Paul McCartney 30: Electric Arguments

Maybe passing the magical age of 64 inspired Paul to keep striking whenever the iron got hot. Whatever the secret, he managed to release new albums at his fastest pace in years. But of course, there was a twist, since his newest one would be released under the Fireman guise, his occasional collaboration with producer Youth. Yet where Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was an indulgent remix exercise and Rushes was an ambient trance experiment undertaken during Linda’s final weeks, Electric Arguments actually sounds like a McCartney album, for the simple reasons that it has songs—you know, with vocals and lyrics and everything. That alone makes it worthwhile, and certainly a keeper.

Best of all, he nicely stacks the songs at the top of the order. “Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight” begins with a sampled harp riff before crashing through in stop time with a sound that fans said recalled “Helter Skelter”. Whether or not he’s as angry as he sounds (most people pointed at his ex-wife) will probably never be known. The brief “Two Magpies” recalls “3 Legs” from Ram, on its way to the glorious “Sing The Changes”. “Travelling Light” is a Mellotron-heavy piece that floats for about four minutes before the “chorus” arrives, and it’s worth the wait.

The mood is interrupted by “Highway”, an overt attempt to rock, and the canned harmonica effect can start to get annoying at this point, but the layered guitars form a strong base. “Light From Your Lighthouse” is another quickie like “Two Magpies”, with a few lines borrowed from “Midnight Special”. While it only goes to a second chord during the choruses, “Sun Is Shining” is still incredibly catchy, and the celebratory “Dance ‘Til We’re High” sounds like one of the best ‘80s songs he could have written.

From there, much of the remaining half is more on the ambient (read: one chord) side, occasionally punctuated by a vocal. “Lifelong Passion” and “Is This Love?” both have mild Indian influences and don’t sound all that different to stand out that much, but at least there’s an attempt to pick up the tempo with “Lovers In A Dream” and “Universal Here, Everlasting Now”. And while “Don’t Stop Running” is listed as being ten minutes, it’s really only five, with three minutes of silence before another Enoesque segment rumbles in from outer space.

He could have very easily gotten away with calling Electric Arguments a McCartney album rather than hiding it behind the Fireman pseudonym. But this way, because we didn’t expect much, we were very impressed, much more so than we might have been otherwise.

The Fireman Electric Arguments (2008)—3½