Electric Arguments

iTunes Review

Ever since his Beatles days, Paul McCartney has been interested in the possibilities of pure sound. The avant-garde tape loops weren’t just the ideas of his buddy and bandmate John Lennon, but came also from McCartney’s own interest in the works of electronic composers like Stockhausen. This “alter ego” release with producer Youth (U2, the Orb) was cut in thirteen days, a track completed in each 24-hour period. The opening cut “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” crushes like a modified attempt at “Helter Skelter,” and “Two Magpies” follows up as a White Album acoustic guitar ballad gone awry. “Sing the Changes” could be mistaken for a U2 track with its cathedral of reverb. Make no mistake, however, this isn’t “difficult” music, just not the traditional McCartney fare, sharing more in common with modern rock bands who skewer off the map (Radiohead). “Highway” turns tribal. “Is This Love?” works on a subliminal level. “Light from Your Lighthouse” sounds like a religious jamboree recorded under the auspices of night.