It's New to Me: McCartney II by Paul McCartney (1980)

Illustration titled "Netting Sea-Fowl on the Shores of the Wash. December 16, 1876" from G.D. Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany, 1876

It's funny - exactly a year ago, I wrote about Band on the Run. Lately, I've been enjoying the reissues of Paul McCartney's two home-recorded solo albums, 1970's McCartney and 1980's McCartney II. I haven't felt compelled to write about them, though - what am I going to say that hasn't been said? I find them surprisingly compelling considering how slight they are - they have more instrumentals than they really need, which causes them to come across as lazy to me. But the instrumentals are fairly engaging, and the sense of freewheeling experimentation that dominates the proceedings is contagious. This is particularly true of McCartney II, which is downright bonkers in places. My previous exposure to some of these tracks through the Wingspan collection did not give me a good idea of what this album is all about.

Mostly, though, I just wanted to have an excuse to post "Darkroom", a new favorite from McCartney II. Synth cod-reggae rarely sounded this good.

"Dark Room" by Paul McCartney