Idolator

But will the cover art be as terrible as that jazztastic "Monstrance" thing?

Uhm, honestly....it's not bad but it sounds to me like an over-produced XTC song.

Oh man, I hope he makes "Check My Machine" available for download. That is the single best-worst song ever.

fishnotfried: you are correct in highlighting the brilliance of "Check My Machine." However, McCartney's (and perhaps the world's) single best-worst song is not "Check My Machine." It is "Dark Room," from the same album.

This is all reminding me to dig up "Cook of the House."

@gregcoff:
C'mon, what about "Bogey Music"? "Temporary Secretary"? Hell, how about the entire "McCartney II" record as his best/worst ever? I have a double length-bootleg of it-imagine, an entire second album's worth of songs that weren't good enough to make the cut on that piece o'crap!

By getting stoned in his bedroom and putting out whatever he came up with, McCartney predated "YouTube" by a good 20 years.

Darkroom ain't even bad. It's awesome. I think he invents breakbeats on that song. Snare trills at least. It's insane. And his bass playing is tops. McCartney II is the #1 summer JAM. "Frozen Jap?" Insane. Plus, Cyndi Lauper ripped it off. I thought Macca's last album was pretty good.

Seriously, I love McCartney II. It ain't a piece of crap at all. You obviously never heard Back to the Egg. I think McCartney was really going for it, and that's to be commended for an artist of his stature at that time of his career trajectory. Let's face it: Lennon was doing sappy stuff like Watching the Wheels (which I love, but still...) at the time, and he's always thought of as the experimentalist, which is just horse manure. I'll go so far as to say that I like McCartney's solo output better than Lennon's. Ooh, maybe I don't want to say that. But I'll let it ride for right now.

Man, I haven't had a good Macca geekout in years. Thanks guys.

Jupiter8: I have to concede that Temporary Secretary is amazing, especially the lyrics "She can be a belly dancer, I don't need a true romancer" delivered in robot monotone. However, "Darkroom" will always have my heart. You could slap Paul Wall and Rihanna on top of that track and have a top forty next week. At the same time, it wouldn't be out of place as an Animal Collective B-Side. Doesn't get much better than that.

Lucas Jensen: Don't be afraid to let it rip. I feel like Lennon beat McCartney on the peaks (Plastic Ono Band being more or less the best thing either one of them ever did) but Macca won the long-term campaign.

@Lucas Jensen:
Didn't mean to imply "McCartney II" was bad crap-it's good crap! I like it! Now "Press to Play"...that's bad crap! And don't get me started on the "Spies Like Us" song/video!

As far as Lennon vs. McCartney solo stuff, Paul's "oldies" record was way better than John's...and Paul Never put out anything as unlistenable as "Some Time In New York City"...

I am on record as defending McCartney II, which I still think is the hidden jewel of his solo/Wings catalog (well, post-Venus & Mars). It's got the oddball stoned experiments like "Darkroom" and "Temporary Secretary," which work better than they should, but it's also got "One Of These Days," which is just stunning. It sounds like a needed break between Back To The Egg and Tug Of War, which has its own charms ("Take It Away" and "Get It," for instance).

Side note: McCartney's just itching for a hostile work environment claim from the "Temporary Secretary."

So what's all the fuss? Ain't nobody that's spies like us. I can't believe how you nailed it with this song being a copy of XTC copying McCartney. Too meta for me man.

I am happy that his solo work is coming out though. The Venus and Mars album makes me so happy.