Pipes of Peace (1983) 


 


  1. Pipes of Peace
  2. Say Say Say
  3. The Other Me
  4. Keep Under Cover
  5. So Bad
  6. The Man
  7. Sweetest Little Show
  8. Average Person
  9. Hey Hey
  10.Tug of Peace
  11.Through Our Love

 

Imagine if you will, a scoop of very cold, hard pistachio ice cream. Now imagine that you have an abscessed molar with a canyon sized cavity. Now, mash down the scoop of ice cream directly onto the tooth. This is a bit similar to what listening to this album is like. It's very sappy, sweet, and an unbearably pain of a listen. There were many that argued that this was intended to be a "companion" to his last release, Tug of War released the prior year, but quality wise, this one doesn't come close.

Whereas he worked with Stevie Wonder on two tracks for that album, he does two with Michael Jackson on this one. The two had collaborated for a very popular duet on Jackson's legendary "Thriller" album, so they renewed their partnership on this one. The first song, Say Say Say is probably the best thing on the album. Like everything else on the album (and everything that these two artists would do together), it's very lightweight and thin, but at least it has a hook or two, and Jackson's presence only helps the song. The same, unfortunately, can not be said for So Bad, the other track featuring the "King of Pop". It's as bad as everything else on the album, filled with sugar ad nauseum.

The only other saving grace on the album is the title cut. The sickly sweetness is somewhat tolerable, again, because at least production wise the song holds up, and it does have a good chorus and medley. The rest of the album is a flat out embarrassment. Particularly awful is the song Tug of Peace. It's almost as if McCartney realized that he used the word "war" in the title of his last album, and now is ashamed of himself for ever uttering the word. So he's trying to fix things on this album, especially that one song. Yes, it's that horrible. He would stoop even lower on his next full length release of original material before resurrection would be visible.

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