While it's hard to imagine any artist in rock
history who's won more praise, prizes or financial
rewards for his accomplishments, it's long been a
thorn in Sir Paul McCartney's side that his old mate
John Lennon was the Beatle acknowledged as "the
avant-garde one," while of course Macca was merely
"the pop guy." In addition to griping about this in
many interviews, McCartney's tried to correct this
impression throughout his solo career by dabbling in
odd underground side projects--among them "Liverpool
Sound Collage" with the Super Furry Animals in 2000
and two discs of ambient electronica under the name
the Fireman in 1993 and 1998--in between the steady
stream of, you know, mere pop albums (the last of
which, "Memory Almost Full," was released last year
on Starbucks' now-defunct Hear Music label).
All of these detours have had some engaging moments,
but the fact is, none have matched the experimental
genius of Lennon at his most far-out--say, "Tomorrow
Never Knows" from "Revolver." Yet still Paul keeps
trying, and now, on the heels of recent statements
that he'd really like to release "Carnival of
Light," a legendary "lost" Beatles track from the
acid-drenched year of 1967 which preceded John's
tape-collage experiments with "Revolution 9" by more
than two years, McCartney has reunited with Fireman
collaborator Youth, a former member of Killing Joke
turned techno DJ, to craft "Electric Arguments,"
singing for the first time in this guise, and
intentionally recording in quick-'n'-dirty punk-rock
fashion, writing, playing all the instruments and
finishing each of the 13 recordings in its own
24-hour period.
Clearly, McCartney works best when
he forces himself to stretch via this kind of
challenge: The last time the 66-year-old legend
sounded this excited, inspired and energized was on
"Run Devil Run" in 1999, when he was just covering
some of his most loved '50s rock songs with a bunch
of his pals. But the same major flaw that has
plagued much of his solo output is still a problem
here: The results are wildly inconsistent. There are
some great tunes (the furious blues-rock of the
opening "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" and the
lovely freak-folk of "Is This Love?"), some horrible
tunes (the slight skiffle ballad "Two Magpies" and
the bombastic pop tune "Sing the Changes") and some
tunes that fall somewhere in between (most of them
on the last third of the disc, where the spacey
sounds most resemble the trance-out drones of the
earlier Fireman discs).
It's nice to hear McCartney having fun, and it's
easier to forgive his failures when he's so
obviously trying new things; I'll take this Paul
over the "official solo album Paul" any day. But
it's hard to resist nothing that Lennon never
worried about separating pop John from experimental
John--and that's why he'll always be the more
avant-garde one.