I realize we give our Superduper stars a fuck of a lot of leeway. And I don't even necessarily blame us. But look at Paul McCartney's latest trip down memory lane this way: if anybody else hoad recorded Kisses On The Bottom, if Seth McFarlane, whose own take on the Great American songbook isn't that much worse than this, had recorded it, the world would be laughing itself sick.
But it is McCartney, so the ridiculous Dan Aquilante of New York Post is giving it 4 star reviews.
Diana Krall, who has gone from groupie to groupie, leads some middle of the road, soft sell smooth jazz on stuff like "We Three", "The Story Of Love", "My One And Only". And you can heard her effect on the songs, every single one of em is at least a minute too long. You can also hear her effect on McCartney who has never sounded more irritating. Not once does he push his damn voice, it is all mainstream dust feather glossies on top of songs that should really be retired.
The two new songs are unspeakably bad. Are you kidding? This is his love letter to Nancy Sewell? This? "My Valentine" is not the worse song McCartney has ever written, neither is "Only Our Hearts" -not from the guy who wrote "Freedom". But they are stinkers nevertheless.
Comparisons to Paul's masterful collection of early rockers Run Devil Run are unseemly. "Lonesome Town" is worth this entire album and then some. Still, the albums best moments are when he loosens up, "I'm Gonna Sit Round Down And Write Myself A Letter" maintains some of Fats Weller's, ehm, cheekiness, and "Get Yourself Another Fool" has a nice blues intro, and Paul sings it with his Liverpool accent intact.
Grade: C+