This link will never get full... You can click it as much as you like... My Brain Asplode Overall Album Score: 9.2 out of 10 Today, Memory Almost Full seems to be most notable for being the first album to be released on Starbuck's new music label. It's my hopes that, in the future, it'll be much better known for just being an album full of fantastic pop songs. This isn't his best album, but it's quite clearly up there. Much of this was apparently recorded before Chaos. Who knows why he shelved it. I guess McCartney was wanting to honor the 15th anniversary of McCartney II or something. At any rate, it's wonderful this album was released, 'cos it's very good. The most out-of-place song here is surprisingly "Dance Tonight," which was released through a fairly popular music video on YouTube. It's rather minimal and 100 percent pleasant. Somehow it still manages to be quite an endearing experience, and I'm glad that it's included here. But right after that, there's "Ever Present Past," one of his best straight pop-rockers in years. The bass guitar there is absolutely amazing... I guess that proves that McCartney's reputation as one of the greatest bassists of all time wasn't for nothing. The vast majority of these songs, such as the fabulous "Mr. Bellamy" and "Only Mama Knows" contain such varied textures with wild and enchanting song development. Geez, this album definitely isn't boring that's for sure. I mean, don't expect Metallica or anything --- this is good ole Paul McCartney --- but every track sounds like he cared about it. This is an interesting album and there's nothing that even approaches throwaway status. The variety throughout the album is definitely worth noting. A few songs sound quite a bit like Beatles throwbacks... I have no difficulty imagining "Vintage Clothes" to have been written for Abbey Road and "Nod Your Head" is nothing if it isn't a tamer version of "Helter Skelter." (Well, he's reducing it to merely nodding the head, ya know.) Like Chaos and Creation before it, this album very much sees Paul looking back to his past. That said, there's also a little bit of looking toward the future with an oddly optimistic song about his death, "The End of the End." The production is utterly wonderful. Everything's in their proper place, and there's very little that sounded like a bad instrumentation idea. All you need to hear to prove this point is the true gem of the album, "House of Wax." It's refined but somewhat unusual if you pay close attention to it, and it is some of the finest studio work ever to bear the name "Paul McCartney." It's really fabulous. The one complaint I have with this is that the melodies aren't always perfect. Certainly, I'm basing that from his already established reputation of being one of the finest songwriters of all time! These melodies are much better than most songwriters can ever make them. However, this is a minor shortcoming that's worth noting. I don't wish to tout this album as some sort of great masterpiece, but it's certainly a distinguished and entertaining work. This isn't McCartney's best work, but it certainly approaches that territory. Overall Album Score: 9.2 out of 10 (This is simply an album full of wonderful songs! It's not Paul's masterpiece or anything, but it's certainly one of his better albums.) Average Song Score: 9.2 (Everything's remarkably solid... There's not a weakling in sight.) Album Tilt: 9.5 (I'll give him extra points for the diversity. It's even pretty diverse within songs!) Artist Rating: 9.0 (He's not trying to do anything "experimental," but there's quite a bit of interesting stuff in here.) Track Reviews Dance Tonight 9.5/10 The first time I heard this, I was watching the music video directed by Michel Gondry, and I had tears in my eyes. I'm not too sure why that happened, but this is a remarkably joyous song. It's extremely simple and sweet... It consists of McCartney playing the mandolin and singing something that sounds so pleasant and somehow nostalgic. This is beautifully done. This is apparently the first time McCartney ever played a mandolin... It's kind of neat that old fart is still willing to try new things... Ever Present Past 10/10 Yay! This is a great pop song that is right up there with the greatest Wings efforts. In fact, it's so reminiscent of Wings that there's a tad resemblance to "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" in here. No matter. Both are great pop songs, and this one's actually quite a bit more menacing. I love his textures here... He still *has it* as a bass player. The bass is absolutely best part of this song... it's so bouncy and varied. McCartney's hopelessly catchy melody is wonderful as always. I also like those instrumental embellishments through this. They produce excellent textures. This is just a great song. See Your Sunshine 8.5/10 Yikes, I want to not like this song, because it starts out sounding so much like an ordinary '00s adult contemporary song. But seriously, if Justin Timberlake were ever to sing something this tasteful, he might actually be tolerable. Anyway, the song is much too good for that. This is more of a suite, and it has rather nice development. I especially enjoy the piano-led bit in the middle. Only Mama Knows 9/10 I also like this song, and it represents one of the more creative songs of the album. It begins as a rather dreary violin-led ballad, and it turns into a more furious, hard-rock song. There's an interesting texture he introduces in the middle ... it's pretty interesting. Overall, I like the melody and it's catchy, but the hook's a tad more obvious than McCartney's usually good for. Well, never mind that. It's catchy and that's what matters. You Tell Me 9/10 He's pandering to the times, but at least it's the shoegazers as opposed to Justin Timberlake! It's just the muffled synthesizer loop at the beginning that sounds so modern. The rest could have been a classic Wings song... It's a slower ballad, but it has a great melody. I also enjoy his sweet instrumental touches. There's the usual acoustic guitar, but there's some nicely done percussion sounds and some dreary background textures. My only criticism is this is perhaps too dreary. The melody is wonderful, though. Mr. Bellamy 10/10 Now this song is something else. If you don't think this is some sort of masterpiece, then there's something terribly wrong with you! (Likewise, maybe there's something wrong with me for thinking this is such a freaking fabulous song!!) This is seemingly a cross between Brit-pop and whatever random ideas they were having at the time. Well, it's definitely a weird thing... It features a rather normal melody but instrumentation that's constantly varied and off kilter. Some modern classical music bits at the end were such a nice touch. Gratitude 8.5/10 McCartney proves that he's still able to give these pseudo-soul vocal performances! This vocal performance is easily the main highlight to this one although the melody is also interesting, and there are a few very nice instrumentation touches (predominantly including nice violins). My only complaint is the song, overall, isn't that capturing. Oh well... Vintage Clothes 9.5/10 This is one of the more interesting tracks... Surprisingly it's very Beatles-esque of the Abbey Road era. (It surprises me how often I don't fully realize that Paul McCartney is an ex-Bealte...) Anyway, the melody is nice and it flows nicely. The wild and almost daring development done in a limited, 2.5-minute span proves that McCartney still had quite a bit of creativity flowing in him, and he knew how to harness it into something solid and entertaining. I like this! That Was Me 8.5/10 This is relatively more furious and it has pretty interesting arrangements. The melody is quite nice, but it's the vocal performance (that gets rather passionate by the end). This is probably one of the least memorable tracks of the album, but it's far from throwaway. Feet in the Clouds 8.5/10 This is a lovely song. My biggest complaint is his constant repetition of "very very very very very." Although it does turn into an interesting choral bit in the end except he nearly ruins that idea by using vocal embellishments. C'mon everybody knows that Paul's vocals don't need studio trickery! I docked the song a notch for those two factors. Otherwise, the melody is interesting and memorable. The orchestration is particularly earthly and delicate here! House of Wax 10/10 This song is something else, and I can't do anything but give this the highest points I possibly can. It's absolutely epic sounding and really nothing like McCartney's ever done before. It's such a HUGE song with some of the finest production on the album... This is not a pleasant song whatsoever. It's very gray and grand... like a big, ancient cathedral. The guitar solos are reminiscent of hair metal ballads, but that turned out to be somehow appropriate. Anyway, big kudos for this one. The End of the End 9.5/10 This is one of the more memorable tunes from the album. It's a rather optimistic and pretty song, but it's disheartening to hear Paul sing about his death! This is utterly heartfelt and personal, and it's endearing for that reason. Nod Your Head 9/10 Sort of reminiscent of "Helter Skelter" although not quite as vicious sounding. McCartney's still able to give those wild sounding vocal performances... It's pretty obvious he's in his 60s, but he's still has nice chops! The instrumentation is heavy with the dissonant sounds and chords, and it's pretty accessible. Yes, he usually has a knack for knowing how to make his music enjoyable to his audience... Send your gaseous comments here!

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He spiked your tea.