NEW.. The best Macca Solo Studio Pop Rock Album since:
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Best album since Tug of War. Unfortunately nothing resembling the Tug of War title track, Wanderlust or Here Today is on NEW. It is craving something like that. The slower ones, Hosanna and Scared are terminally weak in comparison. Not in the ballpark. The only weak "link" on Tug of War is Be What You See. And I know they are steeped in an 80's-feel, but I like the Stevie Wonder collaborations. And the Carl Perkins one. I put Tug of War a fair way ahead of NEW, but that is only because the former is pretty hard to measure against. I think there are better individual songs since Tug of War than those on NEW, but NEW is his best balanced album in 30 years.
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NEW is not in the same league as Tug Of War to compare the two and say NEW is better overall is silly , yes individual songs you can say are better I prefer Early Days to Here Today . Tug of War is an 80's classic and even though Ebony & Ivory is cheesy it showed that Paul still had the knack back then to write a global mega selling # 1 single . The songs are strong on NEW but there isn't a big hit song on it that will be remembered like Ebony & Ivory , Queenie Eye which I really like won't be played endlessly in supermarkets or on radio
I like the flow of NEW it plays for me very much like London Town in that I like all the songs on both these albums , it's very much a middle ranking album in Paul's catalogue if I am honest . But then again what do I know I love McCartney ll
At the end of the day it's just great as a fan to get an album that holds my interest and gives me pleasure and NEW does that
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I would rank at this moment in time my top 1o Paul studio albums like this : 1. RAM 2. Electric Arguments 3. Band On The Run 4. Back To The Egg 5. Tug Of War 6. London Town 7. NEW 8. McCartney ll 9. Venus & Mars 10. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
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1.Ram 2.London Town 3.Speed Of Sound 4.Band On The Run 5.Venus and Mars 6.Electric Arguments 7.Tug Of War 8.McCartney 2 9.New
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I would argue that New may be Paul's best solo album period. I still have a soft spot for Venus and Mars as my favorite since he left The Beatles.
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B J Conlee:
BAND ON THE RUN*CONSISTENCY (How the songs flow from track to track and their quality) *OVERALL PRODUCTION (Working with the 4 younger worked great) *DIVERSITY (So many different styles but still having that classic MaccaPop-Rock focus) *NO CLUNKERS (1st half as great as any previous Macca CD; 2nd half is still very good) *NEW contains several "classics" (Early Days, New, Alligator, Queenie Eye)
I certainly have no intention of lambasting you and I do agree that New is one of Paul's most consistant albums in his solo canon,that the album is very diverse and that there are no 'clunkers' on the album. Where I would disagree with you is on the production ( I find the 'loudness wars', which has distorted and compressed the sound, to be an issue again) and also on what you hear as 'classics'. I hear alot of strongly melodic pop songs on the album but I doubt any will be heard on the radio in ten years time. And I don't think many professional recording artists will be covering them over in coming years either. I'm not sure where I would place New in my top 5 Paul McCartney solo albums. Maybe in third place behind 'Ram' and Chaos'? This excludes all the albums Paul has recorded as a member of the Beatles,Wings and the Firemen of course.
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I've always enjoyed Venus and Mars more than Band on the Run. So I think New is his best since Venus and Mars.
And I agree there are no clunkers on New. It's a great record.
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Great comments guys and ladies. As I said, this is very subjective and no one is wrong. Your comments does tell me how great and underrated Paul's Solo career is. Like some of you, I really like Back to the Egg but it is certainly not one of Paul's acclaimed albums. A couple of you mentioned Venus and Mars. I can't wait for that reissue. I never could find the '93 reissue and somewhere I lost my original cassette. Haven't heard it in full for years and maybe I might like that a little better than NEW. I should also probably give some more listens to Tug of War. I did love TOW in the early 80's. Still remember my daughter (she was about 2 years old) dancing around the living room to Ballroom Dancing. The bottom line is that everyone here gives NEW high marks and it is indeed a great addition to Macca's Solo career.
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I forgot to mention his album "Ram," it's one of my top faves too, I love and admire it even more than BOTR, in some ways. I'm not quite as keen on the "Venus and Mars" album as many are, here. That could change, with more close listenings. I'd rate "New" as highly as "Ram." It's cool they can't really be compared and are so different from each other.
Presently the novelty factor is elevating "New" above the others, in my estimation. It's something "new."
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My Top Ten Macca Solo Albums 1 Flaming Pie 2 Tug Of War 3 New 4 Venus and Mars 5 Band on the Run 6 Off The Groumd 7 Chaos And Creation In The Backyard 8 Driving Rain 9 Flowers In The Dirt 10 McCartney
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1. Chaos 2. BOTR 3. Flaming Pie 4. MAF 5. Off the Ground 6. VENUS and Mars 7. Ram 8. Flowers in the Dirt 9. McCartney 10. New
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oooh i always struggle to make a list, other than no 1 fave. but i'll give it a go, based on faves over the years, and the amount of times i still have them on... though i think "NEW" is still too errr new to give a true placing...
1. Ram 2. Chaos 3. Maf 4. McCartney 5. Red Rose Speedway 6. Press To Play 7. Off The Ground 8. London Town 9. oooooooh it's getting tricky - can i tie Flowers / speed / v+m / BTTE / Fpie 10. i guess this is shared with 9
my point is New is floating around in mid table for now, prob between 4 and 5. Too soon, but i'm pretty sure it'll stick around! But i do love every single Wings/solo Paul album and still listen to them all pretty regularly, so lists are difficult for me
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It's the best album since... Memory Almost Full. It actually ranks about equally with MAF. Both have one utter clunker (Gratitude and Looking At Her) 3 or 4 really inspired cuts (Mr. Bellamy, The End of the End, You Tell Me, On My Way to Work, Early Days, New), and a fair amount that's solid but not quite stellar. Neither is quite as good as Tug of War, which -- despite conventional wisdom -- is better than Band on the Run. That ought to set off a few screaming fits...
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More tomatoes Bruce!
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Still 5-6 albums from the 70's plus Tug of War that I'd put ahead of any of the albums post-1982. Band on the Run/Venus and Mars/Ram leading the pack.... Back to the Egg on their tails. A shame At the Speed of the Sound contained too many non-Paul tracks. A wasted opportunity.
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I'd say best since Chaos and Creation, and that's one of my all-time faves by him, but BJ, I do agree with your basic assessments of the compared albums. Really hard to do a Top 10, because they're all so close at the top, but here we go.... 1. Tug of War 2. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard 3. Band on the Run 4. Ram 5. London Town 6. Back to the Egg 7. New 8. Venus and Mars 9. Off the Ground 10. Electric Arguments
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Best since...... Memory Almost Full I really loved MAF but I am undecided which is better. Maybe New by a tad because it is fresher in my mind . I should play them back to back. Top 10 1. Ram 2. Band On The Run 3. Tug of War 4. New 5. Memory Almost Full 6. Driving Rain 7. Flaming Pie 8. Red Rose Speedway 9. Venus and Mars 10. Back To The Egg / Wings At The Speed Of Sound
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Bruce M.:
It's the best album since... Memory Almost Full. It actually ranks about equally with MAF. Both have one utter clunker (Gratitude and Looking At Her) 3 or 4 really inspired cuts (Mr. Bellamy, The End of the End, You Tell Me, On My Way to Work, Early Days, New), and a fair amount that's solid but not quite stellar. Neither is quite as good as Tug of War, which -- despite conventional wisdom -- is better than Band on the Run. That ought to set off a few screaming fits...
Bruce, As I expected, there are surely a great variety of opinions (even among fans) when it comes to Paul's music and this post certainly is a good example. As someone else said, it is very hard to list a Macca Solo Top 10 List because so many of them (even the highest rated) are so close. To each his own, but I kind of like "Looking At Her". Granted, it is not deep and pretty simple, but to my ears it is a "feel good/guilty pleasure Pop song. I like the bridge (the "look at the effect that she's having on me part), the guitar solo and the sweet and sour contrast in the music and vocal. I also think that Giles Martin does a good Production job. Certainly not one of the best songs on NEW but in my opinion a good, feel good album cut. It appears that quite a few others on this Site also like it. The song Gratitude, to my ears, is a stone cold clunker. I have been a fan of Paul's since 1964 and I have to say that there are damn few Macca songs that are unlistenable but this is one of them (Again, only my opinion). It's a shame that his producer didn't have the nerve to tell him that since most fans seem to feel similar. Nod Your Head is another one on MAF that to me is just a novelty song and another clunker. Those two songs alone are what makes NEW better to me. Both CD's have very good diversity but NEW is very listenable from beginning to end.
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I prefer the "New" album over "MAF" by a long shot, but have stated before that I appreciate and like "Gratitude" for its theme and because of the singing and overall sound, the melody. Everything. It sounds like a white gospel song to me or the way he sings this with so much feeling even a black gospel song (black gospel sounds vastly superior to me over the "white" variety). I interpret it as a rock spiritual, sort of. In my view Paul is singing this to God. Admittedly the first few times I heard "Gratitude" the song rubbed me a bit the wrong way and even grated a bit--until I noticed all the wonderful emotion in his voice, which struck with a great deal of impact, it's intense. Imagine in your mind's ear Elvis Presley singing this on an Elvis gospel album and you might perceive my meaning. "Nod Your Head" I found really jarring and discordant in places, and didn't like that. But I began to appreciate the parts that didn't sound that way and heard the song as bouncy exuberant pop music. I somewhat prefer "Tug of War" album to the "Band on the Run" album. The latter has been over exposed and is too familiar, for one thing.
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I relistened to Memory Almost Full just a few days ago, and I must say I was really disappointed after hearing New. To me there are only two good songs on MAF, Only Mama Knows and That Was Me. The rest is really poor I'm afraid. Now I know why there's so many copies of it in the used record and CD shops. New is at least his best since Flaming Pie.