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"McCartney" - (II) - (Deluxe Set)

Reviewed by:

Wayne Klein

Genre:
Rock
Country:
England
Length:
See Below
Release Date:
06/14/11
Band Members: Paul McCartney-Produced, engineered, composed and performed all tracks except "Coming Up" live at Glasgow performed by Wings - Label: Concord Music Group/MPL
 

Special Features:

DVD, two CDs of rarities, lossless high def digital download included, deluxe book

 
 

"McCartney- II" - Tracks: (CD) - {1} – (Remastered Album)

(CD) - {2} – Bonus Audio 1
Track Listing: 1.)-Coming Up
1.)-Blue Sway [With Richard Niles Orchestration]
  2.)-Temporary Secretary
2.)-Coming Up [Live At Glasgow, 1979]
  3.)-On The Way 3.)- Check My Machine [Edit]
  4.)- Waterfalls
4.)-Bogey Wobble
  5.)-Nobody Knows 5.)-Secret Friend [Full Length Version]
  6.)-Front Parlour 6.)-Mr H Atom / You Know I’ll Get you Baby
  7.)-Summer’s Day Song 7.)-Wonderful Christmastime [Edited Version]
  8.)-Frozen Jap
(CD)- [3} - Bonus Audio 2
 
9.)-Bogey Music
1.)-Coming Up [Full Length Version]
 
10.)-Darkroom
2.)-Front Parlour [Full Length Version ]
  11.)-One Of These Days 3.)-Frozen Jap [Full Length Version ]
    4.)- Darkroom [Full Length Version ]
    5.)-Check My Machine [Full Length Version ]
    6.)-Wonderful Christmastime [Full Length Version]
    7.)-Summer’s Day Song [Original without vocals]
    8.)-Waterfalls [DJ Edit]
 
DVD – Bonus Film
 
 

1.)-Meet Paul McCartney

-This is a vintage interview conducted by lyricist Tim Rice. Rice has a nice presence on screen and asks some thoughtful questions that are primarily technical (lyrics or music first?).

 
 

2.)-Coming Up Music

Video -The full promo video. The video is a remarkably fun one and also quite innovative at the time. Paul plays almost everyone in the video from Paul NOW to Beatle Paul and a variety of musical icons/archetypes. Lind also appears in the video as herself and a man. It’s a truly inspired video and it’s clear why this was so popular at the time.

 
 

3.)-Waterfalls -

Music Video -The full promo video. Less innovative or interesting than Coming Up this is more of a straight ahead “performance” video although it has some nice touches that were quite innovative for the time when it was released.

 
 

4.)- Wonderful Christmastime

Music Video –The full promo video.

 
 

5.)-Coming Up

[Live at Concert for the People of Kampuchea, 1979] -The live charity performance from the concert series that McCartney and Wings put on in 1979.

 
 

6.)-Coming Up

[taken from a rehearsalsession at Lower Gate Farm, 1979]-This is shot on video and image quality is soft with little fine detail shining through the murk but it is of interest for historical value to fans. You can see McCartney mugging for the camera as a means to see how he will look to the concert audience.

 
 

7.)-Making the Coming Up Music Video-

The full promo video with an interesting audio commentary pulled from the McCartney Years collection of videos released two years ago.

 
 

8.)-Blue Sway-

A short film on surfing that was made and that McCartney provided the soundtrack to with the track Blue Sway *** ***

 
  Also included is a digital download of the album presented in 24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of all 27 songs on the remastered album and bonus audio disc. This is probably the biggest bonus for audiophile fans because the tracks do not have any limiting applied to them. You can then burn them to a DVD-A disc.  
     

Review:

Paul McCartney found himself in jail in early 1980. McCartney’s band Wings had traveled to Japan for their first tour. The Japanese authorities discovered pot in his wife Linda’s bags and Paul took the hit believing that his celebrity status might spare him jail time and spare his wife. That didn’t ***

The Japanese tour cancelled, Wings fell apart and Paul retreated to the studio with no intention of recording a solo album but to experiment and see what exactly came out of the sessions. He rented 16 track recording equipment and went in only with on previously completed song (Coming Up) and another composed just prior to the sessions beginning (Waterfalls). Criticized at the time for being neither fish or fowl because it wasn’t commercial enough for Wings/McCartney/Beatles fans and not experimental enough to break free of McCartney’s more conventionally structured pop songs, McCartney II so titled because it was only his second total solo album with him playing everything has held up remarkably well. Yes, some of the experiments are slight but the songs that did emerge from the sessions are remarkably good. In many respects like its predecessor this was a work that showed McCartney wanted to go back to his roots as a performer/songwriter and recreate himself. It wasn’t accepted that way by critics but, in hindsight, McCartney creates a cohesive listening experience that charms, challenges and baffles all in one sitting. Although this isn’t Captain Beefheart or Brian Eno, McCartney uses many of the same tools towards a similar goal. ***

Coming Up and Waterfalls were the hits that supported the album (and the former was the live version performed with Wings also included on disc two here and on the DVD as well) but there are other pleasures to be had on the album including One of These Days a sublime ballad that proved McCartney hadn’t lost his touch. Is McCartney II a perfect album? No as the album does have its fair share of filler on it in the form of some of the meandering instrumentals but, on the whole, McCartney’s second “solo” album has stood up to the test of time fairly well. In fact, if the album had been released as originally intended as a double album McCartney II might have been seen as Paul’s version of Heroes since the first record was supposed to be an experimental instrumental album while the second had more traditional songs on it. Columbia Records (where Paul was signed at the time) pushed Paul to cut the album from a double to a single one and to mix up the material a bit more. ---

Sound:

This reissue was re-mastered by the same Abbey Road team that worked on The Beatles and John Lennon reissues. A big improvement over the previously issued versions of the album on CD there have been some concessions made to modern mastering trend including some peak limiting applied to bring up the volume of the quieter sections of the album however having said that the team hasn’t overused the peak limiting like most modern re-masters. Should it have been reissued without peak limiting? Sure but again its one of the concessions to current trends. Having said all of that the team has done a good job with this re-master. While it may not compare to the DCC mastered by Steve Hoffman a decade ago this is a very nice job. There evident when listening to the material. The mastering avoids the hard limiting that has become characteristic of most contemporary CDs. The recording presents nice detail throughout. They have cleaned up any edits or damage to the tapes but not altered the performances on tape. ---

Special Features:

The promotional version of McCartney II does not include the deluxe hardcover book that consumers will be getting. This book features rare and previously unpublished photos, comments from Paul about the making of the album, full credits and lyrics for the album. ***

This new deluxe edition also features a second disc outtakes and live performances of material from the album pulled from the last Wings performance. We finally get a complete performance of Suicide a fragment on the album but a full song that was offered to Frank Sinatra back in the day. Also appearing on the second disc is Blue Sway later used as the soundtrack for a short film on surfing that impressed Paul. We also get the single live version of Coming Up that Paul performed with Wings at a 1979 Glasgow show. Bogey Wobble and Secret Friend both experimental songs appear here with the latter appearing in its full length version. Rounding things out on the second bonus audio disc are Mr H Atom/You Know I’ll Get You Baby and Wonderful Christmastime. ***

The third audio disc (not included with this review copy) are Coming Up, Front Parlour, Frozen Jap, Darkroom, Check My Machine and of which appear in their full length versions for the first time as they were intended for the original two album set. Wonderful Christmastime also appears here in its full length version not the edited version most commonly heard on radio. ***

The fourth disc in this set is the DVD. It features the Coming Up video in its original aspect ratio (it appeared previously cropped for the McCartney Years DVD set from a couple of years back). There is another version of this video with a commentary track from Paul discussing the making of one of his most popular and groundbreaking videos. ***

Final Words:

Although McCartney II isn’t regarded as among Paul McCartney’s first line albums, it still has enough strong material to make it worthwhile to fans. The nice thing about the deluxe editions are the inclusion of additional discs (and downloads) of previously unreleased/rare material as well as DVDs featuring material produced to help promote the album. Recommended.

 

 

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