There\u2019s something about Pipes Of Peace <\/i>that is so endearing, it is almost like a guilty pleasure. It may not be as good as its predecessor Tug Of War<\/i>, but it\u2019s obvious that both Paul McCartney and producer George Martin wanted this album to be just as impressive.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The first four songs certainly are right up there in terms of quality, but then it completely falls apart in the four songs that come next. Even three bonus tracks tacked on to the re-release can\u2019t make up for such a glaring fumble. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the good news. As far as the original track listing is concerned, Pipes Of Peace <\/i>begins and ends on some incredible high notes. The two songs leading the charge are the title track and the hit duet with Michael Jackson, \u201cSay, Say, Say,\u201d which is marginally better than their previous attempt \u201cThe Girl Is Mine.\u201d The harmonica is used to great effect here and seemed to be all the rage in 1983, since it was also featured in Culture Club\u2019s huge smash \u201cKarma Chameleon.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Back then, the combination of Jackson and McCartney was electric, though they weren\u2019t immune to the occasional misfire. Case in point is \u201cThe Man.\u201d With misplaced guitar solos and a ridiculous, happy Disney tone, this song is an utter failure. When they make the \u201cdramatic\u201d announcement, \u201cThis is the man!\u201d I couldn\u2019t keep from laughing out loud.\u00a0 The tepid ballad that had come before it says it all, \u201cSo Bad.\u201d <\/p>\n
Then, if you can believe it, things get even worse with the next two tracks, \u201cSweetest Little Show\u201d and \u201cAverage Person.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSweetest Little Show\u201d continues on in the same syrupy vein that makes you want to gag. Forget about \u201cSay, Say, Say\u201d, because by this point of the album, I was banging my head against the wall asking, \u201cWhy, why, why?\u201d <\/p>\n
Listening to such an infuriating mess made me want to ram that acoustic guitar down McCartney\u2019s throat.\u00a0 As if all that wasn\u2019t enough, there\u2019s canned applause thrown in.\u00a0 Talk about an act of desperation.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
As for \u201cAverage Person,\u201d we are left having to endure Paul and his background vocalists attempting to sound like kazoos. That\u2019s all I needed to hear to be totally convinced Paul McCartney has completely lost his mind. <\/p>\n
Thankfully, the fun instrumental piece \u201cHey Hey\u201d attempts to put things back on track.\u00a0 The colorful pastiche of \u201cTug Of Peace\u201d is also rather catchy with its terrific percussion, while the closing tune \u201cThrough Your Love\u201d is arguably his best solo ballad in years.\u00a0 The bonus track \u201cWe All Stand Together\u201d also helps to erase the bad aftertaste of the middle section of the album, but it\u2019s next to impossible to eliminate such an indelible memory altogether.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I\u2019m still not sure what Paul and George attempted to achieve with such preposterous material, but alas, the blemish is there and there it will forever stay. McCartney may be the Beatle with the longest track record and the most albums, but sometimes quantity doesn\u2019t equal quality.\u00a0 Oh well, at least he\u2019s still ahead of Ringo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5744],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40381","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-mccartney","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40381"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}