Eleven Essential Paul McCartney Albums

Paul McCartney turns 71 years old this week, with 47 albums to his credit. (You could also add his 12 albums with the Beatles to that list.) So looking at his work with Wings, as a solo artist, and part of the electronic duo “The Fireman”, let’s narrow it down to his eleven most essential albums. (Why 11? Because Flowers in the Dirt is so underrated.) Consider number one the starting place for a casual fan just looking for the hits, and the remaining numbers as a guide to becoming a well-rounded, obsessed Macca fan.

 

1. Wingspan

A thorough overview of the first fourteen years of his post-Beatles work, this is often considered as a greatest hits album. Sure enough, all of his radio hits, from “Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey” to the live version of “Coming Up” are here, but the “history” half of this set serves as a sampler for several other albums. Do you love the romance of “Every Night”? Get McCartney next. Are you into the simmering “Let Me Roll It”? Then Band on the Run is for you. Not to mention, Wingspan is the only disc you can get the epic “Rockestra Theme” or the cutesy, at-home version of “Bip Bop/ Hey Diddle” on.

 

2. Wings’ Band on the Run

Adored by critics and fans, it recently got a boost of popularity due to the release of a remastered deluxe edition that included bonus tracks, music videos, an audio making-of documentary, and a hardbound book detailing its entire history. All true McCartney fans know the incredible story behind its creation, but this remains one of his most accessible albums. There’s plenty of rock (“Jet”, “Let Me Roll It”), love songs (“Bluebird”, “No Words”), and uniqueness (“Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)”, “Mrs. Vandebilt”), all capped off with the extraordinarily awesome “Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five”: one of the most underrated tracks in classic rock history.

 

3. Memory Almost Full

Reflective and nostalgic, Paul’s most personal album is a better biography than his own book. While the lyrics to “Only Mama Knows” and “House of Wax” are works of fiction, the rest of the tracklist finds him reminiscing about his own experiences. It’s the type of album that a younger man couldn’t pull off, including “The End of the End”, in which he pictures the afterlife and details how he wants to be remembered. The deluxe version is worth the extra effort just for “Why So Blue’s” endearing look at “Eleanor Rigby”-esque loneliness.

 

4. Wings’ Wings Over America

This was Paul’s only live concert album for decades, and it’s currently his best. Recently re-released, it is worth its purchase price just for Wings’ acoustic cover of “Richard Cory”. Mixed in with the famous live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” and a few Beatles covers are some underrated gems like “Spirits of Ancient Egypt” and “Soily”. The set also features a couple of tracks off the awesome yet generally ignored Venus & Mars album. If you only own one McCartney album on vinyl, make sure this is it.

 

5. Tug of War

Much to the dismay of certain fans and critics, Paul McCartney isn’t just a rocker. On this album, he lets his pop half take over, offering a little bit of everything all in one place. Much more than the infamous “Ebony & Ivory”, it also includes the soaring title track and fun numbers like “Ballroom Dancing”, “The Pound Is Sinking”, and the electronic “Dress Me Up As a Robber”. The closing track is his heartfelt, heart-breaking tribute to John Lennon, “Here Today”, which strikes a chord with anyone who has dealt with the loss of a loved one.

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6. Wings’ Venus & Mars

The follow-up to the classic “Band on the Run” has achieved its own cult following amongst die-hard fans, thanks to whimsical tracks like “Magneto & Titanium Man” and “You Gave Me the Answer”, plus “Venus & Mars/ Rock Show” the epic opener that sums up the entire concert-going experience from a fan’s point of view.

 

7. The Fireman’s Electric Arguments

Paul made his involvement in “The Fireman” collaboration with producer Youth public with this album, and it’s easy to see why. More than just an electronic experiment, the two play around with sound effects, musical styles, and lyrics, even including a backwards message at the end. The result is a album with scorching rock (“Nothing Too Much, Just Out of Sight”, “Highway”), light pop (“Two Magpies”, “Sing The Changes”), and mind-expanding numbers (“Lovers in a Dream”, “Dance ‘Til We’re High”). Yet all of this surprisingly weaves together as a sort of concept album for the mind. You’ll either really like it or really hate it.

 

8. Paul & Linda McCartney’s Ram

Unique in both lyrics and instrumentation, Ram found the McCartney’s fiddling around in the studio and singing about Uncle Albert and Admiral Halsey, “a piano up” his “nose”, and three-legged animals (or, according to some people, taking thinly-veiled potshots at former bandmates), among other things. It’s all a little bit nutty, but it goes together well.

 

9. Chaos & Creation in the Backyard

The kind of album that Grammy voters love, Chaos is only an introduction to where Paul’s music would go in the 2000s. “Fine Line” is beloved by almost everybody and “Jenny Wren” is a critical darling, but the album’s finest points lie in the brooding “Riding to Vanity Fair” (further proving that he’s very good at writing revenge songs) and the celebratory “Promise to You Girl”. Plus, there is the cutesy “English Tea”, a sweetly old-fashioned track that only he could successfully pull off.

 

10. London Town

“With a Little Luck” became the hit single, but there are many more flavors in this musical melting pot. Ranging from the 1950’s-inspired “Name and Address” to the dreamy pop of “Girlfriend” and the ridiculous yet awesome “Morse Moose and the Grey Goose”, anything goes here. Plus, I can’t say enough about “Deliver Your Children”, a smart, stylish Irish rock-inspired track that Celtic Thunder is probably dying to record.

 

11. Flowers in the Dirt

Too few people know how great a team Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello make. Three of their collaborations are featured here: the bouncy “My Brave Face”, devastating “That Day Is Done”, and the sarcastically witty “You Want Her Too”. An ’80s pop masterpiece, the rest of the album is mostly lush romance like “We Got Married” and “Distractions”: perfect for those with a crush on McCartney.