Memory Almost Full has aged very well
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Atrocious? Throw away quality? Not to my ears. I love Memory Almost Full. I'll take Nod Your Head, Ever Present Past, and House of Wax over A Certain Softness, English Tea, and Jenny Wren every single day!
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wingsoverkc:
Atrocious? Throw away quality? Not to my ears. I love Memory Almost Full. I'll take Nod Your Head, Ever Present Past, and House of Wax over A Certain Softness, English Tea, and Jenny Wren every single day!
Me too. I have tried repeatedly to listen to Chaos and just don't like it. MAF was a return to the rocking Paul I love. Even though I don't care for Gratitude, the rest of the album is top notch.
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TommyC909:
My complaint about MAF is a common one. The sound is atrocious. As far as sound goes (not song quality) it's Paul's All Things Must Pass.
Same. The thought of having to listen to the songs already pains me. At least the ATMP Spector Wall Of Sound had its charm. MAF is just a digital sonically nightmare, the worst sounding record I own with songs I for the majority love.
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Reading the above posts I'm surprised that MAF doesn't stand for Marmite Almost Full !!!
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Kestrel:
Reading the above posts I'm surprised that MAF doesn't stand for Marmite Almost Full !!!
Haha, the sound, the sound, not the songs! (Although I personally highly prefer the songs and production on 'Chaos And Creation', and think David Kahne is a non-match for McCartney.)
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TommyC909:
My complaint about MAF is a common one. The sound is atrocious. As far as sound goes (not song quality) it's Paul's All Things Must Pass.
I agree re: quality of the sound on the album. But the quality of the songs overcomes this drawback for me, unlike what some others have posted. That said, I really wish George Martin had done the string arrangement for "The End of the End." The production on that song has always felt like a huge missed opportunity.
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Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
My complaint about MAF is a common one. The sound is atrocious. As far as sound goes (not song quality) it's Paul's All Things Must Pass.
I agree re: quality of the sound on the album. But the quality of the songs overcomes this drawback for me, unlike what some others have posted. That said, I really wish George Martin had done the string arrangement for "The End of the End." The production on that song has always felt like a huge missed opportunity.
Plus the piano on The End of the End sounds like a toy. Compare it to the piano on This Never Happened Before, Wanderlust, Single Pigeon, Back Seat of My Car or any other song not on MAF.
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TommyC909:
Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
My complaint about MAF is a common one. The sound is atrocious. As far as sound goes (not song quality) it's Paul's All Things Must Pass.
I agree re: quality of the sound on the album. But the quality of the songs overcomes this drawback for me, unlike what some others have posted. That said, I really wish George Martin had done the string arrangement for "The End of the End." The production on that song has always felt like a huge missed opportunity.
Plus the piano on The End of the End sounds like a toy. Compare it to the piano on This Never Happened Before, Wanderlust, Single Pigeon, Back Seat of My Car or any other song not on MAF.
I recall reading that this was a conscious decision by Paul to use an upright rather than a grand, which gives a bigger, fuller sound, so we can't blame this on Kahne. I agree with you, though, that a deeper, fuller piano sound would have helped. Some of what a good producer does involves saving an artist from their worst impulses, and I don't think Kahne really does that for Paul.
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Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
Plus the piano on The End of the End sounds like a toy. Compare it to the piano on This Never Happened Before, Wanderlust, Single Pigeon, Back Seat of My Car or any other song not on MAF.
I recall reading that this was a conscious decision by Paul to use an upright rather than a grand, which gives a bigger, fuller sound, so we can't blame this on Kahne. I agree with you, though, that a deeper, fuller piano sound would have helped. Some of what a good producer does involves saving an artist from their worst impulses, and I don't think Kahne really does that for Paul.
Didn't he write that song on his father's piano? An upright might have been more appropriate, given the emotional context. I don't think he was going for a grand sweeping Mantovani sound.
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Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
My complaint about MAF is a common one. The sound is atrocious. As far as sound goes (not song quality) it's Paul's All Things Must Pass.
I agree re: quality of the sound on the album. But the quality of the songs overcomes this drawback for me, unlike what some others have posted. That said, I really wish George Martin had done the string arrangement for "The End of the End." The production on that song has always felt like a huge missed opportunity.
Plus the piano on The End of the End sounds like a toy. Compare it to the piano on This Never Happened Before, Wanderlust, Single Pigeon, Back Seat of My Car or any other song not on MAF.
I recall reading that this was a conscious decision by Paul to use an upright rather than a grand, which gives a bigger, fuller sound, so we can't blame this on Kahne. I agree with you, though, that a deeper, fuller piano sound would have helped. Some of what a good producer does involves saving an artist from their worst impulses, and I don't think Kahne really does that for Paul.
Paul may have actually played an upright piano but my upright sounds far better than the sound on that recording. Same as my acoustic guitar sounds superior to what is heard at the beginning of Feet in the Clouds. I'm not letting Kahne off the hook. I'm only hoping that someday when MAF is reissued the sound can be fixed. Then I can play House of Wax for friends without them making faces when they hear the clipping.
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I still find it quite ironic that Paul's best sounding album is still Band On The Run, recorded 43 years ago in a tin shack on borrowed equipment in Africa. I'm not sure if I should be or ?
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That's your subjective opinion which some won't share, Kestral. I would have liked for some of the upbeat pop tunes on MAF to have been on "Chaos" and vice versa for the pensive introspective "Chaos" fare. Might have been an interesting intriguing mix. Which is not to say both albums don't have their merits and high points.
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Listened to this again recently and whilst some of the songs are good and poppy, it sounds frikkin awful, crazy loud. I was wondering (hoping) that the loudness had been sorted on the MAF selections on Pure McCartney?
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SusyLuvsPaul:
That's your subjective opinion which some won't share, Kestral.
A 'subjective opinion' supported by the fact that Geoff Emerick received the grammy for the best engineered recording for a non-classical album for his work on Band On The Run.
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I'll take Loud (Memory Almost Full) over Pensive ( Chaos) every single day of the week!!
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This Paul album is too hot. This Paul album is too cold. This one is too soft. This one is too firm. Only that one he did when I was growing up is just right.
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I listened to this album three times today. It will never grow old to me. Mr. Bellamy is my favorite song on this one and also Dance Tonight. House of Wax sounds pretty cool to me too.
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HaileyMcComet:
Bruce M.:
TommyC909:
Plus the piano on The End of the End sounds like a toy. Compare it to the piano on This Never Happened Before, Wanderlust, Single Pigeon, Back Seat of My Car or any other song not on MAF.
I recall reading that this was a conscious decision by Paul to use an upright rather than a grand, which gives a bigger, fuller sound, so we can't blame this on Kahne. I agree with you, though, that a deeper, fuller piano sound would have helped. Some of what a good producer does involves saving an artist from their worst impulses, and I don't think Kahne really does that for Paul.
Didn't he write that song on his father's piano? An upright might have been more appropriate, given the emotional context. I don't think he was going for a grand sweeping Mantovani sound.
True, written on that piano. Played on the "Lady Madonna piano" at Abbey Road. "Mrs. Mills", the 1905 Steinway Vertegrand piano. The story was he did 3 takes, and they used one of those takes in full. Well, in typical 'Memory Almost Full'-fashion, the first 15 seconds alone has a sloppy edit, not even to mention the vocal track which has a hard punch-in at 0:01 instead of either being faded in or being put on from the moment the piano kicks in and the song starts... Same happens before his whistling during the solo: a hard punch-in AND a sloppy edit on the vocal track, they went for the double-whammy. Zero audio quality control on this release.
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HaileyMcComet:
This seems to be the pattern with Paul albums. When they come out, his fans either love them or hate them. Ten years later, there are a lot more in the love category. Twenty years later, they're all classics.
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I've been enjoying it rather more of late than I did upon release. It's still bottom drawer McCartney though - kind of a guilty pleasure.