Wings
Wings At The Speed of Sound (Archive Collection)

The release postponed from September to November, the remastered version of "Wings at the Speed of Sound" is now available, a key album along with "Venus and Mars" from the Wings' Over the World Tour in 1976. The release was eagerly awaited and replaces the previous one, now twenty-one years old. It was cleverly decided to release it together with the other heavyweight piece, "Venus and Mars," to cover the group's 1973-'76 period comprehensively. Personally, I find these new editions very well executed in packaging and sound, with great work done in cleaning and polishing at Abbey Road, definitively approved by McCartney after meticulous analysis. "Wings at the Speed of Sound" was already a sonically more than good quality album at the time of its release in 1976, but in this new guise, new nuances emerge. The album was recorded quickly between the end of '75 and the beginning of '76, which was rather unusual for a group that worked extensively on its material, leading to the use of all recorded material without significant discards. Analyzing the album, the tracks that gained the most from the restoration are the two closing tracks by Macca; in "San Ferry Anne", it is finally possible to fully appreciate the brass parts that characterize this delightful composition for a small orchestra, too little remembered in the past and quickly shelved by the author. The same goes for "Warm and Beautiful", where the fullness of the piano is brought back to its original vigor. The more lively tracks like "Silly Love Songs" and "Beware my Love" do not show significant novelties, while "Wino Junko" by Jimmy McCulloch is seen in a new light, with the instrumental coda clearer, as well as the superb guitar part of the prodigy boy in "The Note You Never Wrote," one of Wings' most beautiful tracks, and one of the few sung by Denny Laine, who here has his chance to confirm his honest composer abilities with the magnificent and compelling "Time to Hide", polished to shine. The second disc adds demo material, early trials of an unripe piano version of"Silly Love Songs" where Paul and Linda try out the alternating vocal parts of the finale and "Let 'em in" with Paul replacing with his voice the rolled drum parts audible in the final version. The gem is a take of "Beware my Love" with friend John Bonham behind the drums, don't expect Zeppelin's Bonzo as here he proves he can be a clean and essential drummer without losing his innate power. The rest is superfluous because, as already mentioned, all the material was used, and the presence of other unpublished pieces from the period is not documented in the archives.

That said, the new version is recommended alongside the original; the album should be listened to with attention to subtleties and details because, unlike "Venus and Mars," it doesn't assertively jump out at you through the speakers and has an added value in tracks considered minor. Listen to the double bass in "Cook of The House", an honest rock'n'roll sung by Linda... but that double bass is the one that was played in "Jailhouse Rock", and you can hear it.