Paul McCartney and Wings: Wings over America Capitol

Well, what is there left to say about Paul McCartney? If you like the man and his music and even if you don't, you have to admit that he is one of the giants of the music-world of the last twenty years.

His latest album, "Wings Over America," although it contains few new songs, won't hurt his reputation. This triple album come from McCartney's very successful US Tour, which spanned many Wings' fans who were not Beatles' fans in years gone by.

The album itself opens well with a ten-minute sequence of "Venus and Mars", "Rock Show" and "Jet". Both McCartney's big solo albums are well represented. Notable tracks from "Band on the Run" include "Band on the Run", "Jet", "Let Me Roll It", "Picasso's Last Words" and "Bluebird".

More than that, McCartney cannot resist singing a few of the songs that first made him what he is today, as the cliche goes. Paul sings "Yesterday" as well now as he first did a dozen years ago. Also on the album is "Lady Madonna" with subtely different lyrics from the original, and "The Long and Winding Road" complete with horns section. One day someone with talent will do that number without the horn section and maybe then it won't sound like they're trying to rip-off a symphony orchestra.

What does all this tell you about McCartney apart from the fact that he's still singing old songs? Actually, he's still singing those old songs very well. Wings may not be a supergroup but they are competent professional musicians. God knows what Linda McCartney does. She is credited with keyboards but if you know Wings you know that keyboards are not prominent in any of the songs, and I suppose we should be thankful for that. Their guitar-work, though not Peter Frampton or Eric Clapton is good enough. Wings, of course, are a vehicle for Paul McCartney and it is his song-writing ability that makes them what they are. Paul does most of the vocals and, although the tracks are probably from different concerts as no one concert is mentioned, there are signs of strain at times in Paul's voice "Band on the Run" on "Wings Over America" particularly suffers from this.

Other gripes include the poster, nothing to get hung about (Strawberry Fields Forever anyone?) but the inside of the cover makes up for this and is quite suitable for covering small strains on the wall paper. In fact its probably the best thing you can do with it for the continual hassle of putting three records into what is essentially a double album cover only damages the cover.

In conclusion, if you like good songs, and its a brave man, or a fool, who says that McCartney can't sing, and if you like good value, "Wings Over America" is worth the money, the triple album costing about as much as two ordinary single albums, where ever you buy them. You'd better not expect lyrics, the only way to get the lyrics to a reasonable number of the songs is to buy "Band on the Run" and "Venus and Mars". Unless of course you're a Wings fan (McCartney fan) in which case you could well have all three. To you people. I'd just say that with "Wings Over America" the spell remains unbroken.

—Craig Malson