Wings - Wild Life

Wings - Wild Life (1971)

Genre: Rock, Lo-Fi

With a newly formed group, McCartney seemed to backtrack on musical ideas with this debut. Personally, this is a pretty big disappointment, especially after he had just released Ram. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade. 

I fully understand why many consider this to be one of, if not the worst McCartney project to ever come into fruition. From the first time I listened to it, I thought it was a joke. The group that would later be known for Band On The Run sound cutesy, awkward, and even unprofessional throughout most of this record. Makes me wonder if Macca meant to put out a subpar record for his standards. As negative as it seems that I'm being towards this record, I only say it like this because Ram was such a great record, personally, that it's really puzzling how it was followed up by this.

This record isn't all bad, though. Love Is Strange, while being a cover, is quite beautiful, if only a tad bit long in its instrumental intro. Tomorrow, has a pretty basic start, but evolves into a beautiful outro jam. The sappy love song I Am Your Singer, while short, is perhaps the highlight on here, which includes a cute duet by Macca and Linda. It's got  a lovely, simple, but effectively very Paul-like melody, which can't really be said about some of the other songs on here. 

The opening track Mumbo, is a nonsensical rock jam and exercise in wailing vocals, which unlike the song Monkberry Moon Delight on his previous album, Paul actually sounds quite obnoxious and irritating at times throughout this song. I can admit that it grew on me a bit over time, but I can perfectly understand how this song can be seen as the worst. Then there's Bip Bop, which is just straight up lo-fi garbage, with its repetitive riff and strange "growly whispered" vocal performance. The title track Wild Life plays out like another exercise in wailing vocals throughout, and at nearly 7 minutes, drags on for way too long. 

In short, the first side of this record is mostly just throwaway tracks, save for Love Is Strange. While you're not getting anything spectacular on the second side, it still offers enough of McCartney's charm for me to still recommend this album for anyone who may be a fan of his, or even people who are into lo-fi indie rock, because this is really what I would describe it as, even though "indie" as we know it nowadays wasn't a thing at the time. But for everyone else, this can easily be skipped. And in all fairness, even the worst songs on this record have grown on me just a bit over time.

C

Favorite Tracks: Love Is Strange, I Am Your Singer, Tomorrow

Least Favorite Track: Bip Bop