‘Electric Arguments’: The greatest experiment Paul McCartney ever made
When discussing the biggest risks that The Beatles have ever taken, Paul McCartney doesn’t really come up in that conversation. Despite his massive influence on the group’s sound during their time together, Macca was known as the lightweight of the Fab Four, the one who always seemed more interested in making the whimsical ditties that everyone else begrudgingly sat through during their time in the studio. McCartney never lost his experimental edge, though, and seeing him work with The Fireman on Electric Arguments stands as one of the best experiments ever made by a former Beatle.
That said, many of his bandmates have also made a few experimental records that missed the mark. As much as John Lennon wanted to think outside the box, Two Virgins was never going to be considered listenable by anyone, and the less said about George Harrison’s Electronic Sound or Ringo Starr’s Ringo the 4th, the better off most of us will be.
But McCartney was willing to take a chance right out of the gate when his self-titled solo debut came out. The whole process of making the record felt like a demo rather than a proper album, but that meant taking a few chances on songs like ‘Hot As Sun/Glasses’ or the ramshackle sound of ‘Junk’ and ‘Teddy Boy’. If that was back-to-basics, McCartney II was where everything kicked into high gear.
With Wings in the rearview, hearing McCartney embrace the sounds of new wave and synthesisers on ‘Coming Up’ and ‘Waterfalls’ made him look like a tender version of what David Bowie had done during her Berlin period. Although fans would wait years for McCartney III to be officially released, Electric Arguments is closer to the mindset that he had during that era of his work.
A lot of the tunefulness is still here, but hearing him bounce off producer Youth from Killing Joke makes the album bounce a bit more. The first few Fireman albums had been nothing but dance tracks, but hearing McCartney singing on every track makes it feel like a version of the former Beatles if he had been born in the era when acts like Talking Heads were first starting.
Take ‘Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight’ for instance. While the phrase came from the same person who inspired ‘Ob La Di Ob La Da’, McCartney is much more animated this time around, taking the basis of a backing track and making up words on the spot until they sound right. Although he might be looked at as the perfectionist of his old band, hearing him break out of his shell and embrace some of the strange moments is a joy to hear.
Considering how many other artists were working under pseudonyms by that point, this is the closest that McCartney ever came to making an alternative project the same way that Damon Albarn had been doing with Gorillaz, especially when embracing the electronic textures on a handful of tunes.
Outside of his later solo work, though, McCartney never really returned to something this experimental again. Whereas McCartney III Reimagined is an interesting idea that comes close to this, a lot of his mainline albums like New and Egypt Station are more in line with the classic McCartney sound. But hell, if that machine hasn’t broken in decades, what’s the point of trying to fix it with this?
McCartney still had affection for pieces of Electric Arguments, even including ‘Sing the Changes’ from the album in his live set for a few years afterwards, which can’t even be said for some of his 1980s output. Although McCartney will keep creating for the rest of his days, it might be time for him to give us one more glimpse of what The Fireman could do before he retires.
