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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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