top 3 macca post beatles albums | Fab forum

In no particular order:

McCartney II. Yes, I know. I've seen this record dragged through the dirt countless times, but I love it. Paul at his most utterly eccentric and whacked-out, alone in the studio and doing whatever he wants for the second time. Also very ahead of its time in terms of blending influences- disco, electronic music and synth-pop, with acoustic ballads, hints of reggae, glammy plastic funk in the style of Sparks or Talking Heads? Arguably nobody but Macca could have pulled this off. "Darkroom" I could take or leave but the rest of it is glorious, particularly the synth ballads "Waterfalls" and "Summers Day Song."

Red Rose Speedway. Another one which doesn't garner much respect, but I think I'd take it over Band on the Run (heavenly as that album is). There's certainly a romantic, piano-driven Broadway feel hanging over a lot of Speedway but it doesn't bother me: every melody is superb and the production sparkles. Besides, how can people complain about "My Love" when you've got the groovy hard rock numbers "Big Barn Bed" and "Get On The Right Thing" to balance it out? Not to mention my favourite post-Beatles McCartney song of all, "Little Lamb Dragonfly." It's a shame the copyright issues prevented Paul from putting "Live and Let Die" on this record.

Ram. Everything is top-notch on this album, he really pulled out all the stops. Those incredible walls of vocal harmony, the bass playing, the incendiary guitar work. Easy to get lost in the mad Dadaist lyrics. But possibly the best thing is Paul's lead vocals on this record; he switches vocal personalities so easily from song to song and pulls them off so convincingly, going from freewheeling country bluesman on "3 Legs" to countless different things on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", to sweet balladeer on "Dear Boy" and "Heart of the Country", to wild screaming rocker on "Smile Away" and "Monkberry Moon Delight", to Elvis impersonator on "Eat at Home." One of my favourite records ever, and my contender for the second finest ex-Beatle record after John's Plastic Ono Band.

paulsbass said
Wow, that's really 2 unusual choices…I love Big barn bed but never though much of RRS, neither of MCII, though I love Waterfalls, Coming up, Check my machine and Secret friend.

 I certainly wouldn't call Speedway and McCartney II the best in any way, they're personal favorites. If I were to do a top three which I'd consider to be best, I'd go with Ram, Band on the Run and Tug of War (possibly Chaos and Creation replacing Tug of War).

Back to the egg/Venus and Mars: Both huge favourites. Both with not so many hits, but you gotta love the rockfeeling of the rockestra tracks or "Spin it on" or "Old Siam, Sir", and the playfulness of songs like "Magneto and Titanium man" or "You gave me the answer" or the epic opener "Venus and Mars/Rockshow" which opened Paul's last tour.

I've always thought Back to the Egg was a bit dinosaurish what with the attempts to be hard, punky and New-Wavesque, especially with the bloated Rockestra, although as usual some top-notch songs ("Getting Closer", "After the Ball/Million Miles", and of course "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" was written around that point). Venus and Mars though, I think is superb and a worthy followup to Band on the Run in a lot of ways.