Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt POLL

Good album! I think "Figure of Eight" is the standout. I love Paul's vocals on it

I know there's already been some discussion about this record in the main Paul McCartney thread, but Flowers in the Dirt is basically a Top 5 post-Beatles McCartney record for me, and one that I keep finding myself returning to on a regular basis - and looking at the tracklisting above, I'm really struggling to think of which track to vote for. Only 'Rough Ride', 'How Many People' and 'Motor of Love' wouldn't get my vote. I like 'Rough Ride', but as I've said in the main Paul McCartney thread, I don't understand Trevor Horn's fascination with it other than the fact that he worked on it. 'Motor of Love' grew on me eventually also - I particularly enjoy the chord changes and top-line on that one, although the lyrics are far from great. 'How Many People' remains my least favourite track on this record by some distance.

I dislike the coda to "This One," but the rest of the track is as good as AOR McCartney guess.

Second woudl be "My Brave Face," followed by "Distractions," "Figure of Eight," or "We Got Married."

I'm seriously delighted that this is getting a deluxe reissue and that more people might give this record more of a chance, although I've just read the Pitchfork review and urgh.

oh I don't know – Erlewine's a fan of the record!

I just don't agree with the idea that this record has an inconsistent sound to it as a result of McCartney using several producers, because I think the album has always held together very well. His New album that came out four years ago is pretty much the same kind of deal, IMO. Also, this whole thing about "yeah, you can really hear the art beneath the gloss, man", which just comes across to me as someone else being wrong about '80s production.

It's not a contradiction to say it doesn't hold together -- as you pointed out in your first couple points -- but enjoy it anyway. That's been my conclusion.

I'm guessing the rest of the album isn't as horrible as "Ou Est Le Soleil?" Is that an outlier, because I've always found it especially horrible.

Well, 'Ou Est Le Soleil?' isn't really part of the album proper, it was a bonus track on the CD version and yeah, as a track it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the material. I do like it, though.

I'm listening to this album all the way through for the first time! So far my favorites are "You Want Her Too," "We Got Married," "Put It There," and "That Day Is Done."

*record scratch noise*

Tim, you've really never heard this LP!?

'We Got Married' is great, I get the outro to that stuck in my head on a regular basis. It's a great production, too, and I fucking love Gilmour's guitar playing on it.

hard to believe it's a David Foster production

I was engaged with McCartney albums as they came out up through Give My Regards to Broad Street. Started again with Flaming Pie, so I missed what was in between except for hearing things here and there.

Ah, I see! Just don't go and spoil it by listening to Off The Ground, which isn't particularly very good aside from one or two tracks.

Listening to this again, 'Put It There' and 'Distractions' could easily have been on any of Paul's albums from Flaming Pie onwards, really.

Checking Wiki,I had no idea "Hope of Deliverance" was bigger worldwide than the Flowers singles.

I love this album. 1988-89 was a cornucopia time for boomer-generation songwriters - scratch that, for major art-pop releases in general.

I voted for Distractions, but This One (great coda included) is not far behind.

x-post:

Yeah, I heard 'Hope of Deliverance' on the radio quite a lot back when it came out, but I don't really recall hearing many tracks from Flowers in the Dirt... I think I heard 'My Brave Face' at least once, and I know for a fact that I saw the video to 'This One' ...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"That Day Is Done" is such a runic song - picked that one.

Went with 'Figure of Eight' in the end, but what an album.

It pains me to read all these reassessments to the negative of this "late-80s musical tropes" album all over the web now. It reminds me of the stupid anti-fretless bass backlash that was around some years ago. Instead of taking advantage of the temporal distance to relish what were unique production occurrences in time, we have all these flagellating, blinkered critiques yearning for an immovable, abstract purist classicism... but it's pop music! It's subject to, and derives its vitality, from its place in time itself! Try stripping early Elvis of the spring reverb - so why should one have this huge problem with gated reverb? Why should a song like 'Motor of Love' be unredeemable cheese and nothing else but? Can't one enjoy it all for what it is?

Well, for the last six years at least, I've abandoned "dated" as a pejorative when writing a review. It's not an insult -- it's a fact.

Yup, Alfred OTM.

It's often why it irks me when I read '80s productions being described as "dated", while '60s productions are described as "timeless" ... no! Revolver sounds like a record made in 1966, it does not sound like a record made in 2017.

Flowers in the Dirt sounds exactly like I'd expect an album released in 1989 to sound, and there is nothing at all wrong with that.

It's often why it irks me when I read '80s productions being described as "dated", while '60s productions are described as "timeless"

Yep. Few critics say the use of a Rickenbacker 12-string dates the record -- always it's the use of technology that does.

Few critics also point out that the studio technology they used in the '60s automatically date the record to that time, too. In those cases, it's always the word "vintage", never "dated" ...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Damn!

I'll admit that the production on the album poses a challenge for me. It feels like it's going to float away. I think there's too much trebly stuff for my taste - trebly background vocals, trebly guitars, snare emphasized over bass drum...

'We Got Married', 'You Want Her Too' and 'Don't Be Careless Love' all deserved a vote, but otherwise more varied than I thought it was gonna be!

Rough Ride got zero votes. We all win.