Paul McCartney / Wings Wild Life CD - Import

Digitally Remastered Version Of The Album With Bip Bop / Love Is Strange / Dear Friend Plus 4 Bonus Tracks Added: Give Ireland Back To The Irish / Mary Had A Little Lamb / Little Woman Love / Mama's Little Girl.

U.K. remaster adds four extra songs.
CD contains 4 bonus tracks.
Personnel: Paul McCartney (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Denny Laine (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Linda McCartney (vocals, keyboards); Denny Seiwell (drums).
Audio Mixer: Bill Price .
Liner Note Author: Clint Harrigan.
Recording information: 1972.
Photographer: Barry Lategan.
The irony of the first Wings album is that it seems more domesticated than Ram, feeling more like a Paul 'n' Linda effort than that record. Perhaps it's because this album is filled with music that's defiantly lightweight -- not just the cloying cover of "Love Is Strange" but two versions apiece of songs called "Mumbo" and "Bip Bop." If this is a great musician bringing his band up to speed, so be it, but it never seems that way -- it feels like one step removed from coasting, which is wanking. It's easy to get irritated by the upfront cutesiness, since it's married to music that's featherweight at best. Then again, that's what makes this record bizarrely fascinating -- it's hard to imagine a record with less substance, especially from an artist who's not just among the most influential of the 20th century, but from one known for precise song and studiocraft. Here, he's thrown it all to the wind, trying to make a record that sounds as pastoral and relaxed as the album's cover photo. He makes something that sounds easy -- easy enough that you and a couple of neighbors who you don't know very well could knock it out in your garage on a lazy Saturday afternoon -- and that's what's frustrating and amazing about it. Yeah, it's possible to call this a terrible record, but it's so strange in its domestic bent and feigned ordinariness that it winds up being a pop album like no other. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
McCartney's third post-Beatles album, and the first credited to his new band Wings, saw the former Beatle continue his exploration of stripped-down, garage-like recording. With Denny Laine on guitar and Denny Seiwell on drums, the overall vibe is similar to that of MCCARTNEY: short repetitive hooks, fuzzed-out electric guitars, mid-tempos, and pleasurable ear-candy throwaways.
This is all fine and dandy because, except for the title track where Paul and Linda are already previewing their vegetarian and pro-animal rights views, the lyrics aren't overburdened with meaning. Musically, though, you can already hear McCartney exploring styles his old band didn't touch upon, as on "Wild Life"'s downbeat, dub-influenced bass line, and the Afro-pop overtones of Laine's guitar melodies. WILD LIFE represents a transitional period for McCarntney: he was working against his own tendencies toward pop grandeur that he had perfected with the Beatles en route to the leaner, streamlined rock sound of the later '70s Wings. The result is a light, fun, almost carefree album.
The irony of the first Wings album is that it seems more domesticated than Ram, feeling more like a Paul 'n' Linda effort than that record. Perhaps it's because this album is filled with music that's defiantly lightweight -- not just the cloying cover of "Love Is Strange" but two versions apiece of songs called "Mumbo" and "Bip Bop." If this is a great musician bringing his band up to speed, so be it, but it never seems that way -- it feels like one step removed from coasting, which is wanking. It's easy to get irritated by the upfront cutesiness, since it's married to music that's featherweight at best. Then again, that's what makes this record bizarrely fascinating -- it's hard to imagine a record with less substance, especially from an artist who's not just among the most influential of the 20th century, but from one known for precise song and studiocraft. Here, he's thrown it all to the wind, trying to