Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full (Mercury) On a first, casual listen, Paul McCartney’s new Memory Almost Full seems rather ordinary.
Second and subsequent listens suggest something else: an artist playing with his audience while dealing with his own history. When our memory is full, do we, like computers, freeze up and cease to function? The first three songs are filled with the simplicity we’d expect from an aging pop musician looking at his life, with the third a sprite of a falling-in-love song: “She makes me feel glad, I want her so bad, my heart is beating mad-ly for her.” The c.d. gets better, though. The remaining 10 tracks are ambitious and adventurous rockers that dig a little deeper into the silliness and introspection — and even longing — that make up a life. “That Was Me” collects scenes and feelings purportedly from the pop-rock legend’s childhood, youth, and near past. “Only Mama Knows,” with its gypsy strings getting an orchestral treatment, morphs into a rock song about being on the road to ruin. “Mr. Bellamy” is an odd, operatic, piano-driven song with hints of classical music and perhaps jazz about a man on a ledge who won’t come down because there’s nobody to spoil the view or interfere with his plans. In the somber, surreal, and visual “House of Wax,” lightning hits a Madame Tussaud’s-type museum, and “poets spill out on the street to set alight the incomplete remainders of the future.” The disc is well played and produced, with McCartney taking on many of the instruments himself and getting a little help from some friends. Memory Almost Full is a little uneven., but the highs are worth the occasional pop silliness. — Tom Geddie
