London Town (1978) 


 


  1. London Town
  2. Cafe on the Left Bank
  3. I'm Carrying
  4. Backwards Traveller
  5. Cuff Link
  6. Children
  7. Girlfriend
  8. I've Had Enough
  9. With a Little Luck
  10.Famous Groupies
  11.Deliver Your Children
  12.Name and Address
  13.Don't Let it Bring You Down
  14.Morse Moose and the Grey Goose
  15.Girls School
  16.Mull of Kintyre *
  
  *CD Bonus Track

 

After the hugely successful triple live album that really rocked harder than anything Paul McCartney had done in quite some time, he and "Wings" scaled things back significantly on this album. Wings were now down to a trio, the same trio that recorded Band on the Run five years ago, but the differences between these two albums are like night and day. On this album, Paul has fallen in love with the electric piano and the synthesizer. Those instruments dominate the album and most of the songs are very low-key, adult contemporary sounding. It sounds like he's "growing up" so to speak.

The two best songs are the title track, and the hit song With a Little Luck. Both fit into the above mentioned "electric piano and synthesizer" dominated style. If you've heard those two songs, you have a pretty good idea of what the whole album sounds like. Although they're the best, most of the songs here are likable. He does tend to get a little flakey and sappy, as he's prone to do. Songs such as Famous Groupies and Children, Children are too chirpy to really appeal to anyone that would remotely consider themselves a fan. Girlfriend has its charms, but does come across as being a bit light. Not surprisingly, future pal Michael Jackson would cover this song a few years later.

Then there are about two or three songs near the beginning of the album that all seem to run together and be a bit hodge-podge. Maybe only two, but the beautiful I'm Carrying clocks in at only about two and a half minutes, and it never had enough time to develop into the great song that it should. Most of the rest of the album is more keyboards, more synthesizers and the entire album sounds a bit too similar to really be substantial. It's Paul McCartney, though, and no one does what he does as good as he does. Ironically, the beautiful Mull of Kintyre was released as a single around the time of this album and wasn't included in this package. Fortunately it showed up as a bonus on some later CD releases. The "B" side to that single, Girls School, which was included as a bonus track on some cd versions, is better than most everything else here as well.

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