Paul McCartney; Pure McCartney (Universal)

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Paul McCartney; Pure McCartney (Universal)

This big but perhaps unnecessary retrospective of a living legend is available in double disc, four-CD or four-LP formats.

Enough product for you?

So here's a non-chronological, self-chosen overview of Macca's vast post-Beatles career.

And yes, we get the picture . . .

At 73, Sir James Paul McCartney is -- for some reason -- still trying to ensure his legacy as one of the greatest songwriters and musically creative artists of his generation.

But surely Sir, we knew that.

McCartney is in the pop pantheon and one of the few recognisable faces on any Mount Rushmore of Rock (alongside John Lennon) . . . but he's also much more than that.

His songs will endure for decades if not centuries after the cynical naysayers have turned to ash.

Yet McCartney still appears to feel he suffers in the creative comparison/musical legacy with Lennon -- which seems obvious to anyone who has read the authorised biography by Macca's longtime friend Miles and who has sieved the Archive reissue series.  

That he still feels his legacy is uncertain and in need of cementing is just sad. 

In the full version this set includes songs from his first low-key solo album through Wings and, pleasingly, to some by his experimental side-project Fireman with producer Youth, plus Hope for the Future (2014) for the Destiny video game.

Crafted or corny pop, raw rock'n'roll, sooky ballads (and gems like the recently minted, lyrically economic standard My Valentine which Harold Arlen and/or Johnny Mercer would have been proud to have penned), quiet folk, nods to electronica . . .

Whatever you think of him, this (probably essential collection for the casual listener) is an impressively broad overview of one of the great songwriters of the past 60 years.

The legacy was secure about five decades ago and Sir Macca has only ever added to it.

Silly Love Songs?

Okay, Joy Division it ain't. But think about what he says in that song.

The people have spoken. 

Game over. 

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MickJ - Jun 24, 2016

Hard to think of any other songwriter/musician who has covered as much musical territory as Macca. Add to that he wrote and recorded a couple of dozen of the best songs ever. For the dedicated fan there's not a lot new in this collection but a good colection for the non-trainspotters.

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