Track Listing

1. Plastic Beetle - Paul McCartney
2. Peter Blake 2000 - Paul McCartney, Super Furry Animals
3. Real Gone Dub Manifest in the Vortex of the Eternal Now - Youth
4. Made Up - Paul McCartney
5. Free Now - Paul McCartney, Super Furry Animals

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132277 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .13 pounds

Amazon.com
Paul McCartney's music has long been tainted by fallacious revisionism. Supposedly the Beatles' safe sentimentalist soft-pop underbelly, he's usually been portrayed as the antiseptic flip-side to John Lennon's avant-garde bad boy. It's good to remember that Paul penned "Helter Skelter," John "Julia," and that it was McCartney who was exploring the London avant-garde scene (and composing a "Revolution 9"-like sound collage for a theater project in '67) long before Lennon had even heard of Yoko Ono. Long dormant, that sensibility resurfaced in the '90s as McCartney's ambient alter-ego, the Fireman, and again in this soundtrack to artist/Sgt. Pepper cover designer Peter Blake's On Collage exhibition at Liverpool's Tate Gallery. Utilizing a theme of local Liverpool voices, Paul mixes the familiar (snatches of Beatles' spoken-word and musical outtakes) with the obscure (including field recordings of Liverpool art students and his favorite local chips lady), adds a dash of Liverpool Oratorio and some recent Cavern Club sound checks, and (with the help of Super Furry Animals keyboardist Cian Ciaran and producer/Fireman collaborator Youth) concocts five leisurely, dense aural landscapes. Though hardly the usual fodder of pop criticism, the tracks here often rise above good-natured studio wankery, especially the spare dub mix "Free Now." It's also a track that underscores the ghetto mentality of much modern pop. Once upon a time, McCartney and others felt free to infuse the mainstream with their experimentalism rather than constrain it to side projects. Whatever, this is hardly "safe" stuff. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Here you go...
Ok. Since the only other review here at the moment is a one-star review by someone who hasn't heard the disc, I suppose I should do my public duty and give some folks an idea of exactly what this is.

It's really not bad. If you're a Beatles fan who has no interest in music that doesn't sound like the music you grew up with, of course you're not going to like it. Bits of studio dialogue and music samples are stitched together to create a sound tapestry. It's not really dance music. Some of it doesn't even have a beat. It sort of fits in with some work by artists like Amon Tobin, DJ Food, or Kid Koala (although there is no turntable work on this disc). Some of it is a collaborative work with the group Super Furry Animals, and Youth (with whom Paul collaborated on his Fireman projects) is also involved. Basically, you get a similar feeling listening to this as you do listening to some of Paul's classical work; you have to give him credit for trying, and it's not BAD (at least most of it isn't), but he sounds slightly out of his element. He tries, he doesn't fall flat on his face, but there's something about this form of music that he doesn't quite grasp. At least not as naturally as those who perform this sort of music on a regular basis. Some of it kind of sounds kind of like McCartney II with looping.

If you're reading this and you're a way-back Beatles fan who doesn't know or care about this kind of music, you probably won't like this. I can sort of equate it with the first Fireman album (which I liked). It doesn't sound like Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, and it's not as repetative, but there are common threads. But, if you're interested, it's not bad. Just don't buy it expecting to hear "new Beatles music" (at least not in any recognizable form). Geoff Baker can't be trusted. If you don't know that by now, I've got a copy of Ringo The 4th to sell you.

Lumpy Pauly
I've listened to this album three times now since getting it yesterday (I never like anything the first time I hear it, so the first time is always perfunctory just to get through it) and since I happen to LIKE constructed-tape-loop-pastiche-style songs, I'm pretty impressed. None of this is gonna get 18-year-old ravers out on the dance floor, but it's fun to see McCartney spread his wings (sorry) a bit and try something new.

But is it the Beatles? Technically, yes. Especially Paul and Ringo, as an oft-repeated sound you hear on this disc is Paul playing a kind of funky bass riff and Ringo's trademark hi-hat-dependent beat supporting it.

(I gotta wonder. Paul says he used tracks and sound bites of the Beatles that he had on tapes he's kept in his house all these years. If he's got all this non-related junk on tape, what SONGS have we yet to hear? And it must be nice for Paul to know he's finally making some money again off the Beatles, rather than SONY or Michael Jackson before it.)

Listening to this, I'm reminded of "Lumpy Gravy," Frank Zappa's far-superior work, which wasn't exactly like this but did have tape snippets spliced together between orchestral takes to help make a cohesive whole.

If your music doesn't require solid threes and fours and a recognizable tune to be enjoyable, then you're going to like this. Don't know how many more times I'll listen to it before giving it some air, but right now I like what I hear. Take it for what it is and be happy that in his old age, Sir Paul is still willing to take some chances.

GRAMMY NOMINATED "ALTERNATIVE" CD BY SIR PAUL
Liverpool Sound Collage is just what the title sounds like. It is not a "proper" studio album, but more like Paul McCartney's "Fireman" projects from the 90's. Artist Peter Blake (Sgt. Pepper cover) asked Paul to come up with a "sound collage of Liverpool" for an exhibition he was giving. So, Paul and some friends went in the studio and created some new sounds as well as "Free Now" (which ends the CD)which is the closest thing on the album to a song. They also dug in the archives for various "Beatles Recording Studio" chatter which is spread and repeated throughout! Anyone thinking this is a studio followup to the great "Flaming Pie" album will be disappointed.

For the millions of fans buying "Beatles 1", you are better off starting out with Paul's solo CD highlights like "Band on the Run", "Tug of War", or "Flaming Pie" and you won't be disappointed. Sir Paul even said this is not for everyone. However, the Grammy voting board thought so much of this album, that it is nominated for "Alternative Album of the Year" (what other "classic rocker can claim that")alongside the likes of Fiona Apple and The Cure. Good for you Sir Paul for pushing the envelope again!