McCartney has done it again. I bought Memory Almost Full last July, and it has rarely left my CD player. His voice sounds every bit as good at the age of 65 as it did when he was 25!

My favorite tracks include Ever Present Past, See Your Sunshine, Only Mama Knows (which sounds amazingly like his 1975 hit "Junior's Farm"), That Was Me, Mr. Bellamy (although this one had to grow on me a bit), House of Wax, and The End of the End. The track Nod Your Head is a great way to end the album so that it doesn't conclude on such a serious and wistful tune as the track before it (The End of the End). Keep it up, Paul!! You still rock.

Let me say that I was a huge Wings fan in the 70s, and the last McCartney record I bought was a 45 of Coming Up. Not exactly true, I did get a collection on cd later, but it doesn't count since I had the albums already.

I heard a couple of tracks from this album on the radio, and I bought this cd. It took a few tries. I put it down, and a couple of months later picked it up. Now I love it. This reminds me of my experience with Venus and Mars, because it didn't grow on me right away.

To be 64 years old, this man really does rock. I should be so lucky to be like him in twenty years, and honestly, the reviewers picking this album apart just don't him any justice. How many 64 year old rockers do you hear on the radio?

He put quite an effort into this music, and it shows.

I love Paul McCartney solo, Wings, and the Beatles. He is an extremely talented songwriter. Unfortunately, this is my least favorite cd from him in years. I don't understand the critics, they only seem to rave over stuff that isn't quite up to par. If you want to hear Paul at his best, pick up Flaming Pie, Tug of War, or even Driving Rain. This particular cd is solely for the collectors.

What can you say about a guy who refers to himself as His Royal Highness the King of Cosmania and Surrounding Regions in the liner notes? The same liner notes containing embarrassing photos of His Royal Highness mugging it up with those tiresome cute faces. That's not cosmic; it's silly, broken and totally un-cosmic.

Like most McCartney records, there are some good musical ideas to be found, but they are compromised by horrible lyrics. McCartney hosts concerts where people sing along to his old songs - it's not because the lyrics were bad - why doesn't he get it? I'm sure there are plenty of accomplished lyricists that would prune Paul's lyrics for free just on the chance a song might become the next Hey Jude. Heck, I could easily improve his silly rhymes just by using a word that doesn't rhyme. Not so tough, Paul.

Paul showed some good sense partnering with Nigel Godrich on Chaos. It seemed he had turned the corner on his self defeating egotism, but it looks like that was a brief aberration.

Hopefully this is not the last recording he ever does because this is easily his worst.

The Good
Despite its mixture of folk guitar (possibly ukulele) and washboard percussion, "Dance Tonight" is quite the catchy tune. You've probably heard it in an iTunes commercial. The lyrics are simple and to-the-point. "Ever Present Past" has more of a rock vibe to it, with its electric guitars and driving rhythms. "Only Mama Knows" begins with a long string section that is slowly replaced with a killer guitar lick. The track continues at a fevered paced with subtle chugga-chugga riffs and forceful vocals. Who knew Paul still had it in him?

McCartney kicks into his signature falsetto on "You Tell Me." The track echoes material that might have appeared on the Sgt. Pepper's album. "Vintage Clothes" is a little dated in its sound, but it seems somewhat appropriate for the lyrical content. "That Was Me" has a great percussive bounce to it. "House of Wax" is a powerful track full of musical emotion. It's almost epic in its delivery.

The Bad
There are a couple of tracks I would classify for "fans only."

The Verdict
I was never really a fan, or enemy for that matter, of The Beatles music or their respective solo work. McCartney's last album, 2005's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard left me decision-less, due to the lack of what I would deem "new fan" appealing material. However, after listening to Memory Almost Full, I can come to a distinct conclusion. From beginning to end, McCartney creates on hell of a catchy and enjoyable pop-rock album. It's no wonder this guy's a legend.

Let the renaissance begin, but in my opinion it already started with Flaming Pie. Can't wait for the next album!

If you don't know who Sir James Paul McCartney is, then you must have been living in a cave for the last forty years. Anyway, while I'm sure his popularity has never waned, it was definitely helped by his previous album, the Grammy-winning Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. And his latest album Memory Almost Full is stellar as well.

The structure of these songs reminds me of the structure of old Beatles songs -- wait, wait, wait; let me explain. It's not that you'll find another "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or "Help" on here, but the reason I allude to such a comparison is that many of the songs are short but sweet; barely passing the three-minute mark. But it's all about quality, not quantity, and quality can indeed be found in "Dance Tonight", "That Was Me" and the introspective "Vintage Clothes". And I was able to give "Gratitude" just that.

I didn't care for "Nod Your Head", though; and I couldn't tell where "Mr. Bellamy" was going. Another thing is that Paul's falsetto has always had an acquired taste (see "You Tell Me"), but everything is still vintage Paul McCartney. His relationship troubles might be making more headlines nowadays than his music is, but Memory Almost Full is still another addition to his already wonderful catalogue.

Anthony Rupert

I received this CD as a gift for Christmas. I have been a long time fan of Paul's and have seen him perform several times. I must admit though that I hadn't bought most of his last albums. There always seems to be something else to spend my money on.
But I was wrong. This last album of Paul's sounded great and fresh with some lovely songs on it.
It's been one of my favorite 'car cd's" for the last month and a half.

Whatever happened to the bloke who rolled out of bed and wrote the melody to "Yesterday"? Where is the genius behind "Eleanor Rigby" and "Let It Be"... the brilliant mind that gave us the simple beauty of "Blackbird" and "Hey Jude"?

He's not here... don't bother looking.

MEMORY ALMOST FULL boasts one great song. "House of Wax" is a mournful, atmospheric little gem which evokes the beautiful "Letting Go" from the early days of Wings. This song illustrates what could have been, had McCartney--at one time one of the greatest songwriters on the planet--not become lazy and tepid over the past thirty years. A handful of other songs here are listenable, with a few interesting hooks and melodies, but--and herein the tragedy of Sir Paul's later career--half the songs are gut-wrenchingly, barrel-bottom-scrapingly awful. "Dance Tonight", "Gratitude", and "Nod Your Head" should never have been recorded by anyone, let alone a living legend who is clearly just trying to fill up an entire CD. Never mind the lyrics... he might as well be singing "Scrambled Eggs" on every track.

If you are a completist and must have every album Macca has ever released, go ahead... you'll find some things to like here. But be prepared to frequently wince in disbelief and lunge for the "skip track" button.

After several hearings, this is not such a bad album. The first time around, I didn't like it at all, but on the 3rd or 4th playing it grew on me. It obviously pays to give the senses time to absorb the nuances, hence I have rewritten my review. The tracks that stand out for me are 'Vintage Clothes', 'Mr Bellamy', 'Feet in the Clouds' and especially 'House of Wax', which features a nice change up and some heady lyrics. The ones that should have been left on the cutting room floor are 'Dance Tonight' and 'Nod Your Head', while the remainder are quite good. McCartney seems to have acquired more energy for this one compared to the previous few and even the production standard sounds better.
There is still some life in the old dog yet. Unfortunately, though, the radio stations will continue to blindly plug youth at any cost, when there is actually plenty of room for everyone.
Close enough to 4 stars.

Let me say first that I am a big, if not THE biggest Paul McCartney fan of the planet. In my humble opinion he has been more important for the twentieth century than the invention of the personal computer and personal massage implements; and everybody that says that Paul is Dead deserves a personal firing squad!
That being said, I must say I wasn't ready for Memory Almost Full. Never before has Paul channelled his Marilyn Manson tendencies (already clearly present in classics like My Love and We All Stand Together) (MM is rumoured to be one of the frogs, he was seven) so well and so fiercely.
Songs like Dance Tonight, You Make My Sun Shine and Gratitude may have innocent-sounding titles, but they are dark gothic rockers with lyrics that deal with hardcore issues, such as substance abuse, chainsaw torture and naked cowboys on a mountain. And what a difference that makes! Grumbling in his lowest tones, slapping his bass like a new-born baby, and erupting into seismic drum soloing, this is Paul at his deepest and his post Beeatles best! All that he needs now is a risky video of him dancing with an underage blonde! Once I've dyed my hair I'll be the first to volunteer! Paul Paul Paul! Baby!

Paul McCartney is, perhaps, the greatest rock singer ever. He has that elastic voice and that amazing range. He is also an extremely prolific songwriter. The problem I have always had with his work is simply too many "silly love songs". He seems to lose his edge at times. The result being quite a few mediocre and non-descript albums full of mediocre and non-descript songs. But, when he's on he can produce some fine works such as "Band on the Run", "Off the Ground" and maybe "Flaming Pie". Such is the case with "Memory Almost Full". I have always liked Paul best when he was pushing the musical envelope and creating songs with a slight edge lyrically and/or musically. I don't care for the "silly love songs" Paul. Remember, he was the driving force behind "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Magical Mystery Tour". This is the guy who can run the gamut from "Yesterday" to "Helter Skelter" to "Back in the USSR". THIS is the guy who showed up for this album. This is one of Paul McCartney's finest albums in a long while. I kept waiting to hear a "silly love song" but instead I got some serious thoughts on "Ever Present Past". There's some brooding nostalgia in "You Tell Me". There's some Peter Gabriel-esque dark satire in "Mr. Belamy" and a sarcastic sneer in "Nod Your Head". Not very "silly love song-ish" to me!
There seems to be a bit of personal life review that runs through the album on cuts like "Ever Present Past", "Vintage Clothes", "The End of the End" and "That Was Me". But, Paul isn't sour or brooding, just reflecting. Musically, the singing, and in particular, the harmonies are superb. Check out "Feet in the Clouds". The interplay between strings and voices is the best I've heard since "Eleanor Rigby". I was also very impressed with Paul's bass playing on this album. Quite frankly, the bass playing is simply awesome. All in all, this is fine album from a great rock icon. Great songs well crafted and well played. My compliments to producer David Kahne for really bringing out the best in Mr. McCartney.

Every 30 or so years it seems we are given a new king. In the 50s we got the King of Rock and Roll. In the Early '80s we got the KIng of Pop. Well I guess we now get the King of Duff.

As one who considers several Beatles albums and McCartney's "Band on the Run" some of the best albums of all time, I have to admit that I always have high expectations when Paul McCartney releases new music. Unfortunately, in my opinion, McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" is trite and uninspired and is his worst album since "Flowers in the Dirt" almost 20 years ago. What happened? I never expected "Band on the Run" or even "Tug of War", but I didn't expect total garbage. There's no clear direction with this music; each song wants to pull in a different direction. "Chaos and Creation in the Backward" wasn't an artistic masterpiece, but at least in went in one direction and stayed there, leading to a nice, organic whole, all the songs fitting together well. Lyrically, he could have done much better, trying really hard to be poetic, but it just doesn't work. Lyrically, he's no John Lennon, but these words sounds like a second-grade music class: "everybody's gonna dance around tonight" anyone? The song works, and overall, it is a decent tune, but it sounds too catchy and it's obvious this is the major radio hit to get people to buy the album. Most of the lyrics represent that carefree, happy-go-lucky McCartney that we all love, but this time it is somewhat over the top. Again, he is trying too hard to be poetic, resulting in lyrics that, frankly, don't make any sense. For example, in "House of Wax" he moans "To set alight the incomplete
Remainders of the future." What the hell does "remainders of the future" mean? Perhaps I am analyzing this too much, but it's this kind of stuff that makes McCartney sound like something he is not. "See Your Sunshine" has that typical McCartney flavor, as does "Ever Present Past", but both songs sound hurried. In my opinion, "You Tell Me" is the best song on the album, but sounds like it should be on "Flaming Pie". "Mr. Bellamy" is catchy, but that's all is has going for it, whereas "Gratitude" is barely palatable. "Vintage Clothes" is an uninteresting diatribe. "That Was Me" is another song that has going for it except a catchy beat; "Feet in the Clouds" and "House of Wax" are his futile attempts to sound poetic and inspiring; however, with "End of the End" he does manage to show his true self by rendering his funeral as a carefree event. Overall, this album is definitely for completists and/or die-hard McCartney fans but not for those looking for different and interesting music.

The new "memory almost full" is great - it is paul m at his best. The music is refreshing and reminiscent at the same time. The rythms are exciting to listen to and dance to, the stories in the words are thoughtful and relate to the past and the present if you are a follower of the beatles and paul m. The work is a true success for the artist and his fans.

This is a nice collection of pop songs from Paul - a significant improvement over his last batch with its drab production. Even if this does all sound like it could have come out right after McCartney II, each track here works -- there isn't one of those clunkers on board like "Biker Like an Icon" or "She's Given up Talking". Terrific singing all around.

Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full (2007) is Paul's first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label, and yet another one-man-band exercise from Macca (he's really getting good at these). There are some improvements over his last album (Chaos And Creation In The Backyard), and some setbacks, too. Memory is much more colorful and energetic, the songwriting is more daring, and Paul really cuts loose and rocks in some places. The setbacks? One song (Gratitude) should have been left off of the album entirely, and a couple of unfortunate production decisions leave two of the songs (Dance Tonight, The End Of The End) poorly dressed. There's a lot to like on Memory Almost Full. Ever Present Past, the hit single, is classic Paul, full of energy, a pleasant melodic structure, and Paul's affable charm. It's really a great song, and it's nice to hear new McCartney music on the radio again! Only Momma Knows rocks! Really rocks! Really! Thanks, Paul. I was starting to wonder if you still had it in ya! Mr. Bellamy and Vintage Clothes are both quirky, fun, melodic, and very English in their presentation. They're both also very good. You Tell Me is one of the most fascinating songs on the album. It's acoustic, has a strangely beautiful melody, and a puzzling, caustic theme.

Were we there? Is it true?
Was I really there with you?
Let's see...
You tell me.

House Of Wax is a dark, spooky, minor-key rocker that sounds a lot like McCartney doing a Pink Floyd song. It's very good, and Paul's lead guitar solos sound passionate. The End Of The End is an optimistic epitaph in song. A more elaborate arrangement would have helped it to become the song it deserves to be. It's still not bad at all. Gratitude almost ruins the whole album for me. It's a wobbly attempt at a blues-gospel thank-you to a lover who has rescued him from loneliness. The sentiment is there, but Paul just doesn't quite pull it off, and it misses it's mark. Nod Your Head is an edgy rockin' tune, and a great way to close the album. I really like Memory Almost Full, just not quite as much as I want to. But I do like it. I can't get enough of Ever Present Past, Only Momma Knows, You Tell Me, House Of Wax, and That Was Me. They're all excellent McCartney songs on an album that's almost full of excellent McCartney songs.

....can be unscrambled to say "For My Soulmate LLM." Well, that was Paul's love for 30+ years. Eat your heart out Heather. Ok, now for my comments: it's great to see Paul back in artistic form after the somewhat bland, organic Chaos & Creation. Not that that album was a failure, but I tend to go for artsy stuff. Here's my track by track assessment.

Dance Tonight - 3.5 stars
Ever Present Past - 4
See Your Sunshine - 5
Only Mama Knows - 4.5
You Tell Me - 4
Mr. Bellamy - 5
Gratitude - 4
Vintage Clothes - 4
That Was Me - 4.5
Feet in the Clouds - 5
House of Wax - 5
The End of the End - 3.5
Nod Your Head - 4

Paul's music hits the right note. Dance Tonight, Only Momma Knows and Nod Your Head are songs you start humming during your first listen. Vintage Clothes and That Was Me make you reflect. It is a good CD, definitely worth a purchase.

Nothing new, nothing amazing, nothing different, its just Paul, and it is simply the greatest. You can not go wrong. You either have it to appreciate it, or you just wont get it.

A few of the songs didn't do much for me, but in general, I loved this album. After all, he's Paul! He's was (and is) a BEATLE!! And, he's still going strong! What more can we ask??

what else to you expect from paul mccartney but the best! full of new songs for me to add to my collection,,, paul never fails me!!! fantastic album!!!

I always want to hear some new Paul McCartney music. Like any other Paul/Beatles fan I hold out hope for good material. But this all relative at this point - is it not? Paul is a master, so it is easy to take for granted how good some of his material can be. He seems to do much of it with ease. But in the end I just want the visceral "feel good thing" from Paul and he scores on a few songs here, but overall this is a typically inconsistent recording. "My Ever Present Past" is my favorite song here. The song as well as the whole CD has an excellent sound but there are way too many throwaways for this to be considered worthy of a new purchase. Download the good songs or get a used copy of the CD.

Look, I like Paul McCartney just as much as the next guy. But he needs, in the parlance of the publishing world, a better "editor." Sure, there are some good songs here -- "The End of the End," "Ever Present Past," and "Dance Tonight" -- but there are a few duds.

This CD is probably on par with Chaos and Creation (although I'm not positive) but it doesn't have anything as memorable as, say, a couple of the songs on McCartney II (such as "Waterfalls" and "Summer's Day Song").

I've really never been a huge McCartney fan. I've mostly just enjoyed his hit singles from years past--with the Beatles, Wings, and as a solo artist. But when I heard this CD, I knew I had to buy it.

The songs are really a pleasure to listen to, and to me they are quite a mixed bag. Granted, some of them may indeed reflect McCartney's perpective about life and death at his stage in his life and career, but I don't think they are morose in any way. The balance of slow and up-tempo, deep and light, moving and fun is great. "Ever Present Past" and "Mr. Bellamy" are my faves. And "Vintage Clothes" and "That Was Me" are delightful! "See Your Sunshine" and "Dance Tonight" are just feel-good tunes that work.

I don't try to understand songs like "Feet In The Clouds," but I don't know if I really need to understand it. If McCartney ever wants to interpret what it means, that's fine. If not, I'll just listen and enjoy!

If you are a fan of McCartney you are going to love this album! Buy it and enjoy. Just don't try to compare it to his Beatles work as nothing compares to that!

I'm a long time fan of the Beatles and the sporadic excellent solo work the fab four have produced so I'm predisposed to enjoy the "sound" when I hear it. Not so the case here. This album has one good song, the first track. And it's only mildly entertaining. The rest of this album is weak, self-indulgent drivel. McCartney's penchant for finding a sound or noise he likes and repeated ad nauseum is well represented here. In place of verses, he'll just whistle or ooo until your reaching for the FF button. I got this CD second hand and, at $3, I don't feel I got my money's worth. This will be my last Paul McCartney album. For the sake of his legacy, I hope it's his as well. Time to hang it up, Paul. Thanks for the memories, which were full about 15 years ago.

Thought it wasn't his best music to date but I was glad to add it to my collection anyway. Wasn't as rock and roll as I would have liked. A few of his songs reminded me of his early post Beatles days just after the breakup. Maybe that's the problem for me. It doesn't seem to progress away from it. His song Ever Present Past reminded of his Ram album. His song starts out slow but picks up speed later on. The problem for me is I don't find any of his songs memorable like Band On The Run or Let Me Roll It. Maybe if I listen to this CD enough, something will take. It's one of those CD's that you'd want to hear after a hard days work to wind down to. It's not great but it's not bad either.

I've read SO many reviews saying that this is Paul's best album in years.
Funny, I read that EVERY time he has a new album out.

It is NOT Paul's best album in years. It's a decent album, but not great. As with "Driving Rain", Paul's rushed the writing process, especially the lyrics and production too much. I've heard "over-produced" used when talking about this album too. I don't agree with that. There were spots where the producer should've stepped in.

There were places where the vocals should've been rerecorded (Gratitude) and the whistling on certain tracks is bloody annoying. It works on "Dance Tonight" but on a GREAT SONG like "End of the End" the out of tune whistling ruins the track. Strings or even a classical guitar solo would've been great there, but it's like Paul whistled and said "we're going to put a solo there, but I'll whistle it for now so we know where the solo will go".

Hi Points:

ONLY MAMA KNOWS-
This is a really rocking track. Great McCartney reminiscent of some of the later Wings stuff from "Back to the Egg". This is the type of stuff I miss from Paul. Favorite track on the album.

VINTAGE CLOTHES/THAT WAS ME/FEET IN THE CLOUDS/END OF THE END-
This is a really cool medley that actually suffers from the addition of "House of Wax". "House of Wax" is lyrically too ethereal for the rest of the medley. The medley talks about the beginning/middle/ and end of Paul's life and H.O.W. talks about "Wild demented horses". Blech. Makes NO sense, especially in the context of the rest of the medley.

"Vintage Clothes" is a really good pop song and it's lyrically interesting and sets up "That was Me" in a good way.

"That was Me" is Paul reflecting on his life in a bit of an old rockabilly fashion. Since Paul grew up in the 50s, it works and the bass playing is also great.

"Feet in the Clouds" is Paul reflecting on his high school days and other stuff. Love the song. Great chorus with nice harmonies. (Very very very very hard- is a bit annoying, but it works). The only real gripe I have is that the acoustic guitar sounds like it was recorded in a living room. I wish Paul would get back to making the instruments sound good and quit rushing the production.

"End of the End"- Geez, SAD song to anybody that's a major Paul fan, like myself. Kind of makes you think "Man, he's not going to be around much longer". THAT day will suck for the world. Sorry folks, but it will. The song is really good and has a lot of feeling from a guy that doesn't get a lot of credit for putting feeling into his songs. It's very reminiscent of "The Long and Winding Road" and "Beautiful Night" from Flaming Pie. The whistling though- gawd, that wrecks the listening experience. It's this beautiful song and then this completely out of tune whistling takes over. WHERE was the producer when this slipped in??

SEE YOUR SUNSHINE-
Reminds me of "The Other Me" from Press to Play, but done better. The harmonies in the track really remind me of Linda's. Say what you want about Linda, she was cool and really added a cool texture to Paul's recorded harmonies. GREAT bass playing on this track. Really busy, but it makes the track interesting.

EVER PRESENT PAST-
This is a good, catchy tune. However, it suffers from being UNDER produced. The vocals were recorded well, but the instrumentation could've been a lot more full. I DO like the harpsichord in the bridge. The verses just seem pretty Demo-ish though. The lead guitar is not that great throughout the song. An acoustic guitar playing the rhythm would've filled out the verses so much more.

Not so High Points-

YOU TELL ME-
If Paul's voice was in a bit better shape, this would've been a better track. He's acquired some rasp in his falsetto voice that he also had on Jenny Wren from "Chaos and Creation...". Also- PAUL- QUIT with the "Whoo hoooooooooo-ing" in your songs. You did it all over Driving Rain and it shows up here as well. Rather than do that where there are no lyrics, put a decent solo there or just go to another verse. The Whooooohoooo thing just sounds like filler and on Driving Rain it was especially annoying.

MR. BELLAMY-
I like the music for the track. It's an interesting piano lick for sure. The lyrics just don't really do it for me. I don't care about the character in the song at all. Maybe you should say WHY Bellamy's on the roof preparing to jump to make me care about it. The "Steady Lads" bridge is also kind of silly, though British to the core, so maybe I've misjudged this one.

GRATITUDE-
The most annoying track on the album. Could've been a good one.
The vocals on the track should've been re-recorded. Paul tries to get into his "Oh! Darling" voice and in some spots, it sounds great. In other spots, he doesn't quit hit the pitch. There were spots where the vocal should've been either redone or re-edited. When Paul does these vocal runs, he can't quite pull them off the way that younger singers of today can. Also, the chorus, sometimes it's "Grattttittttude" and other times it's "Gratitude". The former is annoying to the ears man. If he would've taken more time on the vocal, this might've been a great track. Great bass playing on this one too.

If Paul would've taken the best from Driving Rain, Chaos, and this album, we'd have a BRILLIANT album. However, all 3 of them suffer from some non-brilliant tracks. Having said that, I'll buy anything the guy does and Paul's still a brilliant composer. I hope that for the next album that Paul uses his touring band more. They're a great band (especially vocally) and why he doesn't use them on his albums, I just don't get...

Even as a longtime Beatles fan, I approach some of Sir Paul's solo work with trepidation. We diehard fans still love him even though he's had a few hits and misses over the years. Some say he should retire; although he still plays to packed houses and can rock with the best of 'em even still. I really enjoyed Chaos and Creation and was delighted when I reached for this and gave it a listen. Paul can still "rock out" and has created some driving beats and rhythms that make me nod my head and jam with the headphones on super loud!

The first two tracks will have you stomping your feet and dancing, just as they're intended to. Other enjoyable tracks are Mr. Bellamy (slightly reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel's "RIchard Cory" in theme), That Was Me (I get a kick out of picturing him during all the phases of his life he mentions during the song, and I enjoy the vague references to the Beatles), and Only Mama Knows. Some songs sound like he's getting his Wings sound back, and in "Gratitude" you can catch a hint of the later Beatle days (ala Got to Get You Into My Life, etc where his voice is really tested).

The multitracking they mention in the review is something Paul has been doing for years. Much of his later Beatles work while the band was arguing and not getting along was done with him playing all the instruments and multitracking his own voice.

Overall I think this is an enjoyable album and definitely more of a hit than a miss. Pop in the disk and crank it up because Paulie's still got it!

Paul is one of the very few pop/rock writers who can make their style and material seem fresh no matter how many albums they have made. This one is better than most in my opinion. It is a keeper for at least 4 songs. They are just so McCartney. The opener, Dance Tonight is a wonderful happy go lucky tune. Ever Present Past is a song that tends to get stuck in your head and you can't get it out. Mr. Bellamy reminds me of the early 70's stuff of Ram era and Nod Your Head is a great closer. Four really good songs and the rest is ok. I liked 1996's Flaming Pie better, but not much in between.

It's been 42 years since I heard my first Beatles song. Paul went on to do other solo albums and played a bit with this group named Wings. After over half a century, it's still Paul McCartney. It may not be his greatest album, and we can argue whether it was Abbey Road, Band on the Run or the White Album, but it is unmistakenly and undeniably Paul McCartney. I'm glad I bought it. It's grown on me like so many of Paul's albums did!

The first time I listened to this cd I was with a friend stuck in traffic and after the first clinker, we just looked at each other and laughed. The songs were simply uninspired. Maybe that divorce was more expensive than we all thought. lol

I cannot stop listening to this CD. I've been a LOYAL fan of Paul for a long time and I will listen to anything he makes. His last album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard", was such a masterpiece that I wondered if he could repeat its success. At first I was not so sure about this album, but the more I listened to it, REALLY listened to it, the more I loved it. "Dance Tonight" the first single, might have been a little misleading. These are not simple songs on this album. Paul's imagination has spun some clever and truly captivating lyrics. His vocals show absolutely no age and the instrumentals are original and enchanting. My favorite tracks are "House of Wax", "Only Mama Knows", and "Nod Your Head", but the others are also great. Paul has experienced a sort of musical renaissance these past few years and I only hope that he continues to deliver us more beautiful music.