for a man who still cannot really read music).
The negative side is that most of his recent work is joyless and artificial. Really, when Paul writes about riding the green bus home from work how can anyone continue to give him any credence as a lyricist? One of the reasons Lennon's music endured (and I personally never rated Lennon as high as I rated McCartney as a talent) was because his lyrics seemed not only more personal but also more real (except ironically for Imagine - it's fun to take advice on socialism from the only multi-millionaire in the room).
The closest Paul ever seems to have gotten was the line from the song London Town: "People pass me by on my imaginary street
Ordinary people it's impossible to meet. Holding conversations that are always incomplete, well I don't know...."
As for the album, New is an okay song except Paul's voice is past its prime and pretty much lets the song down. Beyond this, only Appreciate seems to hold any real spark or hope of promise. The rest of the album is close to unlistenable.
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