Rolling Stone: "Egypt Station" 1 of Decade's 100 Best
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Rolling Stone magazine has placed "Egypt Station" on the 100 Best Albums of this decade's list. 2010-2020
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Yay! It is very well deserved praise.
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SusyLuvsPaul wrote:
Rolling Stone magazine has placed "Egypt Station" on the 100 Best Albums of this decade's list. 2010-2020
That is very nice. I still laugh now at all those people who said RS hated McCartney especially if you read their reviews of his albums the last 20-25 years.
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Very, very cool, BUT, Egypt Station should be much higher than #62!! And "NEW" deserves a Top 100 slot.
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wingsoverkc wrote:
Very, very cool, BUT, Egypt Station should be much higher than #62!! And "NEW" deserves a Top 100 slot.
"New" deserves a top 100 only because the list it so awful. Beyonce Kanye in Lorde in the top 10 LOL. Not to mention Beyonce and Kanye need a team writers to write their "songs".
Getting back to 'NEW", the album is a classic clunker if you take away the title track and "Alligator". Not much on there that brings me back. One of his worst, and you'll be wishing for "Biker Like an Icon" instead, which is saying an awful lot!
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Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
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wingsoverkc wrote:
Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
I agree with you. I like NEW better than Egypt Station and my favorites are Appreciate and I Can Bet.
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Of the two,I much prefer New over Egypt Station as well.
Its interesting to look at the stats/reviews on the RateYourMusic site. New has received 27 reviews, 1363 ratings and has an overall average rating of 3.37 out of 5.00. Egypt Station has received 40 reviews, 1199 ratings and has scored an overall rating of 3.03.
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Wings / solo albums, if you exclude the live albums / compilation albums / themed albums ( Kisses On The Bottom, the Russian album, Broad Street soundtrack etc), only Press to Play & Pipes of Peace have received a lower rating than Egypt Station.
Despite the hype created by Egypt Station making #1 in the US (mainly on sales from people who hadn't even heard the album) and the fact that half a dozen journalists at RS think its a worthy album, Egypt Station has basically been given the thumbs down by the people who have actually listened to it. Keeping with the stats, Egypt Station made only #176 in the Billboard charts in 2018,a fairly poor showing for a brand new studio album of original material by someone of Paul's stature.
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Kestrel wrote:
Of the two,I much prefer New over Egypt Station as well.
Its interesting to look at the stats/reviews on the RateYourMusic site. New has received 27 reviews, 1363 ratings and has an overall average rating of 3.37 out of 5.00. Egypt Station has received 40 reviews, 1199 ratings and has scored an overall rating of 3.03.
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Wings / solo albums, if you exclude the live albums / compilation albums / themed albums ( Kisses On The Bottom, the Russian album, Broad Street soundtrack etc), only Press to Play & Pipes of Peace have received a lower rating than Egypt Station.
Despite the hype created by Egypt Station making #1 in the US (mainly on sales from people who hadn't even heard the album) and the fact that half a dozen journalists at RS think its a worthy album, Egypt Station has basically been given the thumbs down by the people who have actually listened to it. Keeping with the stats, Egypt Station made only #176 in the Billboard charts in 2018,a fairly poor showing for a brand new studio album of original material by someone of Paul's stature.
Kestrel...just wanted to respond to you and also Johnnnymain. My reply is not to have a go with either one of you just because you disagree with me about ES. As I have stated, music is subjective, so you have every right to your opinion.
I also have the right to state my opinion and I happen to think ES is one of Paul's very best Solo albums. I say that because ES has really grown with me with repeated listens and I really like/love almosts all the tracks. I also say that because I have been critical of several of Paul's previous Solo albums even the ones that had good to great songs on them. Two good examples to this point is Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt. FP and Flowers both had a bunch of great songs but Paul in my opinion has had a tendancy to add a couple of clunkers to even his good to great Solo albums. As Yankeefan has said, Paul needs a strong producer (e.g. Nigel Godrich) to disagree with him. For example, FP had truly great songs (e.g Beautiful Night, Calico Skies, Somedays, Young Boy, Little Willow, Great Day etc) but then he includes a couple of real clunkers (again my opinion only) like Really Love You and Used to be Bad) that kind of ruined the greatness of the overall album for me. Same thing with Flowers in the Dirt where he had several great tracks (My Brave Face, You Want Her Too, Distractions, Figure of 8, This One etc) but the way he ended Flowers (Motor of Love, Ou est le Sole) really disappointed me especially when he had so many good to great tracks (Back on My Feet, Tommy's Coming Home, the Lovers that Never Were, So Like Candy etc) that he left off. I didn't feel that same way about ES. I loved the way Paul ended ES (Despite Repeated Warnings and Hunt You Down/Naked etc.) The the only song that didn't seem to fit was Fuh You and even that song(like Yankeefan said) was catchy and only 3 minutes long so it didn't ruin the album for me. The other 2 mediorcre songs on ES upon my early listens were Caesar Rock and Back Brazil and even those really grew with me as good album cuts. I like good lyrics that Paul has displayed on many of his Solo Songs and ES contained great songs overall like I Don't Know, Happy With You, Who Cares, Confidante, People Want Peace, Hand in Hand, Dominoes, Do It Now etc.
Getting back to Rolling Stone's Top 100 ALBUMS for this current Decade, I agree with their choice of ES 100%. In fact, like Wingsoverkc said, I think ES should be a lot higher than 62.
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living. In my opinion, they tend to be objective in general and they also really listen to the respective album they are reviewing. Afterall, their reputations are at stake. In the case of ES, these critics tended to be very favorable towards ES. I also rate the 2 reviewers on the "Take It Away" Podcast (shown on this Site) very high also. They both rated ES very high compared to other Paul Post Beatles' albums. They basically only rated Ram and Chaos higher. They are objective and while it is hard for me to compare Ram with any of Paul's latter period albums, I respect their judgement because they are very fair. I also can see why Chaos is considered by some to be Paul's best Solo album to this point. It was more concise/shorter than ES and had no clunkers. For consistency, I agree with them on Chaos in general but ES is my favorite because of the variety.
As far as this discussion, I also like "New" a lot also but overall I like ES better as a whole album. I am also a big Press to Play fan again as a whole album. I think it is Paul's best underrated Solo album. Again, I don't give too much credence to "RateYourMusic" site for the reasons I gave. Sorry for my long post, but I felt I had to respond. I'm a passlionate Post Beatles' Paul fan.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Of the two,I much prefer New over Egypt Station as well.
Its interesting to look at the stats/reviews on the RateYourMusic site. New has received 27 reviews, 1363 ratings and has an overall average rating of 3.37 out of 5.00. Egypt Station has received 40 reviews, 1199 ratings and has scored an overall rating of 3.03.
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Wings / solo albums, if you exclude the live albums / compilation albums / themed albums ( Kisses On The Bottom, the Russian album, Broad Street soundtrack etc), only Press to Play & Pipes of Peace have received a lower rating than Egypt Station.
Despite the hype created by Egypt Station making #1 in the US (mainly on sales from people who hadn't even heard the album) and the fact that half a dozen journalists at RS think its a worthy album, Egypt Station has basically been given the thumbs down by the people who have actually listened to it. Keeping with the stats, Egypt Station made only #176 in the Billboard charts in 2018,a fairly poor showing for a brand new studio album of original material by someone of Paul's stature.
Kestrel...just wanted to respond to you and also Johnnnymain. My reply is not to have a go with either one of you just because you disagree with me about ES. As I have stated, music is subjective, so you have every right to your opinion.
I also have the right to state my opinion and I happen to think ES is one of Paul's very best Solo albums. I say that because ES has really grown with me with repeated listens and I really like/love almosts all the tracks. I also say that because I have been critical of several of Paul's previous Solo albums even the ones that had good to great songs on them. Two good examples to this point is Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt. FP and Flowers both had a bunch of great songs but Paul in my opinion has had a tendancy to add a couple of clunkers to even his good to great Solo albums. As Yankeefan has said, Paul needs a strong producer (e.g. Nigel Godrich) to disagree with him. For example, FP had truly great songs (e.g Beautiful Night, Calico Skies, Somedays, Young Boy, Little Willow, Great Day etc) but then he includes a couple of real clunkers (again my opinion only) like Really Love You and Used to be Bad) that kind of ruined the greatness of the overall album for me. Same thing with Flowers in the Dirt where he had several great tracks (My Brave Face, You Want Her Too, Distractions, Figure of 8, This One etc) but the way he ended Flowers (Motor of Love, Ou est le Sole) really disappointed me especially when he had so many good to great tracks (Back on My Feet, Tommy's Coming Home, the Lovers that Never Were, So Like Candy etc) that he left off. I didn't feel that same way about ES. I loved the way Paul ended ES (Despite Repeated Warnings and Hunt You Down/Naked etc.) The the only song that didn't seem to fit was Fuh You and even that song(like Yankeefan said) was catchy and only 3 minutes long so it didn't ruin the album for me. The other 2 mediorcre songs on ES upon my early listens were Caesar Rock and Back Brazil and even those really grew with me as good album cuts. I like good lyrics that Paul has displayed on many of his Solo Songs and ES contained great songs overall like I Don't Know, Happy With You, Who Cares, Confidante, People Want Peace, Hand in Hand, Dominoes, Do It Now etc.
Getting back to Rolling Stone's Top 100 ALBUMS for this current Decade, I agree with their choice of ES 100%. In fact, like Wingsoverkc said, I think ES should be a lot higher than 62.
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living. In my opinion, they tend to be objective in general and they also really listen to the respective album they are reviewing. Afterall, their reputations are at stake. In the case of ES, these critics tended to be very favorable towards ES. I also rate the 2 reviewers on the "Take It Away" Podcast (shown on this Site) very high also. They both rated ES very high compared to other Paul Post Beatles' albums. They basically only rated Ram and Chaos higher. They are objective and while it is hard for me to compare Ram with any of Paul's latter period albums, I respect their judgement because they are very fair. I also can see why Chaos is considered by some to be Paul's best Solo album to this point. It was more concise/shorter than ES and had no clunkers. For consistency, I agree with them on Chaos in general but ES is my favorite because of the variety.
As far as this discussion, I also like "New" a lot also but overall I like ES better as a whole album. I am also a big Press to Play fan again as a whole album. I think it is Paul's best underrated Solo album. Again, I don't give too much credence to "RateYourMusic" site for the reasons I gave. Sorry for my long post, but I felt I had to respond. I'm a passlionate Post Beatles' Paul fan.
Just wanted to add a couple of points. Yes, I'm a big fan but I don't like every Post Beatles album that Paul has done. Looking at his more recent albums, I loved Memory Almost Full but I was frustrated with the overall production on the CD version that I bought. Most of the songs were too loud and the songs with horns especially didn't sound like high quality production. Other than that, Memory Almost Full might had been his best Solo album. Driving Rain had some good songs but his vocals were bad on a bunch of them. I only point this out and as I said, I don't love every Paul album because it has his name on it. Conversely I really liked Press to Play which is why I think it is his most underrated album. This is why I believe ES is far better than Memory and Driving Rain. ES has great production by and large and his older voice actually enhance most of the songs.
As far as lyrics, here are just a few examples why I love ES as a whole:
I Don't Know...Well I see trouble at every turn, I've got so many lessons to learn, What am I doing wrong, I don't know...
Happy With You...I like the imagery in Paul's lyrics in this song like "Throw a pocket of coins in the Trevi fountain, See an ice cold running stream, Rushing down the mountain, Hear a new born baby lamb, Calling for its mother, Watching reunited friends, Loving one another...
Who Cares...'cos you're worth much more, Of that you can be sure, No need to hide, The love you've got inside...
People Want Peace..."Nothing in life is as sad, As a lonely sole searching for peace, Only to find disappointment is waiting, behind every door that we open, Every catch we release...
Do It Now..."Do it Now, Do It Now, While the vision is clear, Do It Now, While the feeling is here, If you leave it too late, It could all disappear, Do It Now, While your vision is clear...
I could go on and on at while I like Paul's mature and thoughtful lyrics on ES in general. It is why I think his Solo career is so underrated as a whole. The albums I like best display these kinds of intelligent lyrics. That is especially true on albums like ES, Memory almost Full, Chaos, Flaming Pie, Tug of War and Flowers in the Dirt.
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B J Conlee wrote:
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living.
But that works both ways. There are as many who don't like Paul as there are who do like Paul so with a site like RYM, one group will cancel the other group out. But both groups tend to be in the minority and most people will give a fair, honest assessment on what they are hearing. There will always be fans who like the albums that remain unpopular as a whole (Press To Play, Pipes of Peace, Egypt Station etc) just as there will be fans who don't like Ram and Band On The Run, the two highest scoring albums of Paul's catalogue on the RYM site. I would argue that if it can't be accepted that Press To Play, Pipes Of Peace etc are Paul's weakest albums, then equally it can't be accepted that Band on The Run and Ram are Paul's most critically well received albums.
I have no faith in the professional critics whatsoever. Anyone of them could be taking backhanders from a record company to influence their readership in order to increase sales.
But,as you rightly point out, it is all very much subjective and I totally agree with you with the points you raised with regards to Flowers In the Dirt and Flaming Pie. So we do at least agree on something.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Of the two,I much prefer New over Egypt Station as well.
Its interesting to look at the stats/reviews on the RateYourMusic site. New has received 27 reviews, 1363 ratings and has an overall average rating of 3.37 out of 5.00. Egypt Station has received 40 reviews, 1199 ratings and has scored an overall rating of 3.03.
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Wings / solo albums, if you exclude the live albums / compilation albums / themed albums ( Kisses On The Bottom, the Russian album, Broad Street soundtrack etc), only Press to Play & Pipes of Peace have received a lower rating than Egypt Station.
Despite the hype created by Egypt Station making #1 in the US (mainly on sales from people who hadn't even heard the album) and the fact that half a dozen journalists at RS think its a worthy album, Egypt Station has basically been given the thumbs down by the people who have actually listened to it. Keeping with the stats, Egypt Station made only #176 in the Billboard charts in 2018,a fairly poor showing for a brand new studio album of original material by someone of Paul's stature.
Kestrel...just wanted to respond to you and also Johnnnymain. My reply is not to have a go with either one of you just because you disagree with me about ES. As I have stated, music is subjective, so you have every right to your opinion.
I also have the right to state my opinion and I happen to think ES is one of Paul's very best Solo albums. I say that because ES has really grown with me with repeated listens and I really like/love almosts all the tracks. I also say that because I have been critical of several of Paul's previous Solo albums even the ones that had good to great songs on them. Two good examples to this point is Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt. FP and Flowers both had a bunch of great songs but Paul in my opinion has had a tendancy to add a couple of clunkers to even his good to great Solo albums. As Yankeefan has said, Paul needs a strong producer (e.g. Nigel Godrich) to disagree with him. For example, FP had truly great songs (e.g Beautiful Night, Calico Skies, Somedays, Young Boy, Little Willow, Great Day etc) but then he includes a couple of real clunkers (again my opinion only) like Really Love You and Used to be Bad) that kind of ruined the greatness of the overall album for me. Same thing with Flowers in the Dirt where he had several great tracks (My Brave Face, You Want Her Too, Distractions, Figure of 8, This One etc) but the way he ended Flowers (Motor of Love, Ou est le Sole) really disappointed me especially when he had so many good to great tracks (Back on My Feet, Tommy's Coming Home, the Lovers that Never Were, So Like Candy etc) that he left off. I didn't feel that same way about ES. I loved the way Paul ended ES (Despite Repeated Warnings and Hunt You Down/Naked etc.) The the only song that didn't seem to fit was Fuh You and even that song(like Yankeefan said) was catchy and only 3 minutes long so it didn't ruin the album for me. The other 2 mediorcre songs on ES upon my early listens were Caesar Rock and Back Brazil and even those really grew with me as good album cuts. I like good lyrics that Paul has displayed on many of his Solo Songs and ES contained great songs overall like I Don't Know, Happy With You, Who Cares, Confidante, People Want Peace, Hand in Hand, Dominoes, Do It Now etc.
Getting back to Rolling Stone's Top 100 ALBUMS for this current Decade, I agree with their choice of ES 100%. In fact, like Wingsoverkc said, I think ES should be a lot higher than 62.
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living. In my opinion, they tend to be objective in general and they also really listen to the respective album they are reviewing. Afterall, their reputations are at stake. In the case of ES, these critics tended to be very favorable towards ES. I also rate the 2 reviewers on the "Take It Away" Podcast (shown on this Site) very high also. They both rated ES very high compared to other Paul Post Beatles' albums. They basically only rated Ram and Chaos higher. They are objective and while it is hard for me to compare Ram with any of Paul's latter period albums, I respect their judgement because they are very fair. I also can see why Chaos is considered by some to be Paul's best Solo album to this point. It was more concise/shorter than ES and had no clunkers. For consistency, I agree with them on Chaos in general but ES is my favorite because of the variety.
As far as this discussion, I also like "New" a lot also but overall I like ES better as a whole album. I am also a big Press to Play fan again as a whole album. I think it is Paul's best underrated Solo album. Again, I don't give too much credence to "RateYourMusic" site for the reasons I gave. Sorry for my long post, but I felt I had to respond. I'm a passlionate Post Beatles' Paul fan.
Excellent post BJ and a good read - lol. I had not listened to "Egypt Station" in quite a while and just listened again when the two new songs were released. I like it a bunch more over time so it was a "grower" on me. I may have mentioned this in a post when "Egypt Station" first came out but my daughters came to vist my wife and I one evening and "Fuh You" was playing as they walked in. They had no idea whose song it was but the minute they heard it they started dancing around -lol. ( they are 31 and 29 years old). I agree with you on the mediocre songs( Cesar Rock & Back To Brazil) but unlike you they have not grown on me. I just love the way this album has ended, it is McCartney at his best !!! I can live with "Egypt Station" being ranked #62 in a decade, pretty damn good for 76 year old guy !!
As for "New", it was ok for me and nothing more. The highlights to me were "I Can Bet", "On My Way To Work" and "Early Days". I may be in the minority but I really did not like "Queenie Eye" at all and "Hosanna" was really over-hyped before the album was realeased. "Save Us" and "Everybody Out There" IMO seemed to be written for the sole purpose of being performed live and were nothing special.
As much as I liked "Egypt Station", CHAOS is still the better album IMO. It is really good from beginning to end and songs like "How Kind Of You" and "Riding To Vanity Fair" really struck and emotional chord in me. You have to be in the right mood when you listen to CHAOS to appreciate it, it is for the most part a somber album. That is why it is almost a jolt when you hear the guitar solo on "Promise To You Girl". I don't remember if CHAOS ranked in the top 100 of the decade in the 2000-2009 poll.
Like you, I put more emphasis on critical reviews of McCartney's recordings. I know which publications to value in regards to reviews. You make excellent point when you bring up the two guys from the "Take It Away" podcasts, they are fantastic. They tell it like it is whether it is good or bad. The other thing I liked about them were they were not hung up on "Beatle Paul", they really seem throw his Beatle past out the window when reviewing his solo work.
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Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living.
But that works both ways. There are as many who don't like Paul as there are who do like Paul so with a site like RYM, one group will cancel the other group out. But both groups tend to be in the minority and most people will give a fair, honest assessment on what they are hearing. There will always be fans who like the albums that remain unpopular as a whole (Press To Play, Pipes of Peace, Egypt Station etc) just as there will be fans who don't like Ram and Band On The Run, the two highest scoring albums of Paul's catalogue on the RYM site. I would argue that if it can't be accepted that Press To Play, Pipes Of Peace etc are Paul's weakest albums, then equally it can't be accepted that Band on The Run and Ram are Paul's most critically well received albums.
I have no faith in the professional critics whatsoever. Anyone of them could be taking backhanders from a record company to influence their readership in order to increase sales.
But,as you rightly point out, it is all very much subjective and I totally agree with you with the points you raised with regards to Flowers In the Dirt and Flaming Pie. So we do at least agree on something.
I appreciate your comments and glad we agree on the clunkers on Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt. Both albums could have been truly great if Paul listened to someone he really trusts and made better track selections to the final product. That being said, I still think that Paul's Solo career (particularly since Tug of War) has been very underrated. Even with the clunkers on Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt, the overall albums are quite good. They just don't make my Top 3 List because of the clunkers. I loved Tug of War with the exception of one song (and it wasn't Ebony and Ivory). It was "What's That Your Doing". It was basically a Stevie Wonder song that didn't seem to fit with the rest of the album which were "Paul" songs. On top of not fitting very well, it was too monotanous (my opinion only) that went over 6 minutes which is entirely too long for me. Anyway because the rest of the album was so good, I still have it in my Top 3.
We will have to agree to disagree on the RYM site. I have much more faith with the big music critics than an open site like RYM. Just my gut feel but I think there are more people who are motivated to criticize an artist they don't like than the other way around. More important, they are not professionals. They don't do it for a living so it is more likely that many just write their bias or say what they have read from other sites or reviews. Of course I can't prove it so it is just my gut feel as I said. On the other hand, I have much more faith with the professional music critics. As I said, their reputaton is at stake so they are going to listen to the album in the first place and not read what the other critics are saying. Secondly, they have listened to enough new albums to distinguish from good, mediocre and bad much better than ordinary people. In the case of ES, the overwhelming majority of critics were quite favorable. And as far as your "backhanders" opinion with critics accepting bribes from record companies, I also disagree. In my opinion, if it does happen, I think it would be very rare that a big critic would accept money from a Record Company to give a good review. And their employer would probably not defend their employee. Again, their reputation is the main thing that the employer and employee have. Generally, I think music critics are honest and love what they do so they will write what they truly believe. Again, just my gut feel. On the other hand, ordinary people are more inclined to give their bias rather than a truly fair review in my opinion. I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong. Just what I believe.
I don't know if you saw my added post. I find your posts to be very good in general so I guess I'm surprised that you are so adamant about your negativity toward ES. I just gave a sampling of the good lyrics on a few of the ES tracks. I could have continued with more songs and more lyrics. Again, I think the lyrics on ES are generally quite good. The exceptions to me are Fuh You which was Paul in my opinion, rolling the dice to possibly get a Top 40 hit. I'm not even sure if most of the lyrics were Paul's since it was cowritten. The other exceptions are Caesar Rock which was basically a jam song written by Paul on the spot from what I read and Come On to Me which was Paul trying to write a hit. In that case, he did actually succeed to a point as Come On To Me was a top 10 hit on some of the Adult Contemporary Charts.
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O...M...G...B J, I had to scroll down and see what 2 songs you thought were "clunkers" on Flaming Pie and I even went to YouTube to play them and make sure I had the right ones in mind! Really Love You with Ringo & Jeff Lynne and Used To Be Bad with Steve Miller are both great blues songs! Love them! Love the entire album! It is my favorite solo album of his. How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!
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Nancy R wrote:
O...M...G...B J, I had to scroll down and see what 2 songs you thought were "clunkers" on Flaming Pie and I even went to YouTube to play them and make sure I had the right ones in mind! Really Love You with Ringo & Jeff Lynne and Used To Be Bad with Steve Miller are both great blues songs! Love them! Love the entire album! It is my favorite solo album of his. How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!
Nancy,
Thanks for your comments and I really respect your opinion...we just see those 2 songs differently. I just don't care for them especially Really Love You. I don't really dislike Used to be Bad as much. I would say it is a decent album track but not nearly as good as so many of the great tracks on FP. On "Really Love You", I just found the song to be monotanous and too long (over 5 minutes). Sometimes when you have a very close guest artist like Ringo you can get a tad sentimental longing for the old days and you just want to do a "jam session" together and it's not really a song. In fairness, I tend to not like Paul's long jam songs in general. Nothing against Ringo or Jeff Lynne. Conversely, Paul and Ringo doing "Beautiful Night" together was spectacular especially at the end when they both sang.
Youi make a great point about FP having at least 3 Great songs on it. I personally think that FP had 6 or 7 truly great songs. That's why I said that even though I didn't like those 2 songs, I believe FP is still a great album. By the way, the 6 or 7 great songs on FP would be in my top 30 or so Paul Greatest Solo Songs period. I get that you see Really Love You and Used to be Bad as good to great blues songs. Looking at it from that perspective, I can see why FP is your pick for Paul's best Solo album. I can certainly understand your love for FP and I agree. All those great songs do make FP a great album as a whole. I love all those FP songs I listed in my post.
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Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Of the two,I much prefer New over Egypt Station as well.
Its interesting to look at the stats/reviews on the RateYourMusic site. New has received 27 reviews, 1363 ratings and has an overall average rating of 3.37 out of 5.00. Egypt Station has received 40 reviews, 1199 ratings and has scored an overall rating of 3.03.
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Wings / solo albums, if you exclude the live albums / compilation albums / themed albums ( Kisses On The Bottom, the Russian album, Broad Street soundtrack etc), only Press to Play & Pipes of Peace have received a lower rating than Egypt Station.
Despite the hype created by Egypt Station making #1 in the US (mainly on sales from people who hadn't even heard the album) and the fact that half a dozen journalists at RS think its a worthy album, Egypt Station has basically been given the thumbs down by the people who have actually listened to it. Keeping with the stats, Egypt Station made only #176 in the Billboard charts in 2018,a fairly poor showing for a brand new studio album of original material by someone of Paul's stature.
Kestrel...just wanted to respond to you and also Johnnnymain. My reply is not to have a go with either one of you just because you disagree with me about ES. As I have stated, music is subjective, so you have every right to your opinion.
I also have the right to state my opinion and I happen to think ES is one of Paul's very best Solo albums. I say that because ES has really grown with me with repeated listens and I really like/love almosts all the tracks. I also say that because I have been critical of several of Paul's previous Solo albums even the ones that had good to great songs on them. Two good examples to this point is Flaming Pie and Flowers in the Dirt. FP and Flowers both had a bunch of great songs but Paul in my opinion has had a tendancy to add a couple of clunkers to even his good to great Solo albums. As Yankeefan has said, Paul needs a strong producer (e.g. Nigel Godrich) to disagree with him. For example, FP had truly great songs (e.g Beautiful Night, Calico Skies, Somedays, Young Boy, Little Willow, Great Day etc) but then he includes a couple of real clunkers (again my opinion only) like Really Love You and Used to be Bad) that kind of ruined the greatness of the overall album for me. Same thing with Flowers in the Dirt where he had several great tracks (My Brave Face, You Want Her Too, Distractions, Figure of 8, This One etc) but the way he ended Flowers (Motor of Love, Ou est le Sole) really disappointed me especially when he had so many good to great tracks (Back on My Feet, Tommy's Coming Home, the Lovers that Never Were, So Like Candy etc) that he left off. I didn't feel that same way about ES. I loved the way Paul ended ES (Despite Repeated Warnings and Hunt You Down/Naked etc.) The the only song that didn't seem to fit was Fuh You and even that song(like Yankeefan said) was catchy and only 3 minutes long so it didn't ruin the album for me. The other 2 mediorcre songs on ES upon my early listens were Caesar Rock and Back Brazil and even those really grew with me as good album cuts. I like good lyrics that Paul has displayed on many of his Solo Songs and ES contained great songs overall like I Don't Know, Happy With You, Who Cares, Confidante, People Want Peace, Hand in Hand, Dominoes, Do It Now etc.
Getting back to Rolling Stone's Top 100 ALBUMS for this current Decade, I agree with their choice of ES 100%. In fact, like Wingsoverkc said, I think ES should be a lot higher than 62.
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living. In my opinion, they tend to be objective in general and they also really listen to the respective album they are reviewing. Afterall, their reputations are at stake. In the case of ES, these critics tended to be very favorable towards ES. I also rate the 2 reviewers on the "Take It Away" Podcast (shown on this Site) very high also. They both rated ES very high compared to other Paul Post Beatles' albums. They basically only rated Ram and Chaos higher. They are objective and while it is hard for me to compare Ram with any of Paul's latter period albums, I respect their judgement because they are very fair. I also can see why Chaos is considered by some to be Paul's best Solo album to this point. It was more concise/shorter than ES and had no clunkers. For consistency, I agree with them on Chaos in general but ES is my favorite because of the variety.
As far as this discussion, I also like "New" a lot also but overall I like ES better as a whole album. I am also a big Press to Play fan again as a whole album. I think it is Paul's best underrated Solo album. Again, I don't give too much credence to "RateYourMusic" site for the reasons I gave. Sorry for my long post, but I felt I had to respond. I'm a passlionate Post Beatles' Paul fan.
Excellent post BJ and a good read - lol. I had not listened to "Egypt Station" in quite a while and just listened again when the two new songs were released. I like it a bunch more over time so it was a "grower" on me. I may have mentioned this in a post when "Egypt Station" first came out but my daughters came to vist my wife and I one evening and "Fuh You" was playing as they walked in. They had no idea whose song it was but the minute they heard it they started dancing around -lol. ( they are 31 and 29 years old). I agree with you on the mediocre songs( Cesar Rock & Back To Brazil) but unlike you they have not grown on me. I just love the way this album has ended, it is McCartney at his best !!! I can live with "Egypt Station" being ranked #62 in a decade, pretty damn good for 76 year old guy !!
As for "New", it was ok for me and nothing more. The highlights to me were "I Can Bet", "On My Way To Work" and "Early Days". I may be in the minority but I really did not like "Queenie Eye" at all and "Hosanna" was really over-hyped before the album was realeased. "Save Us" and "Everybody Out There" IMO seemed to be written for the sole purpose of being performed live and were nothing special.
As much as I liked "Egypt Station", CHAOS is still the better album IMO. It is really good from beginning to end and songs like "How Kind Of You" and "Riding To Vanity Fair" really struck and emotional chord in me. You have to be in the right mood when you listen to CHAOS to appreciate it, it is for the most part a somber album. That is why it is almost a jolt when you hear the guitar solo on "Promise To You Girl". I don't remember if CHAOS ranked in the top 100 of the decade in the 2000-2009 poll.
Like you, I put more emphasis on critical reviews of McCartney's recordings. I know which publications to value in regards to reviews. You make excellent point when you bring up the two guys from the "Take It Away" podcasts, they are fantastic. They tell it like it is whether it is good or bad. The other thing I liked about them were they were not hung up on "Beatle Paul", they really seem throw his Beatle past out the window when reviewing his solo work.
Thanks for the complement. I do agree that ES has to grow on you and I think that in some cases people/fans that don't particularly like ES haven't probably given it enough repeated listens. I found the same thing to be true for me. After I gave it a rest for about 6 months, I liked it much better after relistening to it. I also remember Bruce saying the same thing. I think ES has at least 5 or 6 great songs on it and you can't ask for much more from a 76 year old guy. I do agree that Caesar Rock and Back to Brazil aren't the best songs on ES but I find them to be decent album cuts. I particularly like the music on Back to Brazil (lots of different instruments) so I never skip it. While I don't particularly care for Paul's "jam songs" which is what Caesar Rock is, I like his singing and it does give ES another rocker. Agree on the way that ES ends with the 2 multi-part songs.
You gave a summary on "New". I probably like it a little better than you but I don't think it's as good as ES. I like Queenie Eye and Save Us better than you but my favorite song on New is Early Days. I probably should give a listen to New again since it has been a long while. I didn't really care for Hosanna and I got a little tired of "Everybody Out There" where you say that it was written by Paul specifically for the tour. I agree totally.
I also agree and as I said, I think that Chaos as a whole is probably Paul's best Solo album. From track to track it flows well and all the songs are good. I like what you say about "How KInd of You" and "Riding to Vanity Fair". Both songs give Chaos an added boost because they are different styles for Paul. For me, Chaos is not my favorite for repeated listens because of your "somber" point. You're right that you have to be in the right mood. I like to listen to ES more because it has good rockers as well. Let's just say that Chaos is in theory and consistency Paul's best Solo album but ES is a more fun listen. Anyway, that's the way I see it. If I get into any discussion with anyone that argues that Paul's Post Beatles' career hasn't been very good, Chaos, ES and Tug of War would be my counter argument.
Finally, great point about the 2 guys on Take It Away.
Talk later.
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Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
As far as looking at "RateYourMusic"as an "end all" guide, I don't give it too much creedence. Many people who respond to a website like this have strong predisposed opinions anyway regarding various artists. They include people who don't like Paul in the first place so they are going to show bias. I give much more creedence to "professional music critics" who review albums for a living.
But that works both ways. There are as many who don't like Paul as there are who do like Paul so with a site like RYM, one group will cancel the other group out. But both groups tend to be in the minority and most people will give a fair, honest assessment on what they are hearing. There will always be fans who like the albums that remain unpopular as a whole (Press To Play, Pipes of Peace, Egypt Station etc) just as there will be fans who don't like Ram and Band On The Run, the two highest scoring albums of Paul's catalogue on the RYM site. I would argue that if it can't be accepted that Press To Play, Pipes Of Peace etc are Paul's weakest albums, then equally it can't be accepted that Band on The Run and Ram are Paul's most critically well received albums.
I have no faith in the professional critics whatsoever. Anyone of them could be taking backhanders from a record company to influence their readership in order to increase sales.
But,as you rightly point out, it is all very much subjective and I totally agree with you with the points you raised with regards to Flowers In the Dirt and Flaming Pie. So we do at least agree on something.
Ecellent post. After rereading my reply to you, I don't think my argument against RYM was particularly strong. If all you can say is "my gut feel" it's not too strong of a follow-up. I have no idea about the readership of RYM and what kind of fans they really are. I would just go back to my main point. I do give more creedence to professional music critics over consumers who are just giving their own review. If a professional music reviewer is worth his salt, they will point out things that they like about the specific album they've just listened to. As I said, in the case of ES, the overwhelming majority of the reviewers from the big publications gave a real thumbs up to ES. That speaks volumes to me.
My other point is that I think ES is a type of Album that has to grow with the listener. Bruce on this site who I really respect said the same thing and I found it personally true as well. After I took a hiatus from ES for about 6 months, I liked the album significantly more. Maybe you just listened to ES initially a couple of times and that is why you aren't particularly fond of it. I don't think ES is perfect (Caesar Rock and Back to Brazil aren't top tier Macca and just good album tracks to me) but overall and as I said, it is overall a very good album in my opinion.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
O...M...G...B J, I had to scroll down and see what 2 songs you thought were "clunkers" on Flaming Pie and I even went to YouTube to play them and make sure I had the right ones in mind! Really Love You with Ringo & Jeff Lynne and Used To Be Bad with Steve Miller are both great blues songs! Love them! Love the entire album! It is my favorite solo album of his. How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!
Nancy,
Thanks for your comments and I really respect your opinion...we just see those 2 songs differently. I just don't care for them especially Really Love You. I don't really dislike Used to be Bad as much. I would say it is a decent album track but not nearly as good as so many of the great tracks on FP. On "Really Love You", I just found the song to be monotanous and too long (over 5 minutes). Sometimes when you have a very close guest artist like Ringo you can get a tad sentimental longing for the old days and you just want to do a "jam session" together and it's not really a song. In fairness, I tend to not like Paul's long jam songs in general. Nothing against Ringo or Jeff Lynne. Conversely, Paul and Ringo doing "Beautiful Night" together was spectacular especially at the end when they both sang.
Youi make a great point about FP having at least 3 Great songs on it. I personally think that FP had 6 or 7 truly great songs. That's why I said that even though I didn't like those 2 songs, I believe FP is still a great album. By the way, the 6 or 7 great songs on FP would be in my top 30 or so Paul Greatest Solo Songs period. I get that you see Really Love You and Used to be Bad as good to great blues songs. Looking at it from that perspective, I can see why FP is your pick for Paul's best Solo album. I can certainly understand your love for FP and I agree. All those great songs do make FP a great album as a whole. I love all those FP songs I listed in my post.
You missed my point - I said "How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!" ("artists" was referring to other artists, not Paul) My POV is that Flaming Pie has about 8 great songs on it, not just 3!
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Nancy R wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
O...M...G...B J, I had to scroll down and see what 2 songs you thought were "clunkers" on Flaming Pie and I even went to YouTube to play them and make sure I had the right ones in mind! Really Love You with Ringo & Jeff Lynne and Used To Be Bad with Steve Miller are both great blues songs! Love them! Love the entire album! It is my favorite solo album of his. How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!
Nancy,
Thanks for your comments and I really respect your opinion...we just see those 2 songs differently. I just don't care for them especially Really Love You. I don't really dislike Used to be Bad as much. I would say it is a decent album track but not nearly as good as so many of the great tracks on FP. On "Really Love You", I just found the song to be monotanous and too long (over 5 minutes). Sometimes when you have a very close guest artist like Ringo you can get a tad sentimental longing for the old days and you just want to do a "jam session" together and it's not really a song. In fairness, I tend to not like Paul's long jam songs in general. Nothing against Ringo or Jeff Lynne. Conversely, Paul and Ringo doing "Beautiful Night" together was spectacular especially at the end when they both sang.
Youi make a great point about FP having at least 3 Great songs on it. I personally think that FP had 6 or 7 truly great songs. That's why I said that even though I didn't like those 2 songs, I believe FP is still a great album. By the way, the 6 or 7 great songs on FP would be in my top 30 or so Paul Greatest Solo Songs period. I get that you see Really Love You and Used to be Bad as good to great blues songs. Looking at it from that perspective, I can see why FP is your pick for Paul's best Solo album. I can certainly understand your love for FP and I agree. All those great songs do make FP a great album as a whole. I love all those FP songs I listed in my post.
You missed my point - I said "How many artists can release an album that has even 3 great songs on it, let alone 5-8 (depending on your POV) like on Flaming Pie?!" ("artists" was referring to other artists, not Paul) My POV is that Flaming Pie has about 8 great songs on it, not just 3!
Nancy,
Thanks for your reply. I did understand your point but I didn't phrase my comment correctly...Sorry. I know that if you consider FP to be Paul's best Solo album, that you think the album has much more than 3 great songs it. As I said, I think FP has about 7-8 great songs also. I think it is a great album (in my Top 5 as far as Solo albums). The only thing that keeps it from being higher for me is "Really Love You". Again, my opinion only and I do realize that some fans will like the track. I'm not crazy about "jam" songs. I loved Tug of War equally or slightly better than FP but I didn't like "What's That You're Doing" either. It was more of a Stevie Wonder song and another "jam" track that goes on almost 7 minutes. That's why I consider Chaos and ES to be better than FP and Tug of War. But all of them are great Solo Paul albums in my opinion. I think another example of a "jam song" that I didn't like is Rinse the Raindrops on Driving Rain While I did like many of the songs on DR, I didn't like Rinse the Raindrops at all because it was a jam that worse yet went on for almost 11 minutes. Becasue of that track and Paul's vocals on many others, I wouldn't put DR in Paul's Top 10 or 12 best Solo albums. As a big fan, I still like several of the tracks which is why I think Paul's Solo career has been stellar. Every album has some good to great tracks. I'm with you, FP is generally a great album in my opinion. Hope Paul gives it the special "Remaster" treatment very soon.
