After leaving the Beatles and having to sue your best friends
for the rights to your songs, what is there left to do? For Paul
McCartney, the first thing he set out to accomplish was to produce
his first solo album by performing every instrument and providing
every vocal. So I have to ask, is there too much vanity in making
such a statement to his fan base? Should we shun him for his
pride and chastise him for his expression? The answer is certainly
not. For me, the album McCartney is rich and appealing and
if my only complaint is that he produced it as an affront to his
former band members, then I should wish this shortcoming on every
McCartney album, because it is out of such emotion that beauty is
born.
I'll stop with the poetic introduction and address the album
now. McCartney does not have a central theme, but
being self-titled, the subject is clear, Paul expressing himself
by himself. Several of the tracks seem like musical fragments, much
like the production of some of the tracks on Abbey Road.
The standout songs include "Junk", a simple poem in
which he sings about the stuff that makes up our lives, "That Would
Be Something", a catchy melody with two lines in the entire song,
"Maybe I'm Amazed", which is a love song written from someone who
is questioning a love too great to understand, and "Kreen--Akrore",
an instrumental that I would probably appreciate more if I heard it
on an analog record player in 1970.
