McCartney, Best and Worst

This is an older thing I wrote, but since I'm a geek, here it is again.
It's my track by track mini-review of what I consider his best album and his worst album.
So there.

BEST:
1-Band on the Run (1973)
Preceded by: Red Rose Speedway
Followed by: Venus and Mars
Recorded almost entirely in Lagos, Nigeria, Band on the Run has everything you want in a McCartney album. Huge catchy singles, fun rockers, light acoustic numbers and a song about a dead painter. The only Wings were Paul, Linda, and Denny. The songs are solid, confident and complete works.
-Band on the Run. The title track starts slowly, but builds to an epic height with the help of the rising horns. A fun, interesting, rocker that uses a synthesizer minimally but to maximum effect. Though heard a million times by now, it’s still fun to listen to.
-Jet. This is an energetic song from beginning to end, no matter the silly lyrics. Easy choice as a single.
-Bluebird. A light and breezy acoustic tune just made to sing along with.
-Mrs. Vandebilt. Some very nice bass work on this song keeps the song bouncing along and very listenable. Nice lead guitar.
-Let Me Roll It. The perfect loud concert song. Searing lead guitar riff highlights this thumping rock song. Vocal echo has drawn comparisons to what Lennon would do, but McCartney has been known to sing a few rock songs in his time as well, so I’ll leave it be.
-Mamunia. Another easy sounding acoustic number that sounds like it could be played while sitting on the porch watching the rain fall.
-No Words. A McCartney/Laine number. Good tune that has a nice Paul/Denny vocal.
-Helen Wheels. An on-the-road loud screaming rock and roll song. Strong driving beat that keeps rolling along.
-Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me). An unassuming little song about the end of Picasso. Instead of just playing it straight, McCartney decided to try to take cubist ideas and distorted perspectives and use them in a musical form.
-Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five. A kind of throwaway song which could have been annoying except the synth actually works in the song, instead of making it more irritating. The song ends with a crescendo of horns, leading to a fadeout of the Band on the Run song.

WORST:
23-McCartney II (1980)
Preceded by: Back to the Egg
Followed by: Tug of War
Experimentation. Technology. Again, Paul plays everything himself, after jettisoning the rest of the Wings lineup for this disaster. Sometimes experiments shouldn’t be put on vinyl. God, this is an awful album.
-Coming Up. Big hit and a good song as well. Optimistic as per the usual.
-Temporary Secretary. Synthesizers can sometimes be the enemy. The chorus is more than annoying and the only redeeming part of the song is Paul’s voice in the body of the song.
-On The Way. A kinda-sorta blues tune with processed and massively echoed vocal. Could have been better if it had been taken more seriously.
-Waterfalls. Second single from the album. A tinny ballad that suffers from poor lyrics and a ridiculous video where soft focus tries to distract us from the silly sweater vest McCartney wears.
-Nobody Knows. Inspired by the same show on the blues that provided us with “On the Way”, “Nobody Knows” is faster paced and is far from inspired lyrically. It has a nice toe tapping beat.
-Front Parlour. Processed semi-song that spares us from any lyrics.
-Summer’s Day Song. A slow keyboard heavy song with McCartney’s voice sounding thin.
-Frozen Jap. Technology is not our friend in this over-long instrumental. The idea, I assume, was to produce crap.
-Bogey Music. What might have been at least an interesting 12-bar song is destroyed by the pathetic handling of the vocals. The vocal is layered and echoed enough so that it drowns out the words.
-Darkroom. Another synth heavy song that is not pleasing.
-One of These Days. After the rest of the album, a listener might be thrown by the sounds on this song. It’s called a ‘guitar’ and sounds quite good with Paul’s voice. After “Coming Up”, the best song on the album.
Bonus Tracks!!!!! The horror. The HORROR.
-Check My Machine. There’s a backing groove there. But the irritating repeating of “Check my machine” over and over for 6 minutes is cruel and unusual.
-Secret Friend. More experimentation. Vari-speed sounds might be interesting. . .if there was a point to it. Over 10 minutes of “why am I listening to this?” life waster.
-Goodnight Tonight. A single and a pretty good one. Another nod to olde music, generated by Paul’s bass and some deft dueling guitars from Juber and Laine.