No Arguments From This Listener

Noel Gallagher remarked recently that Paul McCartney hadn't written a decent song for more than twenty years but that as a musician he was continually developing. I hope Noel gets the chance to listen to this album because he shows an artist completely comfortable with himself, somebody who without the hindrance of his name appearing on the album cover has produced an album that I believe can stand up there with the best of his post-Beatles work: Ram and Band on The Run.

This is the third outing for McCartney's alter-ego The Fireman and his continuing collaboration with the producer Youth. Listeners of a certain vintage will recall Youth as a member of the vastly underrated post-punk band Killing Joke, who themselves have left a legacy running through the music of Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Interpol to name three obvious contenders. Anyway this isn't about the past, or is it, we've become so familiar with McCartney's ideas being lifted by other artists that you sometimes have to stop and think, 'is that McCartney or is it another band he's 'borrowing' from?

Opening track on the album is Nothing Too Much Out Of Sight and has its roots in the White Album period of McCartney's Beatle days and could easily have been an outtake from that album (without meaning that as a put down), hints of Helter Skelter abound.

Two Magpies could well be the shortest song he's written since Love Me Do, just two minutes and twelve seconds this reminded me of Jack Johnson minus the over emphasis on twee. I could imagine this being picked up by a singer in a jazz club, the simple accompaniment of a drum and bass with an acoustic guitar leading the way works for me.

Sing The Changes is, dare I say it, Macca meets U2, I can imagine Bono stood on the roof of a Tower Records store in some American city rocking back and forth as he sings this to the police department watching from below, when the song reaches two minutes twenty five seconds you get one of those legendary McCartney chord changes that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end - bloody hell it's a good song.

Travelling Light begins moody and introspective, before McCartney begins his tale of how he's a travelling man. This is Macca does folk, understated drums, melodic backing vocals, flute, piano, glockenspiel - Paul's on his way to Scarborough Fair. Close your eyes and imagine the crowd at the end of The Wicker Man swaying along to this. Just before the four minute mark is reached acoustic gives way to electric although it feels rather like an overlong coda rather than something that adds to the song for the next minute.

Highway is McCartney rocking the best way that a sixty five year old can, so many Beatles references you begin to reevaluate all the man's work as a result of this album. My only criticism is that the song runs out of ideas long before it ends.

Light From Your Lighthouse is another song about travelling or is it? The more you listen to this album the more you realise that many of the songs, in common with something like 95% of all songs ever written, are about love, love and trust, love and hope and love. The Lighthouse in question is simply a metaphor, he's searching for love and has found someone he wants to share his love with - well that's how I heard it!

Sun is Shining begins with the sound of an acoustic guitar and birdsong before an electric guitar joins in and Macca's basslines remind you of some of his best work. When he sings 'the sun is shining down, the air is buzzing,' you believe him. The song reminds me of another artists work but I haven't managed to work out who yet, the problem is, as I said at the beginning, there has been so much cross pollination over the past forty six years you don't know who is referencing who.

Dance Till We're High is what would have happened if David Bowie had met Phil Spector in the mid seventies, which is rather ironic given that John Lennon worked with both Bowie and Spector between 1973 and 1975. In the old days when the music charts counted for something beyond the ego of Simon Cowell this would have been a shoe-in for a Christmas Number One, it even has jingly bells on it (not jingle bells).

Lifelong Passion is the song all those hip young gunslingers at BBC Television Centre should be reaching for if Sigur Ros ever stop producing trailer friendly album tracks. I know this is going to sound either bleeding obvious, stupid or just plain trite but this man could write a decent melody in his sleep. It's the sound of a man who has lost love and is searching for a new centre for his life, preferably a centre without a gold digger mentality and with two legs!

Is This Love begins with the sound of a flute and you just hope that Enya isn't hiding around the corner. In common with many of the other tracks this sounds like McCartney is deliberately setting out with the idea of creating a sound scape, and the credit for that must I suspect go to Youth and his production. It isn't much of a song to be honest but as doodles go it's better than most.

Lovers In A Dream starts with what sounds like a cow being scraped with a giant band saw, it probably isn't given that McCartney is a vegetarian but you never know with these musicians. When the track gets going you could be forgiven for thinking that the old man has discovered disco and to be honest you wish he'd left it back in the eighties. That said, the bass riff is hypnotic and the overall sound is a bit like Jah Wobble meets Arcade Fire.

Universal Here Everlasting Now, the title sounds as if it's been lifted from the cover of a hippy pamphlet on existentialism but the music sounds as if it was written for European new wave cinema, Wolfgang Pietersen directs Jurgen Prochnow in one man's quest for the meaning of life. Probably the most obviously Youth inspired track on the album I wouldn't be exaggerating if I claimed that this track could have been on Revelation by Killing Joke or Vanishing Point by Primal Scream. The simple piano beginning and ending musically bookending something very different indeed.

Don't Stop Running closes the album.

There are moments when the album almost slips into the area of self indulgence but the sheer musical virtuosity and variety pulls it through. I've seen reviews describe the album as 'astonishing', it is something special indeed and if you can approach it without prejudice it will reward you with its sheer enthusiasm. Paul McCartney plays every instrument on every track on the album, which isn't something many artists could do, I wouldn't be surprised if the apparently female harmonies on one or two tracks are McCartney was well - remember the seagulls at the start of Tomorrow Never Knows? Well that was his voice speeded up on a tape recorder, proving anything is possible.

A barometer of how good an album is is to play some of it to a non-convert. Janis dislikes Paul McCartney and The Beatles with a passion so I played her some of it and she hates me and herself by admitting she liked it before I revealed the artists real name. Electric Arguments is one of the albums of the year in my humble opinion.