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Rating: "Tug of War" is Paul McCartney's third solo LP, third if you exclude "Ram" officially released with Linda, and it holds an important role in McCartney's career, being defined as "special" by the author, who withheld bonus tracks from the previous 1993 CD edition for this reason.
The album had a troubled and rather long gestation; from an initial project conceived with the Wings, the course was changed, and George Martin, the chosen producer, opted first to reduce the Wings to a trio by eliminating Juber and Holly, and eventually turning "Tug of War" into solely Paul's album, much to the dismay of Denny Laine. The album was a genuine bestseller of 1982 thanks to the chart-smashing single, and unfortunately not only those, "Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder. The critics praised it beyond its actual merits, prompting McCartney to dare to release "Pipes of Peace" the following year with the leftovers from "Tug of War."
The Deluxe edition, the book version, is the best format to enjoy such a well-known work. This is because the photos of the sessions in Montserrat taken by Linda in 1981 are finally published, a very detailed photographic documentation that is the true and possibly only added value to this reissue. Linda was a photographer with a very sensitive eye, and it's a pleasure to see her black and white shots of Paul with Wonder, George Martin with his wife, Steve Gadd and his partner Carol, an always playful Ringo Starr running chased by Paul’s daughter Heather, little James. Compared to the splendor of the two previous decades, here McCartney is captured more in a moment of relaxation, perhaps excessive, both personally and musically. He is a well-established man and artist, nearing forty, possibly a less prolific age for great artists. Very interesting are the photos depicting McCartney with Denny Laine, never seen before, the last sign of their collaboration which would abruptly end precisely during the album sessions, seemingly due to future projects no longer including the Wings. The book is an excellent photographic product and a good account of anecdotes related to the recordings, but less so are the additional discs. The album has been remixed, something many have not appreciated, affecting the already exceptional work of George Martin with some not too positive effect on the orchestral parts, more flat, but with greater enhancement of the more defined choruses by Linda, Denny Laine, and Eric Stewart. The original album is added as a bonus disc, and the unpublished tracks are the demos from the summer of 1980 played by the Wings, the most original being an early draft of "Wanderlust." For the first time on CD appears "Rainclouds", the track the Wings recorded on December 9, 1980, with the book featuring a photo by Linda precisely from that day. The DVD collects the videos of the singles and the making of that of "Take it Away, the most interesting, but the material is too scarce, considering that Paul is currently publishing rarer material from the sessions on his website. Not to be missed, however, is George Martin's air guitar rock at Montserrat, really strong.
As already stated for "Pipes of Peace", MPL's marketing strategy regarding these releases is clear: to encourage purchasing them all together. This is why they decided not to proceed chronologically, thus tempting those interested only in the Wings to also buy the other releases. A legitimate operation but one that is beginning to wear out the fans.
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