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Paul McCartney
Memory Almost Full
(Hear Music)
John Metzger's #9 album for 2007
First Appeared in The Music Box, June 2007, Volume 14, #6
Written by John Metzger
Paul McCartney will never be in any danger of losing the attention of either
the media or the public. His career with The Beatles was enough to give him an
iconic status that certainly will keep him on the mainstream radar for the rest
of his life. This, however, doesn’t mean that he isn’t concerned about losing
his relevance. Where most artists typically have taken inspiration from the
darker corners of their hearts and minds, McCartney has favored an outlook on
life that is optimistically bright. "Some people wanna fill the world with silly
love songs, and what’s wrong with that," he famously sang in 1976 in a song that
not only sufficiently summarizes his overall philosophy but also outlines the
problems that many have had with his compositions. His string of uneven outings,
which began in the ’70s and continued throughout most of the ’80s, seriously
eroded his artistic merits in the eyes of all but his biggest fans. His climb
back from the bottomless pit of pop stardom has not been easy. Despite the fact
that he has made, with increasing consistency, some sterling albums over the
last two decades, his efforts have been dismissed almost as frequently as
they’ve been touted as comebacks.
There’s no doubt that the death of John Lennon pushed McCartney off an
emotional cliff, thus beginning a restless and, at times, directionless search
that has yet to achieve resolution. It has never been terribly clear what
McCartney was hoping to find, and considering the extreme lows of Pipes of
Peace and Give My Regards to Broad Street, one has to wonder if even
he knew what it was that he wanted to uncover. Considering his subsequent series
of collaborations with Elvis Costello — on Flowers in the Dirt and Off
the Ground as well as on Costello’s Spike and Mighty Like a Rose
— the answer was, perhaps, as simple as finding another collaborator to inspire
and rejuvenate his artistic inclinations. His work with Jeff Lynne and George
Martin on The Beatles’ Anthology project spawned his 1997 outing Flaming Pie on which he not only reestablished but also cemented his
connection to the past.
When his wife Linda died of cancer in 1998, McCartney’s world, once again,
was shaken to its core. However, rather than interrupting his journey, her
passing provided it with further fuel. On Run Devil Run, he augmented 12
tunes from the ’50s with three new compositions, and he tackled all of them with
a purposeful sense of urgency that long had escaped his work. Driving Rain
extended the ideas that he had outlined on Flaming Pie, but filled with
tales of love and loss, it was a more personal effort. Its songs left behind an
emotional residue that perfectly captured the unsettling turbulence that had
overtaken his heart as he simultaneously mourned Linda and fell in love with his
soon-to-be second wife Heather Mills.
In every regard, McCartney’s latest endeavor Memory Almost Full goes
hand-in-hand with its predecessor Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.
McCartney had started to record the former album in late 2003, but he opted to
shelve it in order to begin working anew with Nigel Godrich on the latter
effort. Regardless of whether they are viewed from a sonic or thematic
perspective, the two collections are intertwined to the point where one
certainly wouldn’t and couldn’t exist without the other.
There’s no doubt that Memory Almost Full would have provided a better
entree to Chaos and Creation in the Backyard than Driving Rain
did. As Memory Almost Full moves along its path, McCartney slips further
into the claustrophobic darkness that enveloped him completely on the Godrich-produced
affair, and the anguished vocals, ominous strings, and tortured, Pink Floyd-ian
guitar of House of Wax helps to place Chaos and Creation in the
Backyard into perspective. Nevertheless, setting Memory Almost Full
aside and waiting to complete it until now arguably has turned the set into a
better outing.
Memory Almost Full begins much like many of McCartney’s albums have over
the years. Dance Tonight, its lead track and first single, is immediately
gratifying. It is playful, amiable, and effortless, and it bears all of the
hallmarks of what has typified nearly everything he has done in his solo career.
Tucked inside the tune, however, a string section plays its sad refrain, and
although McCartney quickly shoves the feeling aside by reinstating the song’s
jovial melody, this sequence provides an indication of the terrain that he will
explore for the duration of the affair.
At first, Memory Almost Full appears as if it contentedly will
dispense its material in a comfortably familiar fashion. Ever Present Past,
for example, is poised somewhere between McCartney’s work with Wings and his
’90s forays with Jeff Lynne. Gratitude invokes the same brand of ’50s R&B
that once had informed Oh! Darling, while You Tell Me effectively
revisits his contributions to The White Album. Nevertheless, as it
progresses, it becomes apparent that the simplicity of Memory Almost Full
is a superficial illusion. Simply put, there is a lot going on both lyrically
and musically within the endeavor, and it’s only with the utmost patience that
it congeals into a cohesive statement.
Memory Almost Full’s subject matter — which addresses everything from
McCartney’s own mortality to the failings of his relationship with Heather Mills
— is heavier than one might expect. Likewise, although many of its parts might
sound familiar — from the theatricality of Mr. Bellamy to the classical
segue that introduces and concludes the propulsive rock of Only Mama Knows
to the Beach Boys-inspired inflections adorning Vintage Clothes and Feet in the Clouds — the pieces are rearranged, polished, and positioned in
ways that, despite being inherently melodic, are frequently unsettling,
challenging, and experimental. Even the insistently bubbly Ever Present Past
contains the frank admission, "I’ve got too much on my plate/Don’t have no time
to be a decent lover."
In a sense, Memory Almost Full is obsessed with the yin and yang of
moods and ideas. It is positioned at the crossroads between thoughts that are
light and dark, happy and sad. It is at once a nostalgic reflection as well as a
ponderous consideration of what the future will hold. Its latter portion is
formed from a multi-part suite that starts with McCartney flipping
through his family’s photo album (That Was Me) and concludes as he comes
face-to-face with his own death (The End of The End). As he slips into
the brash, metallic clatter of Nod Your Head, McCartney tosses aside any
notion that he’s about to return to the complacency that has settled around his
career, and the song’s affirmation of life lends credence to the notion that
what he has outlined on both Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full is just the beginning of his artistic rejuvenation and
rebirth. 
Memory Almost Full is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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