Fireman gets attention finally
Of course what it takes for most of the world to notice The Fireman is for Paul McCartney to start singing. I’ll give Mac and Youth this: it is more entertaining that way. There are a lot of genres represented, and the production is solid without having a lot of trickery. But in the end, is Paul any more interesting than he ever is?
The most paradoxical part of The Fireman is that Youth is quite persistent in changing McCartney into an album artist, but McCartney is ridiculously resistent to being anything other than a vapid collection of singles. It’s just his thing. “Sing The Changes” at least proves that he still has some good ones in him. I applaud him not only for writing a hook that lasts for an entire song (rather than grafting a verse/chorus/bridge structure onto it), but writing one good enough that it won’t make you crazy after hearing it through a whole song. It makes a good candidate for ambient music as hit single. He doesn’t sound as interesting aping Led Zep/Jeff Beck on the opening track (or was it “Helter Skelter” he’s aping? Ray Davies self-plagiarism, anyone?), or on any of the other tracks. But he does sound quite natural the whole time, even when he’s singing in someone else’s voice (like Leonard Cohen’s on “Travelling Light”).
The one song I could really do without is “Dance ‘til We’re High,” the tune that most reminds you that you’re listening to Sir Paul.
Bottom line — Apparently somewhere between aging Industrial Rock star and already-aged world’s greatest popstar, there’s a pretty solid album, and it’s good that the world is noticing. Paul has slid by on Sgt Pepper and Ram, or just his personality, for too long and it was about time he delivered something even passable again.
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