For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.
Today's CoronaVinyl category is "M," and since I featured a John Lennon album from 1980 yesterday, I might as well feature an album from 1980 from the other half of the greatest songwriting duo of all-time. Plus, while I've featured a Wings album during CoronaVinyl, I realized that I haven't yet featured a solo Paul album.
1980's McCartney II was, as the title implies, technically Paul's second truly solo album. He had released McCartney as his first post-Beatles solo album in 1970, and then Ram in 1971, but that was technically both Paul and his wife Linda. Then, there were seven Wings albums between 1972 and 1979. And that brings us to McCartney II, on which Paul wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, produced, and engineered.
McCartney II is a weird album, as Paul was experimenting with synthesizers and kind of embracing new wave. It's an interesting mix of songs from pop to to electronica to blues to synth instrumentals. As I listen to it now, it seems a little ahead of its time, as many of the songs seemed like they would better fit in 1983 or 1984. But Paul was (and is) a musical revolutionary, so that's no surprise.
Though it wasn't necessarily critically lauded upon its release, it did well commercially, topping the UK album chart and reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart. The first song on the album, "Coming Up," also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his seventh post-Beatles #1.
I'm about two months overdue for a haircut, but I realized today that the unwitting reason I haven't gone to a barber is because I am just trying to emulate early '80s Paul. I guess I'm going to need to go another month or so before I can fill out the side fluff a little more.
This has a rockabilly/swamp rock quality to it, with reverebed vocals. The song would have fit just as well on the White Album twelve years earlier as it does here. Which is to say that it's weird but good.
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