Fresh Mac

Right, so you're expecting some sort of ambient dreamscape sound from Paul McCartney's 3rd project under the guise (with Producer Youth), Electric Arguments, because that's what the first two were. And then comes the opener, the fabulously titled "Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight", which is Macca's most crunching song, well, in decades. Nothing else here matches it. But the other 12 songs, thanks to Youth's experimentation, manage to make for his best solo album of new material since Tug of War. McCartney did 13 songs in 13 days, and free of any record company contracts, sounds like he's under no pressure to replicate his past. One could argue that without Youth, this would be a drab solo album. Youth does here what Brian Eno or Rick Rubin do for their artists: take standard stuff and lift it to something better. Scattered throughout the rest of the songs are typical McCartney fare, but the sounding inspired has been his problem since 1982. Only on his 2 cover albums has McCartney shown enough interest over a whole album.