Paul's - Kisses On The Bottom - your reviews

Maybe we can have one sticky topic with our shared opinions on this latest McCartney project?

Hearing back years ago that Paul's upcoming album was going to be produced by Tommy lipuma I wasn't sure what to expect. Sure Paul has done many different kind of things besides bringing out pop and rock records, but jazz soul? As it's not my style of music I couldn't get excited at the prospect of Paul doing something like that.

What is my least favourite song on Wings "Back To The Egg" is one of my favourite's here. And no that doesn't mean that I don't like this album, it means that I am begining to like songs like "My Baby's Request".
This album had caught me by surprise as I never thought I would give it much listening time. However I found that this albumt offeres me a nice listening expierience and I have listened to it several times over the past few days. I remember now I always liked Nina Simone's version of "My Baby Just Cares For Me", these songs on here reminds of that. So someday at some point I must confess that I do like this style of music. But yes I still like Paul's two original compositions and the remake of "My Baby's Request" the best. With "My very good friend the milkman" being my least favourite song.

There is just something about "My Valentine" that makes me like the song more with each listen. But the whole album is very well produced and great sounding. Great playing throughout by Diana Krall and her band. Also Paul's voice doesn't bother me here I think he carries the album very well. All sounds better then the leaked mp3s and streams, which don't do this album justice. While I don't like every song I can only conclude that I enjoy listening to this album.

Curious about the upcoming Capitol show which you can view on iTunes.
"You Gave Me The Answer" is one song rumoured to be played along with the songs from Kisses on the Bottom ofcourse.

Originally Posted by Legs

Curious about the upcoming Capitol show which you can view on iTunes.
"You Gave Me The Answer" is one song rumoured to be played along with the songs from Kisses on the Bottom ofcourse.

Where did you hear a rumor that Paul was gonna perform "You Gave Me the Answer"?

Someone mentioned it on the SH forums. I have to read back on how certain it is and what else he mentioned.
It's fitting in style, ofcourse you could add "Honey Pie" stuff like that and pretty much guess what songs he is going to peform.

Ok, so I just got the new Paul McCartney album, which is called Kiss My Ass or something like that. My first impression is, this packaging is terrible. I hate when the booklet is attached to the case, because it's always really awkward to read. And Paul's deer-in-the-headlights/carrying a bushel of marijuana for his lady lover look on the cover just bugs me. But that's not what it's about, right? It's about the music so let's talk about that.

I'll start off by saying that I'm not familiar with most of these songs. Aside from "Baby's Request," I only knew four songs here. I appreciate the standards era, but I've never actively sought out this sort of music. Overall I can really only say it was a pleasant listen. It'll take a few more spins before I can really differentiate between the majority of the tracks, but unlike Ringo 2012, I'm not vehemently opposed to listening to it again--and frankly, I like it a lot more than Memory Almost Full, which I still have difficulty getting into.

As I said, I really can't single out most of the individual songs on the album just yet. But the early highlights for me were "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" and "My Valentine" (which is paint-by-numbers McCartney but that's not a bad thing). The only song I didn't really care for was "Home (When Shadows Fall)" but that's probably because I'm so used to the Sam Cooke version, which features a completely different (and for my money, far superior) arrangement. Also, I've gotta disagree with Legs--I love Wings' version of "Baby's Request" but the take here seems superfluous. I love the idea of him revisiting a decidedly obscure track but the BTTE take is more effortless and works better.

On a scale of Ringo the 4th to All Things Must Pass, I give this album a Mind Games.

Originally Posted by Legs

Someone mentioned it on the SH forums. I have to read back on how certain it is and what else he mentioned.
It's fitting in style, ofcourse you could add "Honey Pie" stuff like that and pretty much guess what songs he is going to peform.

Yeah "Goodnight Princess" would be fitting too. It would make a great final song for that playlist.

I've only had one listen and will write more once I've had a few more chances to hear it, but on the whole, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. Diana Krall's piano playing is terrific, her bass player is great too. The vocals are mostly suited to the songs and the songs don't go off into extended instrumentals (which is one of the things I generally hate about jazz). I do wish he'd put on a few more uptempo tunes because it is a little sleepy with almost everything being slow, but it's meant as a mellow listen, so I guess that's ok. "My Valentine" and "I'm gonna sit right down..." are early favorites.

Originally Posted by ringo_rama

On a scale of Ringo the 4th to All Things Must Pass, I give this album a Mind Games.

And this exactly means what?

I enjoyed Krall's piano playing and thought overall the CD was quite good. While this may not be my favorite collection, it is still quite enjoyable.

As Rell said, my moan with jazz is when it goes into "extended instrumentals" and segues into other songs. I once heard a jazz band segue into "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Hickory Dickory Dock," which was WAAAY off course from "Yellow Bird," which they started out doing. I admit that I don't like it when jazz artists throw in extraneous songs like that. While I recognize and respect the talent, I don't want to hear what I think of as "irrelevant" songs when I'm listening to a specific genre.

Well, I gotta say, I like the album a lot. I was at work alone all day today, and I must have played it 3 or 4 times. Easily the most enjoyable listen front to back since 'Flowers In The Dirt.'

We all know McCartney has always loved this kind of music, so it's about time he did a full album. He's thrown in a song here and there over the years, but now he's fully dived into it.

I think it was a great idea to do obscure songs. Anybody and everybody has done the standards a million times, and it would have seemed too typical if he did it too. The backing band is right on, great job there.

Of the two originals, "My Valentine" is the stronger song to me. I'm a sucker for Clapton, anything he plays on just has that perfect feel.

My favorite track by far is "Get Yourself Another Fool" with Clapton again providing that perfect touch as always. It's just my kind of song.

Ok, stupid question - has Paul ever recorded with Clapton before? Other than the obvious "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" way back.

All in all, it's a nice easy album to put on while you're doing other stuff. I can totally hear this at a wedding reception while the band is taking a break.

Ok, stupid question - has Paul ever recorded with Clapton before? Other than the obvious "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" way back.

not sure besides the concert for george.

gk.

Eric played on the song Freedom which is on the "Driving Rain" album.

Didn't know that one. Looks like there are 3 versions of Freedom. The single release, the "live" version on Driving Rain, and the true live version on Back In The U.S. Clapton is supposedly on the two studio versions, but not the live version.

Sure doesn't sound like Clapton on lead guitar on the Driving Rain version, very unlike his style. Does anybody have the single version, I'm curious what the guitar sounds like.

But anyway, anything else? Doesn't it seem strange that over all these years, they've never done more than that together? Paul never rolled into the studio while Clapton was recording and laid down some bass or anything else?

Paul nailed it when he said, "This is an album very tender, very intimate. This is an album you listen to at home after work, with a glass of wine or a cup of tea."

But be careful. I bought the "deluxe" version and it did not contain the two bonus songs. :-(

Originally Posted by Jerry

Didn't know that one. Looks like there are 3 versions of Freedom. The single release, the "live" version on Driving Rain, and the true live version on Back In The U.S. Clapton is supposedly on the two studio versions, but not the live version.

Sure doesn't sound like Clapton on lead guitar on the Driving Rain version, very unlike his style. Does anybody have the single version, I'm curious what the guitar sounds like.

The single version is identical to the album version--I believe it's the original version from The Concert for New York City (which is available on that set) just with a studio-recorded vocal.

I think Concert For NY version is much slower than the single version, without Clapton, and it's longer too.

After they do Let It Be, they all do Freedom again. Clapton is on that version, but again, it's just totally different than the version on Driving Rain.

What I'd like to hear is the true single version of Freedom, released by itself as a CD single. Anybody got it?

I've had a couple of listens, I like the sound of Paul's voice on all but "Paper Moon", I think his key is too high on PM, love "Always", "We Three", "More I Cannot Wish You" and "Inch Worm", those songs really stood out for me, my Mom does a mean version of "Always", I have a copy of her singing this song sometime in the mid 70's, listening to Paul sing "Always", made me want to sift through my cassettes to try and find the recording of my Mom.... I have always loved 30's and 40's music, we used to listen to my Mom's 78's when we were kids...

Originally Posted by Brainwashed

Yeah "Goodnight Princess" would be fitting too. It would make a great final song for that playlist.

Well nothing of that came out, most of the songs from the album was played but nothing apart from that. But the performance is good nevertheless. A bit of a fun moment on "My Very Good Friend The Milkman" where Paul whistles out of tune, and at the end where is wondering wheter they are off the air, or rather off the net. You can still watch it with iTunes. I didn't catch it live as it was very late over here, and it seems that a lot were having problems watching it live in the first place.

The promised free download of the show turns out to be a huge dissapointment however. The card that came with the deluxe edition (either the real 16 track one, or the 14 track one) reads,

"This card offers you access to a free download of Paul McCartney's exclusive performance at Capitol studio's.".

Which means the whole peformance not just the four songs we instead are getting. Ofcourse money needs to be made and iTunes wants their share, so instead of getting the whole peformance for free you can instead pay 7 euro/usd to download 9 out of the 13 songs. A bit of a difference there, the whole performance for free or 7 euro for an incomplete peformance.
I see another deluxe version coming up with a an extra cd of the peformance, and after that another version with a dvd.

I still like the album, and have not regret buying the deluxe version. But the way this was dealth with, and also the strange situation with two deluxe editions in the u.s. just stinks. Things could have been made clearer, don't imply that fans can download a whole peformance when it's not. Certainly don't make money of the things that were promised for free in the fist place.

The four songs you get for free are
01 - I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
02 - Home (When Shadows Fall)
03 - Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive
04 - My Valentine

If you want to have 5 more songs from the peformance you have to buy the tracks you got for free as well. Or you get them someplace else.

I bought the album recently just out of curiosity. Personally, I'm not a slow jazz/blues listener and when I heard that PM was releasing Kisses on the Bottom (a la Kiss My Ass - nice one ringo_rama), I was shaking my head in despair. Seeing the advertisement with that white background etc. just reminded me of Rod's Stewards jazzy album. Makes me wonder if there's a theme starting...(Mic Jagger doesn't have a jazz album already, does he?).

Overall, I thought it was an ok album. Not one to relax at home with a bottle and wine and some candles, I'm finding the right time & place to actually listen to the album. "Paper Moon" and "My Valentine" were my favourite tunes on the album. Seriously thinking about gifting this album to another (slighty older) family member.