Archive
PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY
Piece of cake: Macca’s second effort, half-speed mastered
Ram (reissue, 1971)
MPL/CAPITOL/UMG
9/10
The reputations of 1970’s McCartney and ’72’s Wings debut Wild Life may have been, to varying degrees, rehabilitated today, but there’s been no such need with 1971’s much-loved Ram. In many ways, it’s a continuation of McCartney’s contributions to the final three Beatles albums – country and folk pastiche, screaming rockers, lush piano ballads and stoned oddities – and this new half-speed master brings out the brightness (perhaps to excess) and layers in this varied, playful set. “Too Many People” is a sublime opener, full of massed percussion and wild guitar solos, and “Heart Of The Country”’s multi-tracked acoustic guitars are more vibrant than ever, while the two “Ram On”’s remain as melancholy as they are hallucinatory. Fifty years on, it has a strong claim to be the finest of all his post-Fabs work.