Press to Play...it isn't THAT bad...

In a previous posting I saw that PTP (again) was on the 'avoid'-list of
Macca-albums. I think song-wise it's a good album! "Angry" is a nice
rocker, "Footprints" and "Only Love Remains" are fine classic
Macca-ballads. I think the worst thing about the album is the '80s (Hugh
Padham) production and the fact it SOUNDS like a bad Peter Gabriel-album.

rforman61...

Vastly underrated and not at all deserving of the slights it always
gets, IMO. "Angry" is not only a nice rocker, I think it's one of the
rockinest rockers of McCartney's entire career. "Only Love Remains" is
sort of a good, standard-issue "Macca-ballad" but then "Footprints" is
more like in the stratosphere, so human and delicate, the music so
complex and effective. "However Absurd" is ambitious and interesting;
"Press," although the lyrics make no sense at all, is melodically and
musically sweeping and full of suprises; "Strangehold" is a REALLY
well-crafted pop-rocker that should have been a single; "Good TImes
Coming/Sun Shine In" (that might not be the right title, I'm getting
old right along with that album) would have been perfectly in place on
a mid- or late-period Beatles album. There's some oddball
experimentation ("Talk More Talk" and "Pretty Little Head") but no
embarrassing clunkers and nothing boring on the whole album. The bonus
tracks on the cd issued later are nice too, "It's Not True," "Write
Away."

Dale Houstman...

Glad you agree with me - although that certainly isn't the point of your
observations I wager! To me, "Good Times Coming/Feel the Sun" is the
album's centerpiece, a nice lyric with a lot of echoes, and a masterful
arrangement of two segments into a whole song with a consistent message:
"there are lots of promises of good times to come, but they only last a
a short while, so get love it while you can." Not unlike "Instant Karma"
for that matter. I was sorry it was badly received (and that Paul seems
to have taken that to heart) because I think it showed a good path for
his diverse talents to head down (at least for a time), a mixture of mad
experiments, rockers, ballads, with a nice electronic sheen to the
sound. For myself, this is where he stretches out and shows the range of
his interestes. I listen to it a lot.

Barbara & Wim Meijnen & Kombrink...

It's exactly the electronic sheen that makes it sound quite dated to my
ears. If he'd managed to put in more acoustic/regular instruments on it

Dale Houstman...

I've heard similar comments, but it doesn't strike me that way.

it would be close to a Macca Classic!

Dale Houstman...

And I think it is as is. Maybe I'm nuts?!

Wasn't it around this time he made Once Upon a Long Ago?