Paul McCartney
Memory Almost Full  
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  Customer Reviews         1-5 of 238  |  NEXT >>       

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2008-11-25
As it seems to be the usual case with any new McCartney album, there are those awaiting to claw at him , rip him up with the most harshest reviews, and then there are those ready to give praise to the Beatles Legend no matter what he does... But overall, it seems that Paul McCartney is an artist underapprieciated by most mainly because he is quite profilic, passionate, and doesnt mind taking chances and putting out all sorts of music. Maybe when he's long gone rockin' in heaven with John and George then people will start listening closely to the massive and impressive body of work that he's done (not just the greatest hits!) I love John Lennon just as much as you probably do, but must people strangely keep putting Paul down as less a talent? Hardly the case. McCartney's music is what made The Beatles The Beatles. And can anyone name another artist who can constanly explore new areas as diverse and as intresting as McCartney has? Listen to his body of work, it is amazingly rich. (Check out Liverpool Sound Collage, or The Fireman, or McCartney II, or Driving Rain, or this album!!) McCartney is a true artist who puts proper attention and care into each album he makes. Thank you Paul.
2008-07-30
This album is OK, but a stepdown from McCartney's recent high point Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. It's more Like Shouting and Noise in the backyard -- yet oddly tuneful & harmonic. In a word, bizarre. I don't mind hearing McCartney shout, mind you, he has always been one of the few who can do it pleasingly, adding grit over his well known tendancy to the saccharine. The album does have an overall fresh sound, not over-dubbed, and some of the takes sound like early ones.

The lyrics, at best, are happy McCartney nonsense songs, like nursery rhymes. At worst they are self-searching, death obsessed, and maudlin. No amount of explication can redeem this. All that said, there are only a couple real turkeys -- but wow -- total turkeys they indeed are, insipid, simplistic, & oversweet.

McCartney's real problem is that its hard for him to be emotionally convincing. Maybe he has sung too many love songs. Maybe he's too old, too famous, who knows. Funny thing he's still a pro & the album is put together well--especially at the end where he starts changing chords & moods & throwing them together in his good old fashioned medley style.

I confess that I have actualy now listened to this album seven (7) times, after wondering if I could ever bear a second listening. I also confess I now fast forward over the 2 worst turkeys.

I purposefully don't name songs in this review. The titles of the songs don't matter, nor the lyrics. These are pattented McCartney sounds you have here. He aparently can't stop making them -- and I still respect him enough to see what he will do next in a studio. Looking back on his carreer though, he could have used a manager.
2008-07-11
...........no way. This cannot be the same Paul McCartney who was one of the founding members of The Beatles. Listen to any song written by the real Paul McCartney from any Beatles album. Then listen to "Dance Tonight". There is no way that the real Paul McCartney would have allowed this dreck to be recorded and released to the public. Maybe Paul WAS killed in a car crash all those years ago. The rest of the CD is just as forgettable. Please, if anyone has knowlege of the whereabouts of Sir Paul McCartney please contact Scotland Yard. His good name and reputation are being destroyed by someone who looks like him and tries very hard to sound like him. But, this fraud cannot even come close to writing songs like the real Paul McCartney.
2008-05-08
This colletion of Paul's current songs is some of his finest and most inspired music. Paul still keeps it rockin' and writes the very best music. Get it!
2008-04-23
When Paul released "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" a few years ago, he mentioned that there were a few songs that the producer of that album, Nigel Godrich, didnt parituclarily care for.

I am more than willing to bet that some of those songs ended up on this album.

There are a couple of decent tunes here. "Dance Tonight" and "Ever Present Past" are catchy. Most of the rest are forgettable, and two in parituclar, "Gratitude" and "Nod Your Head," are regrettable.

This album contained nowhere near the spirit, inspiration, and just plain good music that "Chaos" had. I hope that Paul will collaborate with Godrich again on his next endeavor.
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  Editorial Review           
"Many years from now" must have seemed like an understatement to 16-year-old Paul McCartney, wondering if he'd still be needed or fed at the age of 64. As it turned out, all doubt as to the latter had ceased by his 22nd birthday (though few could have predicted he'd end up washing down those meals with the liquid pride of Seattle). As to the former? Now that McCartney, as of the date of this album's release, has reached that mythic age, his greatest work is 40 years behind him, his solo peak over 30 years gone. Does the world need a new Paul McCartney album? The answer is yes, at least as much as it needs anything else that passes for music these days. With Memory Almost Full, Macca is back. No, it's not Ram or Band on the Run. It might not even be Flowers in the Dirt--in 1989, he had a full band, the support of Linda, and Elvis Costello as a collaborator. Here, he's on his own. Literally: on the majority of the tracks, everything but the strings is multi-instrumentalist Paul. But the surprise is that it's one of his freest, loosest affairs in years, sonically reminiscent of the Tug of War/Pipes of Peace era with nods to Abbey Road in the album-closing medley, McCartney's gravelly tones on "Gratitude," and 2007's version of "Her Majesty," the palate-cleansing "Nod Your Head." It's a surprise because of the album's inescapable sense of retrospection ("Ever Present Past," "Vintage Clothes," "That Was Me") and even a bit of weariness. The next-to-last song is "The End of the End," after all, in which McCartney tells us about what he'd like to happen "on the day that I die." (He wants "songs that were sung/to be hung out like blankets/that lovers have played on/and laid on while listening to songs that were sung," and will likely get his wish.) But it never gets overwhelming, for McCartney mostly resists his tendency to get plodding and maudlin. In fact, Memory Almost Full must be the most sanguine album made during the dissolution of a marriage since...well, ever. "What went out is coming back," he sings in "Vintage Clothes," and from the sound of things, that may not be just wishful thinking. What's past is prologue; if we're lucky, what to come may be McCartney's late renaissance. --Benjamin Lukoff

The 13 new songs on Memory Almost Full are performed entirely by Paul McCartney (excluding strings) and produced by Grammy Award-winner David Kahne (The Strokes, Sublime, Bruce Springsteen and more).

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Japanese pressing of this 14-track CD album was Paul Mc Cartney's 21st solo studio album. This version includes a bonus track, 'Why So Blue'. Universal. 2007.

Japanese Version Includes the Bonus Track "Why So Blue".



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