Electric Arguments eclectic but electrifying

By Brian Reinhart     1/8/09 6:00pm

Sometimes, Paul McCartney just wants to be himself, and when he does, he uses a pen name. "The Fireman" was his pseudonym of choice a decade ago, when it graced the cover of several electronica albums, and now it is back for another effort, Electric Arguments.With this new LP, The Fireman, a duo consisting of McCartney and record producer Youth, branches out into a wide mixture of different styles and sounds, and Electric Arguments thrills listeners with the joy of discovery. Not every song on the album reaches the same height, but this project is a triumph anyway, and the results sound better and better with each new listen.

The premise behind Electric Arguments is startling: McCartney wrote and recorded a song every day for thirteen days. In the morning he would write down the lyrics and craft a melody, and in the afternoon he played all the instruments - electric and acoustic guitars, drums, piano, double bass and sometimes harmonica or mandolin - and sang the complex vocals. In the evenings McCartney and producer Youth mixed the separate recordings and added electronic effects, so that a song that did not even exist at breakfast was completely finished in time for dessert.

Because every song was written and recorded in a single day, listeners should not expect Electric Arguments to be a conventional, carefully planned album. It does not have formal organization or a unifying style. As a result, picky music fans should think twice before giving the disc a spin. Yes, one can be in awe that McCartney was able to come up with an hour-long record under the strict one-day-per-song rule, but the more important question is, are the results worth it?

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The answer is an emphatic yes. There are some truly great songs on this album. "Two Magpies" is simple in its lyrics and unadorned in its folk style with charming results. "Dance 'Til We're High," by contrast, is simply exultant - a joyful, liberating masterpiece. Elsewhere, McCartney is eager to experiment with different styles and influences, channeling American country gospel tunes in "Light from Your Lighthouse," trancelike electronic styling in "Lovers in a Dream" and old-fashioned rock-and-roll in "Highway." There are flecks of electronica scattered throughout, particularly in the hidden "bonus track" at the album's end, which is unfortunately the least interesting one.

The ending is the biggest problem of Electric Arguments. "Dance 'Til We're High," the album's emotional climax and its greatest triumph, comes at the halfway point, and is followed by longer and longer tunes which also gradually become duller and duller. Part of the problem is that McCartney takes less interest in varying his approach in the second half, so that the music tends to run together. Another issue is that he uses the electronic effects as a crutch in some of these efforts, such as "Universal Here, Everlasting Now," which, besides having a corny title, is just a stream of ambient sounds and effects bookended by easy-listening piano solos.

But this whole album is an experiment - McCartney's chance to play whatever he wants without restrictions - and the first half of Electric Arguments has so many unforgettable songs that the CD's inferior moments hardly matter. The advantage of the album's diversity and McCartney's dabbling in a wide range of styles is that everyone will find something to enjoy. A listener with different tastes could have written a review featuring many opinions opposing those in this review and given Electric Arguments the same high rating.

In short, Electric Arguments is an improvised, song-a-day masterpiece. It is wonderfully varied, highly entertaining and occasionally moving, and a demonstration of the genius of one of the deans of rock music. Not every song on the album is a classic, but they do not all have to be. They are by turns adventuresome, exciting, moving, rebellious, comical, dark, catchy and challenging. What more could one ask for?

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