Flowers in the Dirt (1989) 

 


  1. My Brave Face
  2. Rough Ride
  3. You Want Her Too
  4. Distractions
  5. We Got Married
  6. Put it There
  7. Figure of Eight
  8. This One
  9. Don't Be Careless Love
  10.That Day is Done
  11.How Many People
  12.Motor of Love
  13.Ou Est le Soleil

 

By the close of the 1980s, Paul McCartney’s solo career was teetering on the edge of irrelevance. His previous releases had veered from overproduced to outright baffling, and many were beginning to wonder—quietly, and in some cases not so quietly—whether the man who once wrote Penny Lane had anything left in the tank. Had the creative engine finally run dry? Or had the haze of late-Beatles psychedelia and 70s soft rock finally taken its toll?

Then came Flowers in the Dirt. If not a full resurrection, it was certainly a reawakening. For the first time in years, McCartney sounded like he cared. Much was made of his collaboration with Elvis Costello, a pairing that raised eyebrows at the time. But the partnership worked—not because Costello dragged McCartney into his own spiky, angular world, but because he gave him a nudge out of his own increasingly tired one. The result isn’t a Costello record in disguise. It’s very much a McCartney album—but one that’s been sharpened, reinvigorated, and given a sense of urgency that had been absent for far too long.

Stylistically, Flowers in the Dirt is a hybrid: melodic and romantic, yes, but also adventurous and occasionally unpredictable. McCartney is still writing about love and sweetness and domestic tranquility—but there’s a bit more bite here, a bit more texture. Songs like This One (easily the album’s finest moment) marry tunefulness with sincerity in a way that recalls his best work. And while few tracks became household staples, the overall vibe is unmistakably positive—a man attempting to reclaim his stature, and largely succeeding.

The production, bolstered by an enormous promotional push and a subsequent world tour, gives the album a sheen of significance. It feels like an event, even if the material doesn’t always live up to the hype. Some tracks try a little too hard to sound “different,” and the record is undeniably front-loaded. Still, these are minor sins in the context of an album that, for once, feels focused. Not classic, perhaps, but certainly competent—and, after the chaos of the preceding decade, that was more than enough.

In the end, Flowers in the Dirt isn’t about hit singles or standout tracks. It’s about tone. For the first time in what felt like a very long time, it felt *good* to listen to a Paul McCartney album again. That, in itself, was its greatest achievement.

Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review