PAUL McCARTNEY
FLAMING PIE
JE
MPL/CAPITOL/UME
★★★★☆
A contender for best Beatles solo LP alongside George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, John Lennon’s Imagine and Paul McCartney’s own Flowers In The Dirt, Flaming Pie saw the latter re-examine what made his songwriting so special following the making of the Anthology TV series. In George Martin and Jeff Lynne, Macca couldn’t want for better collaborators to bottle both his innate pop skills and overlooked punk side, with Ringo Starr co-write Really Love You up there with Helter Skelter and Lady Madonna for frenzied abandon. Flaming Pie highlights the seeming simplicity of McCartney’s pop, but if it was that easy he’d be knocking out tunes as perfect as Calico Skies and If You Wanna every time. You can picture him still wanting to impress Martin, while Lynne is a much better conduit for new Beatles magic than when trying to polish up offcuts for the Anthology singles. The rich form extends to the B-sides on the reissue’s deluxe boxset, from the infectious Love Come Tumbling Down to Allen Ginsberg’s poetry blues romp The Ballad Of The Skeletons. Avoid endless rave/ jam hybrid Oobu Joobu Parts 1-6, which can kindly be labelled “of its time”. The last great album Martin produced, here he is coaxing the absolute best out of McCartney one more time.