Paul McCartney
Off The Ground

THE REVIEW

The first true work of the '90s by McCartney marks a definitive return to basics in conceiving the creation of an album. Paul abandons the polished pieces and grandiose productions that characterized his '80s, which found full affirmation in "Flowers In The Dirt," to return to more immediate forms of expression. Without invoking the Beatles, one just needs to refer to the Wings of "Back To The Egg" to find a similar form.

Of the group that recorded the previous work, Paul retains the same formation for 3/4: Linda, Wix Wickens, Hamish Stuart, and Robbie McIntosh, while Blair Cunningham replaces Witten (engaged with Dire Straits) on drums. The recordings produce a lot of material, and Macca's initial idea is that the work should necessarily be a double album; however, in the end, "Off The Ground" is released in its original form only in the Japanese market, while in the rest of the world, the second disc is divided into various EPs. This is a necessary clarification because only by listening to all the material can one understand that this work is very successful and varied, and highlights the McCartneys' ecological soul.

The first notes of the title track, marked by booming electric guitars, fully reflect the new sound, all simplified and made immediate. With "Looking For Changes", McCartney denounces the practice of vivisection and animal experiments in laboratories, a great rocker performance also rendered excellently live. "Hope For Deliverance" is an acoustic track with very successful Latin atmospheres that make the song a good catchy piece for the public. From the collaboration with Costello, Paul recovers the waltz of "Mistress And Maid", a song about loneliness observed through a woman's eyes, one of the best tracks on the album. However, the choice of tracks is not very agreeable; great pieces like "Long Leather Coat", penned by Linda on the theme of fur, and "Big Boys Bickering" (a track censored for its chorus telling politicians who disregard ecology to go to hell) are released on an EP to make way on the album for simpler things like "Biker Like An Icon", a song inspired by a true story of a girl running away from home enamored with a motorcyclist.

But tracks like "C'mon People", the piano ballad "Winedark Open Sea" make the entire album precious, which also offers something curious, the reinterpretation of "Warm And Beautiful" from 1976, now becoming "Golden Earth Girl" that Paul dedicates to Linda. Beautiful verses:

"The golden-hearted girl, female animal / Sings to the wind, rests at sunset / in a mossy nest / Feels the moonlight in the air / Moonlight in the air."

The album forms the backbone of the new world tour, which is the last test of the old McCartney before the radical changes due to fate that await him.