Wild Life (1971)
1. Mumbo
2. Bip Bop
3. Love is Strange
4. Wild Life
5. Some People Never Know
6. I Am Your Singer
7. Link
8. Tomorrow
9. Dear Friend
10.Mumbo Link
11.Give Ireland Back to the Irish *
12.Mary Had a Little Lamb *
13.Little Woman Love *
*CD Bonus Track
 
This was Paul McCartney's first
"Wings" album, but the distinction between himself as a
solo artist and his "other" band was always a bit
fuzzy. There was never really a lot of consistency in the members of Wings, and,
at least on this record, you really can't tell much a difference between
the music here and what he had released prior as a solo artist.
Like his last two releases, this one never takes itself seriously. This
is simply Paul McCartney (and Wings) goofing off again in the studio and
coming up with something marginally listenable, and releasing it to the
public. Opinions differ as to whether that actually ever worked for him
in the past, but the thing that is certain, is that this one is the
least effective on record of all his early releases. There are a few nice pieces
scattered about, but the whole album sounds a bit generic, with not much
fluctuation between the songs.
It's usually never a good sign when the best song on the album isn't an
original, and that's the case here. Love is Strange is easily
the best of the bunch, and McCartney really only is successful again on
the track, Tomorrow, that again is very smaltzy, but still
succeeds. After that, though, the entire album falls into a bit of a
rut - one of those situations where you have difficulty distinguishing
one song from the next, even after repeated listens.
Things begin a bit off kilter with the lead off track, Mumbo, a song that as soon as
it starts sounds like the band are already half-way through the song.
It's very disjointed, even though the melody does become a bit
catchy. It's again one of those situations where it doesn't sound like
enough care was put into what seemed to be a good idea. The next song
Bip Bop is one of those songs that really sounds annoying, yet
you will catch yourself whistling the tune long after the song
stops playing. You almost want to get mad at McCartney for pulling
something like this over on you. How dare he make me "like" something that my brain
thinks is so damned nauseating.
About halfway through the album, there are three songs that are each
approximately six minutes (or more) in length. Had each of them been
about half that, the album would have been slightly warmer. This
monotony is only broken up by the above mentioned Tomorrow and a
Linda McCartney sung song I Am Your Singer. The best thing you
can say about Linda McCartney is that she sounds better than Yoko Ono,
but everyone knows that's not saying much.
One of his early low points.
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