699 Paul McCartney - McCartney II (1980)

Home-Recorded Album - Experimental Pop

About the Act:

Paul McCartney was a relatively unknown singer who has had very little success.

About the Album:

In 1970, Macca released a solo album called McCartney, on which he played all of the instruments. In the summer of 1979 He recorded 20 songs in his house in Scotland. In 1980, as Wings were closing down, he released 11 of them as the imaginatively titled "McCartney II". This is that album.

My History with this Album:

None.

Review:

This is an odd album. At the time it confused critics, and I can see why. This is Paul playing around with things in his Scottish home, recording everything except some backing vocals himself. There is a sense in which he is messing about with the gear and seeing what he can do. He used the kitchen and the bathroom as drum reverb chambers, and used quite a lot of synth sounds, and maybe drum machines, and even sequencers. This was quite early for this kind of music, and some of it has been seen as precursors to chiptune music.

There are 11 songs, and they break down like this:

Coming Up is Electrofunk (quite good) and might be about E.D. It was released as a single and was a major hit. I remember when it was in the charts. I also remember somebody on the radio saying they misread the words as "Tommy Yoghurt".

"Temporary Secretary" has sequenced synth notes that sound like a 1960s idea of a computer working. It baffled the critics when it was released as a single, and didn't do very well. I also remember it being released and Paul being interviewed about what it was about. Basically, it is, as you would imagine, about temping, but not necessarily focused on the secretarial skills of the temps.

"On The Way" sounds like an Eric Clapton slow blues song.

"Waterfalls" is probably the best known song from the album, and is a slow ballad. It is stuck in my head now.

Nobody Knows is kind of like Rock n Roll.

Front Parlour is an instrumental, with some very odd processing on the drums (maybe flanging?) and I found it dull.

Summer's Day Song is another slow ballad, with minimum instrumentation and maximum vocal harmonies.

Frozen Jap is another instrumental, which is kind of mushy with a bit of synth tune. I found it very dull.

Bogey Music is another Rock n Roll song, sounding a bit like Elvis.

Darkroom is another kind of techno-sounding pop-ish song, with a slice of Funk.

One of these days is a third slow ballad with vocal harmonies and stripped-back instrumentation.

Apart from the three ballads, the main themes here are quite heavy processing, especially on the vocals. He has quite a distinctive voice, and seems to be trying to hide that. He uses American accents quite a bit, and heavy mushing, and strong echoes at times. The words are often quite indistinct as a result. It definitely sounds like somebody messing about, but of course when it is Paul McCartney that is messing about you get songs. In this case, quite odd songs. In retrospect, some of the things he did became more commonplace so it probably doesn't sound as odd as it did, but it does still sound odd, and mostly not like Paul McCartney.

As I listened to Waterfalls for the second time (not back-to-back, but listened to the album twice, which is my normal process) I was not sure if I liked it or disliked it. It's very simple, and actually quite banal (certainly lyrically), and the tune is really simple, but it sticks in your head. I think that if Macca is a genius, then this is where that genius lies, simple and effective tunes. The song is quite banal though.

So my response is mixed. I like Coming Up quite a bit, and Darkroom. I quite like Temporary Secretary. I was less of a fan of the ballads and the instrumentals.

7/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7eEYDv4xof4uQei8Y6SCzs

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSHq9y36AwpF_P-d_BnZib7RBdVBA_DQ

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCartney_II