Old Macca's post fab four output is somewhat of a mixed bag. You could easily fill a double album of monster hits from this period, but looking at the albums individually, there are more bummers than goodies. I may offend some die hard beatles fans, but that is how i see it. The other members of the Beatles did even worse, so in that regard McCartneys output is the best as such. They killed the goose that lay the golden egg... the sum was way better than the collective parts so to say.
But McCartney did pull himself together now and again, typically when he got some outside inspiration or something, like the making of the Anthology documentaries and getting to know Jeff Lynne through production of the Free As Bird recording and George Harrison. This seemed to kick him into a higher gear than what he had done in the past ten years... since Tug of War. The melodies are simplistic and beatlesque in their charm and white-album-like rough gem format. Take Calico Skies, which is a contender to songs like Blackbird, with just a guitar and vocals. A beautifully simple tune with a sad yet positive expression.
One thing you have to take into consideration is Jeff Lynne. Whenever he produces an album (Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, ELO, Wilburys etc) ... it always has the same production sound to it... particularly the snappy sound of the drums.. this is a sound that goes back even to early ELO and has been present ever since... I believe I can spot it on an album even if I don't know it becorehand. Listen to the title track Flaming Pie to hear what I mean. A great track by the way ... an uptempo melodic rocker about Lennon I think. Flaming pie was a term coined by Lennon on how he got the Beatles name idea originally.
The whole album has a bit of the nostalgic feel to it.. about the history of the Beatles and the relation with Lennon in particularly. There are several other pretty little tunes that McCartney asn pull out of his sleeve when it strikes him... like Souvenir, Beautiful Night and Little Willow. Just some of the best stuff he ever did solo. Rightfully this was a very popular album at the time of issue and sold well, better that many previous efforts! But at the same time I clearly remember a mixed bag of reviews back in the day. Mostly on the negative side and I think that the mainstream sound of Lynne may have helped turn off the critics, who do not wanna ride an old dinosaur in fear of being called tasteless. Then rather hail the latest pretentious Strokes album as the new saviour of rock.
This one is an artistically underrated album. It is incredibly solid with mostly brilliant and memorable songs.. but with the Macca feel intact, if just a little paler at this point in time compared to his prime. Jeff Lynne is just about the biggest riff and hook master in the universe and whether you like is production style or not... he is catchy as hell and understands the beatles universe almost as well as the beatles themselves.
