McCartney* – McCartney

amazing album. full of feeling. the listening is exceptional. dynamic, precise, wide, detailed and clean. I've never listened to another version except streaming and I don't know if there is a better one, but it really seems like a bomb to me.

Beautiful sounding LP! And a very well done cover and photos - great! This pressing is a joy!

Great pressing. Dynamic and warm - just the way you would think it should be!

Excellent remaster here—smooth, warm, and rich, a real pleasure to listen to, and now, easily one of the better "remasters" out of all the Beatle's solo debuts thus far (George Harrison’s 2017 vinyl release for “All Things Must ” is incredible). The subtleties that were heard on the original album remain mostly intact-no booming low end, just a little retouch that suites the laidback feeling of the record. When listening, one may forget all the troubles Paul was going through when creating this sadly underrated gem. The difference between this remaster and the original 70' 1u 1u is in how Paul's beautiful vocals are presented, which are a key factor when listening to the album, they sit a little cozier within the instrumentation on this new update. On the 70' pressing, the vocals are more out front, very direct, and in some instances (namely "Maybe I'm Amazed") filled with raw emotion, revealing a vulnerable man. It is that vulnerability of course that makes Paul's debut so important, not just a mere stepping-stone into his solo career like Ringo's debut before it, but as a candid look into what it was like for Mr. McCartney suddenly finding himself without his best friends and collaborators, although he does have the "lovely Linda" at his side. This album is "McCartney", alone, his "Paul of the Beatles" identity stripped away with the band's input entirely absent. While John and George were relieved, and liberating themselves from the chains of the “clever Beatles" on their solo debuts, Paul's 1st offering was a process of another kind, a painful one of starting from scratch and finding his own heading. If some of the songs that were judged as incomplete and scetch-like upon release were exactly that, Paul’s own incomplete concepts without a little help from his friends, and were offered intentionally as such, then the album as a whole is ingenious...I found the second disc for this remaster to be indispensable, both outtakes “Suicide” and “Don’t Cry Baby” are much appreciated, while "Woman Kind" would have been a perfect closer to the original release, ending it on a humorous note, not unlike what was done on "Let It Be" & "Abbey Road" (I typically close the album myself by picking up the needle at the end of "Maybe I'm Amazed"), but then again, that would have been repeating something that had been done before in another time. Instead, the album closes with a nod to the future, the experimental sounding (and maybe the most malformed) "Kreen-Akrore" suggests that Paul was still figuring things out for himself, toying around with his ideas, and perhaps maybe that his "own work" was to be the embodiment of adventure...

At present, the “Achrive Collection” continues to solidify it’s initial and award winning vision, an all encoming journey into Paul’s individual works. For me, it has established itself as the blueprint and model for how a veteran “Artist” can bring it’s “Fans” and “Critics” alike into what was really going on creatively at the time-Paul’s musical “genius” and music business mindset continue to forge ahead fearlessly.