Electric Arguments is the sound of musicians completely
liberated, and shouldn’t all albums sound like that? Maybe not, but if
there’s any man who should be artistically untethered, it’s Paul
McCartney.
He’s revived this pseudonym/project, which he devised with
partner-in-crime Youth (Killing Joke and Orb member, the Verve
producer) back in 1993 as an instrumental electronic act. For the third
album, McCartney finally gives the Fireman a voice, but that’s not the
hook here.
The two spent a collective thirteen days on writing, recording, and
polishing the entire album, one day for each song. And the approach
works in several ways. Each track bears an aesthetic independent of the
others; no two sound alike, and instead of dreading what pretentious
left turn lurks ahead, you’re eagerly anticipating what the two
musicians dreamt up next. The breezy folk-pop of “Two Magpies” sounds
nothing like its tracklist bookends: the visceral blues-rock stomper
“Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” and the airy, Coldplay-like anthem
“Sing the Changes.” “Lifelong Passion,” the genesis of the album and
the most Zen-like song here, follows the resounding “Dance ‘Til We’re
High,” the strings and chimes recalling Arcade Fire, and McCartney
evoking Bono circa 1985.
For such a cavalier-seeming experiment — McCartney’s name
isn’t even on the outer CD package — the results are always
palatable and frequently lilting. Electric is such an unexpected
wonder that you just may forget it comes from a Beatle. (ATO)
