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Fire On Babylon - Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012
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Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 | 10:18

Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full

a co-worker lent me McCartney's album "Memory Almost Full" today. he doesn't like it. he's comparing it to McCartney's older stuff, and he's very disappointed with this. sure, if you think of the Beatles you'll be appalled at how terrible this disc sounds. it's not just the spotty songwriting--McCartney's always been mediocre--it's the overbright production too. at times the songs seem lazy, and at times they're layered marvels, if you like late seventies prog-pop like Supertramp or ELO. McCartney should have had Jeff Lynne produce this, to cover up the holes in his songwriting. at times the production reaches that grandiosity, but there's almost no low end and everything's compressed to hell.

i get it, this is an album about growing old, but it's also a collection of tossed off or leftover songs, almost a clearing of the vaults. in his twenties Paul wrote "When I'm 64", and it felt whimsical and fun. he goes for the same feel here and ends up with trite and boring. i want to say dull, but everything shines. even the strings are made of brass. i probably give this album more credit than the co-worker who lent it me: i wouldn't listen to it again but it has moments i can get behind. that almost makes it worse, that he'd tease us with flashes of decent songs, even pretty good bits, but then give us the dregs of his wasted talent. i can't tell how much of this album is crap songwriting and how much is decent songwriting ruined by conflicted production. remind me to think twice about getting any David Kahne-produced album.

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