Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

[scrivener]

If you've been in a Starbucks in the last twenty-four hours, you've heard at least part of it. If you've been listening to KPOI, you've almost certainly heard the first single.

I worked for a few hours at Starbucks last night and decided the album was worth a purchase, especially after a brief discussion about it with ZZType. Then I saw that eMusic.com has it (I'm a subscriber), so it was my first download of the month.

I like it. It seems like the right album from Paul, at this time in his life. I don't think it's a classic, and it will not replace classic Paul in anyone's hearts, but it's good, quality, catchy, poppy, rock and roll. Pretty much what you'd expect.

I'm going to give it several more listens before giving it a detailed review, but I?m curious about whether anyone else here has listened. What are your early impressions?

[dakine]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

If you've been in a Starbucks in the last twenty-four hours, you've heard at least part of it. If you've been listening to KPOI, you've almost certainly heard the first single.

It's a cool sinlge heard lately on kpoi. a current classic as they call it. good hook. ok lyrics. except.

"i have no time to be a decent lover."

bbboooo paul. you no need time fo dat. jes geev um.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/ever-pres...mccartney.html

[tikiyaki]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

I heard it in my starbux stop this morning.

Must say, what a great business move on his part....I mean, every starbux in the country playing it on loop today.

That being said...I like the 2 songs I heard, and paul is basically giving the people what they want.....The one song I heard had a full on white album production...raw, Paul's voice sounded really strained...it very much reminded me of "Why don't we do it in the road ?" from that album.

Pretty cool...I think Flaming Pie was a great record, and his first foray back into classic beatle-esque writing.

Now if he could write another "uncle albert/admiral halsey" or "Band on the Run", I'll be knockin peple out of the way to buy it.

[dakine]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

yes. very smart move to hook up with starbux.


and if he could replicate Uncle albert kine stuffs. yea man.

love that song.

also my brave face was good a while ago. he's got it, had it, and always will, i suppose...

[MonkeyMan]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

Yeah, I pre-ordered it on iTunes and got notified last night that it was ready for download. Grabbed it and already gave it 4 listens.

The iTunes deluxe album came with a 30-minute interview where Paul talks about each of the songs on the record and gives some background on how he came up with it or what triggered or inspired the song. It also came with a music video for Dance Tonight.

The music is good. I ran the album in the background while working on other tasks, but found myself several times stopping what I was doing to refocus on the music or the lyrics or just the neat sounds coming out of the speakers!

Plenty of old Wings-sounding stuff there. See Your Sunshine comes to mind. Several of the songs sounded as if a new, improved, more experienced Linda was singing with him!

Only Mama Knows sounds like it came from the 70s, maybe another James Bond soundtrack! Good, solid rock guitar.

That Was Me became even more special after listening to the interview. "Me" is Paul speaking of his memories and experiences at many times in his life, from early childhood all the way to present.

There are plenty of other gems on the album. Lots of stuff to make you stop and say, "Hmmmm." Very nice. Very nice.

Overall, I say go get it. If you like McCartney's other stuff, don't hesitate. It is as good, or better than many of Sir Paul's other efforts.

One beef about the iTunes download: It included a "digital booklet" which is supposed to be a complete PDF of the CD's printed material. But what I got was a PDF of a partial booklet, with two, LARGE promos suggesting that I go to paulmccartney.com to see how the booklet "should" look. They should have included the complete booklet. That was disappointing.



Go listen to some of the clips:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...36215&s=143441

[tikiyaki]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

Wow, MM, thanx for the in-depth review...sounds like Paul is really going for the vintage sounds on the record...makes me very happy to hear that. I think I'm gonna ge the iTunes download.

[mel]

Re: Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

I bought the regular CD just yesterday from BestBuy. They're selling it for $10. There is an enhanced CD there for $23, but I decided to pass on that. I just gave it a quick listen tonight. Will later on transfer the content to iTunes so I can listen to the songs more often when I am on the go or elsewhere.

I guess Paul is more of a solo artist these days especially since Linda is long gone. I kind of miss her singing background vocals as well as members of Wings or other musicians McCartney has played with over the years. On casual first listen I almost got the feeling that this was another one of those entirely home made albums, like the original McCartney from 1970 and McCartney II from 1980.

I'm sure like most of Sir Paul's other music, this will grow on me with repeated plays.