Artist: Paul McCartney, Wings
Title: Red Rose Speedway
Year Of Release: 1973 / 2024
Label: MPL / Capitol Records / Universal Music LLC #UICY-80468
Genre: Soft Rock
Quality: EAC Rip -> FLAC (Img+Cue, Log)
Total Time: 00:42:24
Total Size: 279  Mb (Covers)


Red Rose Speedway is the second studio album by the English-American rock band Wings, although credited to "Paul McCartney and Wings". It was released through Apple Records on 4 May 1973, preceded by its lead single, the ballad "My Love". By including McCartney's name in the artist credit, the single and album broke with the tradition of Wings' previous records. The change was made in the belief that the public's unfamiliarity with the band had been responsible for the weak commercial performance of the group's 1971 debut album Wild Life. Red Rose Speedway peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart and number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the US, while "My Love" topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Although a commercial success, the album was given a mixed response by music critics, with several reviewers considering the songs to be inconsequential and mediocre. Decades later, it continues to receive mixed reviews.

All right, he's made a record with his wife and a record with his pickup band where democracy is allegedly the conceit even if it never sounds that way, so he returns to a solo effort, making the most disjointed album he ever cut. There's a certain fascination to its fragmented nature, not just because it's decidedly on the softer side of things, but because his desire for homegrown eccentricity has been fused with his inclination for bombastic art rock à la Abbey Road. Consequently, Red Rose Speedway winds up being a really strange record, one that veers toward the schmaltzy AOR MOR (especially on the hit single "My Love"), yet is thoroughly twisted in its own desire toward domestic art. As a result, this is every bit as insular as the lo-fi records of the early '90s, but considerably more artful, since it was, after all, designed by one of the great pop composers of the century. Yes, the greatest songs here are slight -- "Big Barn Bed," "One More Kiss," and "When the Night" -- but this is a deliberately slight record (slight in the way a snapshot album is important to a family yet glazes the eyes of any outside observer). Work your way into the inner circle, and McCartney's little flourishes are intoxicating -- not just the melodies, but the facile production and offhand invention. If these are miniscule steps forward, consider this: if Brian Wilson can be praised for his half-assed ideas and execution, then why not McCartney, who has more character here than the Beach Boys did on their Brother records? Truthfully.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music

Track List:

01. Big Barn Bed [0:03:50.14]
02. My Love [0:04:08.08]
03. Get on the Right Thing [0:04:17.17]
04. One More Kiss [0:02:29.51]
05. Little Lamb Dragonfly [0:06:23.62]
06. Single Pigeon [0:01:53.12]
07. When the Night [0:03:37.58]
08. Loup (1st Indian on the Moon) [0:04:23.46]
09. Medley: Hold Me Tight / Lazy Dynamite / Hands of Love / Power Cut [0:11:21.21]